Computer Hope

Other => Other => Topic started by: Zylstra on August 13, 2006, 04:09:02 PM

Title: Forum SPAM problem
Post by: Zylstra on August 13, 2006, 04:09:02 PM
I am a member of another forum (not my forum) that has a serious problem with SPAM.
They have an Invision board.

This board gets a serious amount of SPAM.
Now, they have made it so that all posts need to be reviewed before being visible.
This slows things down.

How can this person protect there boards from SPAM zombies?
Title: Re: Forum SPAM problem
Post by: Rob Pomeroy on August 13, 2006, 04:15:06 PM
Disable posting by guests.  Tick the boxes that make it harder for spambots to sign up automatically (e.g. by using obfuscated letters/numbers which have to be typed in exactly as shown in order to proceed).
Title: Re: Forum SPAM problem
Post by: Zylstra on August 13, 2006, 04:17:22 PM
Quote
Disable posting by guests.  Tick the boxes that make it harder for spambots to sign up automatically (e.g. by using obfuscated letters/numbers which have to be typed in exactly as shown in order to proceed).
Guest posting is disabled, and obfuscated letters/numbers must be identified and filled before registration...
(But I have to admin, the Invision number "obfuscated" system doesnt work too well....)
Title: Re: Forum SPAM problem
Post by: Rob Pomeroy on August 13, 2006, 04:34:56 PM
That suggests to me that the spammers are exploiting a known weakness in IPB.  The admin logs may provide illuminating reading.
Title: Re: Forum SPAM problem
Post by: Neil on August 13, 2006, 05:30:34 PM
Idea: each person must begin their post with a keyword, and any without are deleted automatically.
Title: Re: Forum SPAM problem
Post by: Rob Pomeroy on August 14, 2006, 06:20:57 AM
An interesting idea, but one that would require some programming and fairly good knowledge of how IPB is put together.
Title: Re: Forum SPAM problem
Post by: Zylstra on August 14, 2006, 01:44:02 PM
Does invision have a feature that makes it so each time you want to post, you must identify the lettering in one of those "obfuscated" number boxes, and then submit it first?