Ozarks Jeep Thing Club
Off Topic => Site Suggestions & Updates => Topic started by: TJ-2thousand on 01/ 3/07 - 11:34PM
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when someone signs up for a new account is there any kind of security there to stop spammers? like on some forums there are some random letters that are hard to read that you have to type in to continue. or maybe we could add some kind of redundencies (sp?) to the sign up process.
:confused:
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We do have the visual confirmation like you mentioned, but they are very sophisticated spam bots.
I've seen something in another forum that we might be able to change to. Most spam bots automatically fill in the profiles and there is a program that if you fill it in when you register it kicks out the registration. That might help.
Keith
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I am a moderator on another bbs and what seems to work for us is that we have abt 10 of us that hunt out the spam..with that many "spam cops" the bbs is clean and the general members hardly ever see any spam. On our bbs we have a place that we send the spam to called the dungeon, its there that the admin folks can look it all over and then delete or ban that user..so all we do is send the spam to a holding cell where it waits for the "judge" to pass sentence. We don't delete the spam, we just move it so it can be delt with later, away from the members who tend to complain abt the spam.
Seems to me that you have enuff members here who have been here a long time and love this bbs that you should be able to get a few "deputies" to police the spam..that way the spam is taken care of and the pressure on the one or two (I suppose) moderators who take care of the spam is relieved. I might add that on the bbs I help keep clean, I may get to police a piece of spam maybe once every two weeks. Our people are so hungry for spam that there is hardly enuff to go around ;) but really, it is working for us! Something to think abt.
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Really, what shows up here isn't that bad. We only get a couple of actual spam posts every couple of days or so. There has been plenty of complaints of late, but really how long does it show before it's gone? If you don't want to see it, don't click on it. If your PC gets infected by clicking on a link, you deserve it... your retarded for clicking on everything you see on the net... just my thoughts.
Please be patient,
Keith
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The spambots first find the boards by the tagline at the bottom of the page that says "Powered by phpBB". That is the first thing that needs to be removed. As long as it stays in the code, there are no laws broken... so you would just comment it out with
<!-- this is what you comment out -->
The above stops new bots from finding our board, this stops the ones who already know where it is from registering... You need to change the form variables on the sign-up page which right now are 'username' and 'password' ... you change these to something more specific to us like 'ojtusers' and 'ojtpasses' and then there are a couple of other places to change it within the code of the boards... and wallah, no more auto spam bots. Doing this only takes a few minutes, and causes the bots to over look them as they are looking for form fields named username and password.
The visual recognition is called CAPTCHA and phpBB has a module that can be plugged in for that.
Email activation is yet another way to battle the spambots.
A way to protect users is to make it so guest cannot view the memberlist.
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We do the same on www.Brushbeaters.com
Email activation and visitors do not have access to anything other than the homepage. The down side is that visitors have to take the time to register before they can see much about our club.
Wanted to add, I have never seen any SPAM on here, so you guys must be doing a good job of keeping it off.
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Oh one or two a week - but that is such a pain in the arse. I absolutely hate seeing a thread that I know is spam and still clicking on it. I wish that Keith would quit his job just to delete all the spam, but he won't - JERK. :ma:
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The down side is that visitors have to take the time to register before they can see much about our club.
That's why you should have a website with forums integrated within, instead of a just a web forum. Having a website allows you to have pages that tells all about your organization, what it does, who it is.. bla bla. The forums should be used to get people to join the site, have a place for discussion, bring people together... etc.
also, I don't really notice that much spam on here either. so kudos to the guys deleting it.
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WHitehead - i guess i don't understand what you mean? Our homepage tells you about the club and by signing up (FREE) you get access to the photogallery and forum section as well. It just keeps the spam out, at least for now.
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I my self would take care of the spam if I had the authorization to for I am disabled and don't work and usually get on here at least once a day if not me Amy does. Just some food for thought.
Benji
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WHitehead - i guess i don't understand what you mean? Our homepage tells you about the club and by signing up (FREE) you get access to the photogallery and forum section as well. It just keeps the spam out, at least for now.
That's exactly what I mean. But I think also that guests should have access to a generic photo/video gallery, the events listing, and should be able to view the for sale forum. Everything esle should be locked down to registered members and makes people want to sign up... which helps to bring repeat visitors to you site. If it's free, there is no big deal about signing up and you only have to sign up once.... and all that you'll get for signing up are well worth it. Theres alot of different ways to set up community sites, just depends on what you want and works for you, and what the users want.
Doing this doesn't neccessarily keep the spam out, though it helps, you have to also take the other steps I mentioned to do that... with PHPBB that is... other board software has other fixes. Locking down the forums to registered users will only keep out the spambots that post without registering.
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Don't want to get off topic for this site, but I guess I still do not follow. Do you mean that is what you like or do not like about our site?
There is access to upcoming events and random photos that pop up on refresh as well as a scroll that shows the last 10 post topics. You just don't get full access to view and post until you register for free. People can also choose to become paying members and then have access to the members only section of the forum as well as the usual club meetings, events, newsletters, voting rights and so on.
If the for sale section was left open then joe blow can post whatever they want. That was one of the issues we had when we used to be on MSN, spam bots or whatever would log on and post junk stuff like viagra for sale. The forum and stuff we have now is not 100% exactly what I like, but it doesn't have spam and only costs the club $10 per month to run it. I prefer the way this forum runs over ours, but I do not have the knowledge and time to set it up, what we have works, and it is cheap. All good in my book.
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My *ex-blog ;)
spam=http://jayna-blog.info/=spam
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ROTFLMAO - They spammed the spam thread!!!!!!
Club Dues = 25 a year
Club Website = Free
Some A-Hole putting spam in a thread about spam on the website = Priceless
HAHAHAHAHAHAHA :biggrin:
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:imwitstupid:
ha ha!
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I edited the spam post so no one would accidentally click on the link.
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Keith..you shouldve been able to delete the post itself and not the topic..in the upper right hand corner of the post, should be a little X icon to delete the post, next to the EDIT QUOTE IP etc...OTJxj did the quote from the spammer and in his reply the link is still active so hope many use caution and not click on it..anyway, the X option is what we have on our phpbb bbs and works pretty well against the spam.
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Fixed it. This is not the first time that this thread has been spammed,(I thought it was humurous too) I deleted the others, I missed this one because there were posts after it.
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the spam is terrable for a fact, but thats just how it is..I hope you guys are not too overwhelmed by it and stressed out over it..this is suppose to be fun and if you get stressed over it, then it isnt fun anymore..but hang in there! STINKIN SPAM!!! :ahhhhh:
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I DON'T KNOW HOW TO CONTROL IT, BUT I AM PROUD TO BE A MEMBER OF THE MOD TEAM NOW. SO AS I SEE IT I AM DELETING IT.
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DrLewall, I know I could have deleted it, just left it so folks could play a little with it. I didn't think about the Quote with the links in it. I usually delete the whole thread. I agree, it's nothing to get stressed about, we are working on a betting way to handle it, as with HVACMASTER and others being moderators to help control it until we have a way to prevent it. Just like all of the extra parts and junk that folks post that you're not interested in, don't click on it and look at it. duh!
Keith
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I could lend my services in eliminating the spam... not by moderation, but by diving into the code and applying patches and work arounds that would stop the register bots from registering and being able to post.
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I could lend my services in eliminating the spam... not by moderation, but by diving into the code and applying patches and work arounds that would stop the register bots from registering and being able to post.
That's what I'm talking about... [Cajon Boy voice]E-limo-na-shon!