What do you do to keep spam from your forum?

[Sam1]

What do you do to keep spam from your forum?

I was reading that Mybb has a mod which doesn't allow people to register if they complete the registration form too quickly. Apparently bots can complete the form in 5 seconds which is impossible for humans...

 

[Jason1]

I am currently using security questions plugin and googles captcha to avoid spammers entering in...It has turned well.

 

[xpl0iter]

For now we are using the default captcha by xenforo. But sometime back Xyphien recommended some other security plugin which uses puzzles instead of captcha which is far more effective! I will be installing it soon, as the number of spam registrations has increased recently!

 

[Rihtar]

I am currently using security questions plugin and googles captcha to avoid spammers entering in...It has turned well.

Best MyBB security setup you can have as long as you have unique registration questions.

 

[johnboy127]

Chris Deeming has made a mod for xenForo that I used based on the time factor and it has done wonders stopping bot registrations.

 

[Jordan]

Capthca and answering questions at registration is what I have mainly done. What Chill Pill has done before that I have no idea.

 

[xpl0iter]

What do you do to keep spam from your forum?
I was reading that Mybb has a mod which doesn't allow people to register if they complete the registration form too quickly. Apparently bots can complete the form in 5 seconds which is impossible for humans...

But I believe that bots will also have an option to reduce the registrations per minute or atleast their next update will have it!

Chris Deeming has made a mod for xenForo that I used based on the time factor and it has done wonders stopping bot registrations.

Mind sharing the is the addon name?

What Chill Pill has done before that I have no idea.

where? in Forumhour?

 

[Jordan]

where? in Forumhour?

Well what I men't was that is how I ruduced spam. And what Chill Pill has done to the forum prior I don't know. Chill Pill was the owner before me.

 

[Shortie]

I currently only use a question and answer verification which was something I agreed I would only use a little while ago due to the fact that I was having problems with other methods and bots where getting through and causing problems. The question and answer verification has so far proven a better option and we have seen alot less spam getting through. We also have the stopforumspam which is not part of Xenforo so that is also something we use.

 

[MercyL]

I do not have a forum, right now, but any website allowing comments or user generated content struggles against spammers.

If a spammer successfully negotiates the captcha, I moderate their comments for the first month. Most spammers do not want to wait that long to get their message and links posted in a comment so most give up before they can post. I also send emails to the businesses the spammer promotes. I let the business know that one of their affiliates is spamming my blog. If I keep seeing the same business url in the spam, I send one last email, informing the business that I will post my dissatisfaction on ripoff report, the BBB, or any other consumer protection website.

I rarely have to send that last email.

 

[xpl0iter]

I do not have a forum, right now, but any website allowing comments or user generated content struggles against spammers.

If a spammer successfully negotiates the captcha, I moderate their comments for the first month. Most spammers do not want to wait that long to get their message and links posted in a comment so most give up before they can post. I also send emails to the businesses the spammer promotes. I let the business know that one of their affiliates is spamming my blog. If I keep seeing the same business url in the spam, I send one last email, informing the business that I will post my dissatisfaction on ripoff report, the BBB, or any other consumer protection website.

I rarely have to send that last email.

Can't you use the akismet plugin? I mean it does exactly what you're trying to do. They will block all the spam messages from spam ips and domains. In case they miss something and we report it as spam, they will check for this ip/domain in their database and add them to the black list. Although before adding them they will make sure that there has been more than a couple of reported items for that particular ip or domain!

 

[MercyL]

Can't you use the akismet plugin? I mean it does exactly what you're trying to do. They will block all the spam messages from spam ips and domains. In case they miss something and we report it as spam, they will check for this ip/domain in their database and add them to the black list. Although before adding them they will make sure that there has been more than a couple of reported items for that particular ip or domain!

Yes, you can rely Akismet and I use it, when I am being especially lazy. Does Akismet send notify a company about affiliate spam? Does it also post to complaint sites?

Call it stress management or "meanspiritedness", but there is a certain satisfaction in letting companies know that a human being is paying attention, and is willing to make trouble for them if they don't police their affiliate program.

I do not think Akismet sends any notices to the urls inside spam posts and I don't think they post on Ripoff Report. It just adds to a list, which creates no pressure for change. Using Akismet allows spammers to believe their activities are never seen and there are no consequences.

 

[xpl0iter]

Yes, you can rely Akismet and I use it, when I am being especially lazy. Does Akismet send notify a company about affiliate spam? Does it also post to complaint sites?

Call it stress management or "meanspiritedness", but there is a certain satisfaction in letting companies know that a human being is paying attention, and is willing to make trouble for them if they don't police their affiliate program.

I do not think Akismet sends any notices to the urls inside spam posts and I don't think they post on Ripoff Report. It just adds to a list, which creates no pressure for change. Using Akismet allows spammers to believe their activities are never seen and there are no consequences.

Yeah it doesn't report to the sites. But I think it will add them to all the spam ip/domain lists! Anyway your method will make the affiliate networks aware of the spammers. And that's a very good thing. but if you have too many sites, doing this will take a lot of time and effort.

 

[psychadelicbird]

Also simple things like requiring members to post a minimum of X amount of times is just asking for spam too.

I don't believe Captcha codes are as effect as they once were. Considering there are actually sites that pay people for typing out Captcha codes.