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#21 ·
I've seen something used at a couple boards which seems to be extremely effective at combating spam bots. When the user joins, they can only see one forum with one topic in it, which basically just lists the rules of the forum. The post also asks that the user reply to the topic agreeing to the rules, which increases their post count to 1, which moves them into a group that can see all the forums. Since spam bots only seem to create new threads and not reply to existing ones, they join but don't ever actually post their crap.
 
#22 ·
The member+ thing ?

Other boards more efficient at it require a minimum time since registration before posting privileges are allowed (something around 20 minutes or so as an optimal value, though anything higher than 0 and close to 10 would be better, and as long as it doesnt reach ridiculously effective values such as 5 days -yes, some boards go that far, and in return, fear no bots or dupe-accounting trolls-).

That would also encourage browsing around, usage of the search function and reading of stickies (at least till posting privileges are unlocked).
 
#23 ·
Hawke said:
I've seen something used at a couple boards which seems to be extremely effective at combating spam bots. When the user joins, they can only see one forum with one topic in it, which basically just lists the rules of the forum. The post also asks that the user reply to the topic agreeing to the rules, which increases their post count to 1, which moves them into a group that can see all the forums. Since spam bots only seem to create new threads and not reply to existing ones, they join but don't ever actually post their crap.
Click to expand...
Bots reply to threads fyi, there is even bots that don't posts advertisements or links, bots that spam the pm system, bots that don't post anything, but spam their signature with links/malicious links etc...

I still say the best solution is enabling a no spam verification question in addition to the traditional Captcha or reCaptcha.

It's highly effective, hardly restrictive in the slightest and quite easy to implement. I keep suggesting this, but it seems as no one is willing to implement it. I guarantee 99% if not 100% of spam/bot registrations will cease with this system in place.
 
#24 ·
The method I outlined has a 100% success rate, from what I've seen. Everyone tries to increase the time between posts or after registration, hence why a lot of spam bots wait a day before posting. You can keep increasing the time all you want, it just becomes more of an inconvenience for members and isn't going to take care of all the spam bots. Assuming people are going to go and read all the stickies while they're waiting is a little optimistic, I'm pretty sure most of them will just go do something else while they're waiting. The aforementioned method doesn't require hardly any time on the member's part, and works 100%. The site staff at those boards know that it doesn't guarantee that the users will read the rules, but that's not the point.

Of course, both methods have their valid points. It's mostly up to the personal preference of the site staff to choose which one they think serves their community best.
 
#25 · (Edited)
Xtreme2damax said:
I still say the best solution is enabling a no spam verification question in addition to the traditional Captcha or reCaptcha.
It's highly effective, hardly restrictive in the slightest and quite easy to implement. I keep suggesting this. I guarantee 99% if not 100% of spam/bot registrations will cease with this system in place.
Click to expand...
I mentioned that since a slightly long while. Thank you for the guarantee, by the way ;p

PS: they would still not cease, by the way. Payload disabling, reincreasing of the time between consecutive posting attempts and forcing a time since registration before posting rights unlocked would have it rise even higher.


@ hawke: the point wasnt really to make anyone read anything.

When the user joins, they can only see one forum with one topic in it
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Restricting newcomers in such a way sounds excessive. Id personally expect that many might not post there, and by such be and remain more restricted than guests. The practices of professional corporate forums are not always best to implement on community ones.

The idea you expressed could be interresting, if posting in a specific thread was enforced for unlocking of PM sending and similar capacities, but browsing rights as unlimited as for guests (though in my humble opinion, the amount of spam that gets through doesnt justify similar such measures, as friendlier alternatives exist already more afficient than the current ones in place)
 
#26 ·
Xtreme2damax said:
Bots reply to threads fyi, there is even bots that don't posts advertisements or links, bots that spam the pm system, bots that don't post anything, but spam their signature with links/malicious links etc...

I still say the best solution is enabling a no spam verification question in addition to the traditional Captcha or reCaptcha.

It's highly effective, hardly restrictive in the slightest and quite easy to implement. I keep suggesting this, but it seems as no one is willing to implement it. I guarantee 99% if not 100% of spam/bot registrations will cease with this system in place.
Click to expand...
Just saw your post in the other topic, putting the two together would be pretty effective as well. For the nospam verification questions, do you have users select an answer from a drop-down box, or actually type them in?
 
#27 ·
Hawke said:
Just saw your post in the other topic, putting the two together would be pretty effective as well. For the nospam verification questions, do you have users select an answer from a drop-down box, or actually type them in?
Click to expand...
They (Users) would type it in upon registration.

They would be presented with questions a human would normally know, and wouldn't be the same all the time, yet simple.

Question like "Are you a human?", "Are you a bot?" or "What's 2+2?", "What color is the grass or sky?"

They would have to answer the question correctly to complete registration.

Email verification and captcha enabled of course, highly effective and the least restrictive.
 
Discussion starter · #28 ·
it rarely fails on mybb forums. even without the captcha.
 
#29 ·
A quick google of human verification questions and vbull shows that bots are already starting to crack them.
If someone's determined to get in, they're going to do it.

That said, I wouldn't be against trying one. vbull 3.7 comes with the option so we wouldn't have to use a plug in.
 
Discussion starter · #31 ·
They post on highly active forums to get the links they post into search engines.
 
#32 ·
Can't we have slightly more complicated questions, but ones which can still be easily understood by anything more then a 6 year old, like, say:

If Jack is 10 years old, and his sister is 4 years younger then him, how old is his sister?

OR more logical questions like:

Do elephants have wings?
 
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Discussion starter · #33 ·
they do in impossible creatures!
 
#35 ·
Anything not immediately obvious to all humans will be discrimination towards non-english native speakers and similar groups where english is not a commonly used language. Just so you guys know (as in disallowing them from registering. Hotmail and Yahoo blocks is "elitist" enough. Bringing even more inconvenience during registration would not be as productive as merely blocking bots from registering without inconvenience for humans).
 
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gamefreak94
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