WTH is with all the spam?

[tz375]

If so many SPAM accounts are being created, does this need to be ported to another forum software or can the sign up be changed to being "reviewed and activated prior to posting"?

Or is it just time to let it die and all move over to another site?

[Evans Ward]

I offered to delete all the spam but never heard anything about being given rights. It is annoying and leaves a mar and big black eye on this website. There has to be a front end solution as you suggested to prevent these bots from being given membership. Hoping that angle can be followed up on by the site owner.

[tz375]

I'm not sure who owns the site now or who is in charge.

There was a post from Alan Tucker explaining that he is constantly cleaning out SPAM accounts, but there has to be a better front door technique.

The problem is that when sites like this one get spammed, they often just die and that would be a shame.

I have met and chatted (real time - on a phone) with several people on this forum and I'm sure that's true for others and it would be a shame to see if die in a sea of SPAM.

[oldjapanesebikes]

I'm not sure who owns the site now or who is in charge. .

Allan is the person in charge currently Richard. This site runs on a server owned by Neal who runs the SUBSIM site. I can delete SPAM, but that's all the access I have. The site needs some software updates for sure, and it also needs to be moved to HTTPS, but that will take some coin.

[Scorch]

ahoy fellows!

Transferring to a different software package will not guarantee no spam; spammer SEO have thousands of people sitting in buildings in Thailand and other countries, registering on forums manually, posting spam. Any public forum that allows random people to sign up and post will have this issue. I run another forum and yes, it gets spam too, the spammer has to be IDed and him and his posts deleted by our spam moderator team. FB gets spam, there's no way to completely stop it.

I will research and see if phpBB has ever come up with any new anti-spam tools, they did not have any last time I checked (2017).

Installing HTTPS security certificates can be done but there is really no point. If you just have a blog or forum and all you require from your users is to enter their email addresses, you don’t need HTTPS for security reasons. However, if you accept payments or important personal information for any reason, you need HTTPS on those pages at a minimum. This forum does neither.

I will add:

oldjapanesebikes (Ian)
Evans Ward
Alan H

to have moderator power to check for spammers. I will PM you a procedure, it's pretty simple and if someone follows it once every couple of days, will nuke most spammers before they post.

cheers
Scorch

[Evans Ward]

Cool! I look forward to receiving instructions and my spammer hammer.

[Scorch]

One thing anyone can do is check the memberlist, I am not the only person who can see this, right?

Click on the Members link, top right, then click "Joined" and it should sort by most recent new members,

memberlist.php?sk=c&sd=d&start=60
Spammers are easy to detect, they usually have a spammy signature or spammy homepage. So, when you see one, a moderator should delete the posts AND delete the spammer.

See this image:

If you leave the posts or if you leave the spammer, it will make the forum a high value target for future spammers.

Any regular member can and should Report the post if they see a spam post.

[Scorch]

"Spammer hammer", I like that

So, I have left the few spammers in the membrlist so you can practice on them, post here or email me if you have any questions.

Looks like there are a few, one as old as July last year.
tlwilnos Mon Jul 22, 2019 2:17 am 0 Send private message Website workers compensation attorney rockford il

He should have been nuked long ago, just having him floating in our memberlist entices more spammers ("see, Apu's still there, come on, this forum doesn't care")