| Archive for myfreeforum.org Before posting please check the "stickies" in the support forums. Please ask questions in real English and not "txt". You will get a better response. Please do not ask support questions via PMs. |
| admin (no pm's please) |
spambotsThere seems to be a new breed of spambots that can break the image authentication used on forums
I'm currently trying an experiment to beat these on a non free forum forum, and if it works I will see what we can do here. |
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| 1-18-08 |
Go get em admin 
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| Bravo |
Yes, it was due to bots getting through that I had to use email activations, as highlighted in this ignored support request
Let's hope it'll get sorted. |
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| Comkidwizzer3 |
Yeah lets hope | ||
| CodyT07 |
Re: spambots
If a spambot comes to your site and spams, couldnt you report the site to be taken down? |
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| admin (no pm's please) |
simply done not work like that. If spammers could have their sites quickly wiped, there would be no spam.
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| Comkidwizzer3 |
Yeah but what if you don't want your site deleted and you don't know there is spam on your site what would you do? | ||
| admin (no pm's please) |
They were referring I think to the site the spam is about. We do have an automated process that disables a forum that an admin is not visiting, if we detect that the site is being spammed. The admin can reenable the site. For the record we are more than 48 hours spam free, on a site that was being hit a couple of times a day. |
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| Bravo |
So the visual confirmation works again? | ||
| admin (no pm's please) |
The method in question will not stop auto spammers registering, but will stop them posting. At least hopefully it will! | ||
| admin (no pm's please) |
We are now a week or so spam free, so I think we have a working solution.
I aim to put it on Zaphod the new server in the week, to see if anyone reports problems. Then the other servers will also be updated. |
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| admin (no pm's please) |
Anti spam now in force on Zaphod, which includes this forum. | ||
| Symon |
A little too late but i found this
http://www.phpbb.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=435694 |
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| admin (no pm's please) |
That is a really awful anti spambot mod 
The anti spam post measure I put in did not require template mods 
and I'm planning a similar anti spambot measure as well. |
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| admin (no pm's please) |
Just an update, the new code is not yet on all servers There are actually quite a few bits and bobs that need reconciling between servers, and it needs a clear non holiday Saturday really.
However an experimental anti spam joining mechanism has just been implemented on my downsizer forum and if it works will be done on the myfreeforum servers as well. |
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| admin (no pm's please) |
Hmm, even as I posted a spammer joined  I think it implies that the buggers probably manually join forums, but use automation to post.
In which case there is probably not a lot that can be done. |
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| admin (no pm's please) |
Small update, the anti spam posting system went in on all servers as part of the major updates today. But the registration changes did not make the cut, there was just no point in adding yet more confusion today
But assuming all settles down, the spam regiustration change does not need to wait till a weekend, it is a lot more trivial to do now all the servers are properly synced. |
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| admin (no pm's please) |
The anti- spam bot stuff is now in on all servers. | ||
| admin (no pm's please) |
My feeling is that whilst we continue to get and solve some bugs that have arisen out of this, it has proved pretty effective against spam registration
Anyone else have a view? |
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| Viper |
Yes, the number of spam bots has definately fallen at only a small cost, so it was worth it.
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