Spambots

[Noitora]

The past weeks gbatemp has been full of spambots, some time before gbatemp was spambot free, how come the place is full of them now? New spambots register almost daily...what the heck?

 

[Hadrian]

Its always been like this, can't remember when it wasn't.

 

[p1ngpong]

Yeah I know, Ive reported a load of spambots to dice this week myself. Theres got to be some way to block them surely.

 

[kobykaan]

UNFORTUNATELY image recognition is not good enough now as most automated bots can bypass these quite easily

the coders of these tools are getting clever lately

A forum I administrate on got pretty bad at one point we had to restrict everyone to first post moderated we had to approve each post before letting it out onto the forum to slow the surge!

 

[science]

I want them to post in one of the Magazine forums so I can get rid of them

 

[Minox]

I want them to post in one of the Magazine forums so I can get rid of them

I've already been able to do that

Remember that lingerie spambot?
Guess not seeing as I flagged it as a spambot after it was dumb enough to post in the Magazine area.

 

[Jax]

How about only allow real posts once the user has made a proper introduction topic?

 

[da_head]

or like another forum i go to, u can't create a thread until you've been registered for 10 days or something

 

[UltraMagnus]

a lot of forums now have multiple authentication checks, usually asking the user to do basic arithmetic, possibly from an image. another one is just asking a really simple question for a human, like "what is the name of this site"

How about only allow real posts once the user has made a proper introduction topic?

heh, I just realised I never created one....

 

[OSW]

How about only allow real posts once the user has made a proper introduction topic?

That seems like a pretty damn fine idea!

 

[p1ngpong]

How about only allow real posts once the user has made a proper introduction topic?

That seems like a pretty damn fine idea!

As long as the introduction section doesn't get filled with spambot threads that is.

 

[WildWon]

How about only allow real posts once the user has made a proper introduction topic?

That would be a fantastic idea. I dunno about the coding needed for that though. It might be more trouble than its worth. Also, with as little as a newb reads the rules (GIMME R0Mz0rz!! lol) any mod/admin around here will be FLOODED with "WHY CAN'T I POST!!!OMGZZ!?!?!!?"

But, it could be a good idea (in theory

)


QUOTE(da_head @ Feb 5 2009, 05:40 PM) or like another forum i go to, u can't create a thread until you've been registered for 10 days or something

That might be good there, but with us being such a huge site, and the "embracing of newbs" that we have going on here, new people wouldn't stick around as long if they can't post for 10 days.

I mean, hell, i dunno if i'd have stuck around if i couldn't post for 10 days.

This place is growing like mad, and we are going to see more and more spambots and random ne're-do-wellers running around this joint. Its all part of a growing site.

 

[Raestloz]

How about only allow real posts once the user has made a proper introduction topic?

Agreed

And we need one mod (or someone) to watch over introductions area for that.

I have extended idea for that:

1. The new member HAVE TO post an introduction topic

2: The moderator (or some one, or some rabndom member) should post in the topic

3. The new member HAVE TO reply accordingly.

4. the moderator (or someone with the same job) should verify the reply (whether it is human or not)

5. If we use moderator, s/he can give the permission to post right away

5.b. if we use staffs, s/he can report to moderators right away about the verification

6 Only then the new member can post in areas other than Introductions

How does this help?

Well, based on Jax's idea, a proper introduction topic is something good, but bots can easily type those things too, something as easy as saying who he is, what's he doing and such can be typed with random things as the variables

That's why another secure method is needed, which is a reply to a human post! Like i said above, someone should post in its topic about something (a question, like why do you join? What flashcart do you use? or something trivial and human), by doing this, we can be sure s/he is a human, or at least until that point. Since a spambot can only post topics, the can't reply to questions


We don't need some code or other things, what we need is a human to verify a human

how about it?

 

[Canonbeat234]

Spambots our mortal enemy. This is becoming such a nuisance that we must nuke this website. To get rid of all the infected; we must sterilize the internet.

 

[Hadrian]

or like another forum i go to, u can't create a thread until you've been registered for 10 days or something

There has been a couple of spambots posting for the first time after two weeks of signing up.

 

[Narin]

Also many of these aren't spam bots, but actual people paid to post advertising spam as well. Also the spam bots we see are targeted spam bots to spam on GBAtemp alone, not some random spam bot. Remember folks, before you can register, you have to type in "There are no ROMs here" and such which means the spam bots we see were specifically programmed to enter that phrase when they register. At any rate, the Spam bot problem should be fixed soon.

 

[Golfman560]

One quick question: Has anyone here ever seen a spambot PM someone?

What be real easy if after joining they have to PM a set moderator that's really just a bot that activates posting abilities. In the PM they'd have to type some phrase they got in their email.

 

[p1ngpong]

or like another forum i go to, u can't create a thread until you've been registered for 10 days or something

There has been a couple of spambots posting for the first time after two weeks of signing up.

Yeah I noticed theres a lot of dormant bots who sign up and dont post anything. Then two weeks or a month later they start spamming.

 

[PettingZoo]

or like another forum i go to, u can't create a thread until you've been registered for 10 days or something

There has been a couple of spambots posting for the first time after two weeks of signing up.

Yeah I noticed theres a lot of dormant bots who sign up and dont post anything. Then two weeks or a month later they start spamming.

I think for problems like having bots that post little to none for around a month should be transfered into a group which prevents them from posting and need to apply for their privileges to post again if they aren't a bot. Another forum I used to go onto had the same thing but it dealed with people leeching off the site.

 

[Jdbye]

That would just be gay, for example if you go on a vacation.
Just add captchas for posting - that would help a lot.