Spambot Prevention Suggestions

[protoserge]

Is there any possibility of updating the forum software to the current version 5?

Here is a list of plugins to help prevent spambots: http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/forum...ation-requests

[Cory]

I think if users under a post count threshold post more than maybe 3 (insert amenable number here) links in their post/signature they should automatically get sent to moderation.

The timely removal of spam is definitely because there's very few moderators in some of the forums that weren't getting spammed until recently. I know more moderators were added a year or two ago, but it didn't really help much (I think only one or two of them is actually still active on Chief). I take down stuff whenever I get the notification but anything in obscure forums takes longer since there's only a handful of active moderators as Art said.

[Akash Rastogi]

How does one volunteer to help moderate the forums?

[Pault]

I think if we add on some moderation to posting links it should include a list of approved websites that don't need to be checked. Most links on here lead to either chiefdelphi.com or youtube.com, so by saying those are automatically approved would really lessen the burden on moderators.

[Chris is me]

In VB there is also the possibility of making users Super Moderators. This allows them to delete spam in any forum but stops short of giving the user Administrator privileges. I don't know how many of those CD has, but that might be helpful for spam removal purposes.

I also like Pault's suggestion: Make a whitelist of allowed links for posters who have under X posts and / or have been around for less than Y days. If the users need to link to something else, I'm sure we could just copy and paste a plaintext URL to see what the user is talking about. Not having hyperlinks for new users is a small price to pay that would really help I think.

It's cool to see this community come together to brainstorm solutions to problems like these. I'm happy to help however possible with the spam problem.

[jwallace15]

Originally Posted by Chris is me

In VB there is also the possibility of making users Super Moderators. This allows them to delete spam in any forum but stops short of giving the user Administrator privileges. I don't know how many of those CD has, but that might be helpful for spam removal purposes.

It would be a lot more useful than reporting everything for a couple people to delete it. Perhaps everyone who has rep level "reputation beyond repute" (I'm not sure how many points that is, I'm assuming either 1500 or 2000) or something like that could be granted this privilege.

I'm sure those with lower reps would like to volunteer to do that, too. I know I wouldn't mind helping out.

[Pault]

Originally Posted by jwallace15

It would be a lot more useful than reporting everything for a couple people to delete it. Perhaps everyone who has rep level "reputation beyond repute" (I'm not sure how many points that is, I'm assuming either 1500 or 2000) or something like that could be granted this privilege.

I'm sure those with lower reps would like to volunteer to do that, too. I know I wouldn't mind helping out.

I like the idea, but something just doesn't feel right to me giving that much power to that many people who aren't manually approved. I'm sure it would be sometimes used against posts that someone thinks are un-gp, which isn't right. So here's my revision of that idea:

People with a full rep bar or other approved people gain the privilege to flag a post . If 3 people flag a post, it is automatically moved to a separate forum that only moderators can see. The mods can then go through that forum and delete all actual spam posts. If they come across something that isn't supposed to be there, they can return it to where it once was and issue a warning to the people who flagged it. 2 warnings and that person loses his/her privilege to flag.

One other benefit of this system is that there would be no more problems where the spam is posted in a forum without any active moderators.

[DonRotolo]

it is possible in VB to restrict users with certain characteristics* from posting links. I would venture to say that is isn't spam unless it has hyperlinks.

*For example, number of posts, rep points, and so on.

[magnets]

Here's another idea.

I'm not sure if VB supports this, but another forum I used to visit had an option to flag as spam. Then, if ten users with more than 100 posts had marked a post as spam, it would disappear, and a moderator could either delete it if it was spam, or keep it if it was a real post

With this solution, the spam would show up, but it would disappear as soon as ten users marked it as spam.

[protoserge]

On that note, any user with say 600+ rep points on this forum knows what spam on this forum is and could mark it as spam, immediately quarantining the post. This would only require one member to perform. The moderator could then delete/ban/block the offending account.

[cbale2000]

Originally Posted by artdutra04

1. For a while before last build season, all posts from new users had to approved by a moderator. On average, there seemed to be a 24-48 hour backlog on posts. Some users would then try to post again... and again... and again... and again because they did not see the posts show up immediately. This created almost as many problems as it solved.

I'm guilty of having done this before myself on a different forum (though on that forum doing it too often could get you banned).

This happens when it's not immediately clear to new users why their posts aren't showing up. Typically forums tell you your post is awaiting approval in the redirect page after you click "submit", but honestly, no one ever reads those. What you need is a bright red font message right above the "submit" button telling you that your post will need to be approved.


That all said, I do have a few thoughts that might help reduce spam (some of these have already been mentioned but are worth repeating) ...

• First 5-10 posts a user creates require a CAPTCHA to post (prevents human registration - bot posting)
• Add a generic FIRST-related question to the registration (if it already had one, perhaps add a second).
• Make threads reported by multiple (~100+ post) users get moved to an invisible moderation forum so they're not seen while awaiting mod review.
• Block hyper-linking from users with less than 5-10 posts.

[JohnFogarty]

I recommend this...I use it on all of my websites that have forum components. So far ZERO spam.

http://confidenttechnologies.com/pro...fident-captcha

/Profit

[protoserge]

How about this one?


http://areyouahuman.com/home-2/?utm_...om%2Fhome-2%2F

Require 3 or 10 of them.

[Al Skierkiewicz]

I guess it would be appropriate to let you know that there are many moderators that watch and receive alerts. When you report a post, we receive an email alert and respond if we are on line. Also some of us watch the new users link on the CD homepage and investigate. Some spammers are caught before they ever post anything because they have certain items in their online profile that highlights them. Sometimes this is a hyper link in their signature line, sometimes it is a website in their profile and sometime it is the nature of their screen name. Some bots are now filling in the field with a random team number so if I see an FRC team number greater than 5000 it is a red flag. Also if I see a retired team number like 47 I also suspect a bot.
I check new users every few days and eliminate as I find them. Several of us start early in the morning so we clean up when we get to work. Eastern time zone usually gets there first like John and Gary. I follow at 6 CDT. Others who are on later in the day like Mark and others will get things while the rest of us are getting home and having dinner and still others will get stuff late night like BillFred.
However, we don't all have the same rights, so while we get the report, I can't delete post in all forums but I can delete users so they can't post again. Some bots (not a lot) have managed to post 20 times in a few seconds.

[EricH]

Originally Posted by cbale2000

That all said, I do have a few thoughts that might help reduce spam (some of these have already been mentioned but are worth repeating) ...

• Block hyper-linking from users with less than 5-10 posts.

Just to bring something up right quick, this would have to apply to all edits as well as original posts.

I saw a spammer put up a thread title that didn't make sense... with identical post content... but no links. 5 minutes later, the same post had MORE words that didn't make sense, plus the "normal" 30 or more links. (Another 5 minutes later, before this post you're reading hit the forums, the thread in question was gone, thanks to the mods.)


Just a heads up that we may have an invasion of editing spambots--make post, edit post with links.