when was this subforum renamed to insane chatter

[Johan_H]

when and how

[badinsults]

Experimenting.

[Agozer]

dem magiks

[grinvader]

FOR SCIENCE

[darkbenny]

[badinsults]

Doesn't appear to have worked, I just deleted a spammer from this very thread.

[Johan_H]

the audacity of some machine intelligences!

[badinsults]

the audacity of some machine intelligences!

I'm guessing a lot of the spammers are not even bots, they are people paid in third world countries to spam.

[grinvader]

It's not a guess, it's a certainty. Humans go through the registration process, then dump the login info in the bot database. Only then is the spam output automated.

[Rashidi]

perhaps there should rule like, >24hrs wait since first login before able to start posting, as most spammer start doing as soon as they able to login.

[badinsults]

perhaps there should rule like, >24hrs wait since first login before able to start posting, as most spammer start doing as soon as they able to login.

One of the problems is virtually all spam accounts do not make any posts at all. They are content to just have signatures with links to their spam sites, just to increase their search engine results.

[grinvader]

This is already unfruitful, since we configured official crawlers/spiders to not be able to see profile information.

[Gonzo]

Ok, here's probably a dumb question.

Would it be possible to rig up this board so that every new account that is created has to post their first post somewhere specific before being able to post anywhere else?

What I mean is, say is you create an introduction thread somewhere(like in insane chatter), and you make it so that new accounts can't post anywhere else until they post in this 'introduction' thread. Then hopefully what this would do is screw the bots up and they would just keep posting spam into one thread, which would be easier to clean up.

Or could you set it up so that new accounts can only post in this introduction thread and the rest of the board is locked off to them until a mod or admin gives them access to the rest of the board?

[kode54]

There's also requiring moderator approval of at least N posts before they become a normal unmoderated user. I should ask Screwtape how he set that up at byuu's forum.

[grinvader]

Would it be possible to ...

From what I saw in the various options it should be possible, but it feels like it's only trivial to do on a brand new install... at least I haven't spent much time toying with the stuff to know for sure, and I don't exactly want to trash the whole thing.

Maybe I'll burn some day on it eventually to find out. ;p

[badinsults]

Ok, here's probably a dumb question.

Would it be possible to rig up this board so that every new account that is created has to post their first post somewhere specific before being able to post anywhere else?

What I mean is, say is you create an introduction thread somewhere(like in insane chatter), and you make it so that new accounts can't post anywhere else until they post in this 'introduction' thread. Then hopefully what this would do is screw the bots up and they would just keep posting spam into one thread, which would be easier to clean up.

Or could you set it up so that new accounts can only post in this introduction thread and the rest of the board is locked off to them until a mod or admin gives them access to the rest of the board?

I doubt this would really stem the tide of bot registrations. As noted before, the majority of spam accounts don't even post, just content to have their accounts have links in them. On my forum (which uses Simple Machines), you can add a few simple questions to the registration step. This has been effective at cutting down the 50+ spam accounts created per day down to one or two every month. I have no idea why PHPBB doesn't have something like that.

[kode54]

And as I already said, phpBB 3.0.6 and newer has a "Newly Registered Users" group feature. When enabled, all new registrations will be lumped into that group until they have made a configurable number of posts. If this group is configured for post moderation in all forums, then they will need that many posts approved before they become a regular user.

This is useless for spambots which have already registered, but sounds great for newer registrations, as it will prevent all future registered spam bots from showing up in search engines. One of the patterns I have noticed is that immediately following a series of spam posts, the bots will immediately submit the spammed topics' links to Google and Bing for indexing.

[badinsults]

And as I already said, phpBB 3.0.6 and newer has a "Newly Registered Users" group feature. When enabled, all new registrations will be lumped into that group until they have made a configurable number of posts. If this group is configured for post moderation in all forums, then they will need that many posts approved before they become a regular user.

This is useless for spambots which have already registered, but sounds great for newer registrations, as it will prevent all future registered spam bots from showing up in search engines. One of the patterns I have noticed is that immediately following a series of spam posts, the bots will immediately submit the spammed topics' links to Google and Bing for indexing.

As far as I can tell, there is no actual way to set it so that newly registered users (or users of any group) require moderator approval for posts. If such an option exists, it is buried deeply in the options.

[kode54]

https://www.phpbb.com/community/viewtop ... #p12424375

[badinsults]

https://www.phpbb.com/community/viewtop ... #p12424375

The option is not there, it probably requires a mod.

[kode54]

https://www.phpbb.com/community/viewtop ... 5&start=15


Yeah, either they described it wrong, or you went to the wrong place. Hmm...

[odditude]

the setting is there, and is the default for the "Newly Registered Users" group, which I have enabled. until they're three posts in, new users' posts will (should?) need approval.

big bucks, big bucks, no whammy...

[0dditude]

this is a test of the emergency spambot countermeasure system.

if this were a real emergency, the board would currently be flooded by hundreds of spam posts.

this is only a test.

[0dditude]

moar testing

[Gil_Hamilton]

this is a test of the emergency spambot countermeasure system.

if this were a real emergency, the board would currently be flooded by hundreds of spam posts.

this is only a test.

I thought the spambots were there to prove the board was still working.