Kill the spam

befarrer · Post by **befarrer** » Sat Dec 08, 2007 4:39 pm

Is it just me noticing the huge increase of spam posted here. I just had to search through 2 pages, or 299 new topics, only 5 of them were made by members, and the rest is just spam. Also the forum seems very slow today. :scratch:

Can we put something in place to stop this? I saw on one forum where you have to type the letters in a picture in a box to post or reply to a topic. That would stop them. Or disable any guest postings. Or disable Aarons bath house topics from showing up in the searches.

Xanth · Post by **Xanth** » Sat Dec 08, 2007 5:05 pm

The bots nowadays can actually do the little picture thing, captcha or whatever its called.

p8ntman442 · Post by **p8ntman442** » Sat Dec 08, 2007 7:20 pm

This has been covered before, I was given limeted access to the bath house to delete, but I could only delete each individual reply or original post. No way in hell I was gonna sit there and delete 10,000 posts one at a time. So my privledges were removed.

>>>>>> Aparantly nobody(who can do anything about it) gives a shit.

I just search by forum now.

Aaron · Post by **Aaron** » Sun Dec 09, 2007 3:04 am

It isn't hard to prevent the bot posts, it really is quite easy and there are tons of add-ons that do it, and people on this forum willing to do it. I know falcon even offered to implement and fix any bugs with the software/add-ons that will prevent every spam poster. Howard wanted none of it.

The reason for it being here is quite simple, Howard wants it here. It gets more people to go to the forum, which makes him more money. It's like Cliff Pennock, except not with as many cult-like followers. I for one would be more than willing to donate a bit to cover server costs if the bot shit was gone.

This is also, by far and large, the slowest forum I visit. I'm on a very fast T3 connection, and these pages still take a while to load. In fact, it is not at all uncommon to not be able to connect at all. And while the spam alone isn't causing this, it's definitely making it a lot worse.

Aaron · Post by **Aaron** » Sun Dec 09, 2007 12:36 pm

Here's a partial solution I thought of, that will at least help.

Howard, can you change the bath house to be like adv perf tech, where only certain users can even see that it exists? Then just set it to where new members can view it by default, but go through and disable it for "real users." There aren't very many people who frequently post here, so you'd only be disabling it for a hundred people or so, and while that'd take time, I'd offer to do it as I'm sure a lot of us would.

The forum would still run slow, but you'd still make the money, and we wouldn't have to see all of that crap. Just an idea.

allWorkNoPlay · Post by **allWorkNoPlay** » Sun Dec 09, 2007 9:50 pm

Maybe the thought was you shouldn't have been given priviliges to begin with?

It's been posted in privileged that more spam controls are coming with the next release of phpbb, the software that powers this forum.

p8ntman442 wrote:This has been covered before, I was given limeted access to the bath house to delete, but I could only delete each individual reply or original post. No way in hell I was gonna sit there and delete 10,000 posts one at a time. So my privledges were removed.

>>>>>> Aparantly nobody(who can do anything about it) gives a shit.

I just search by forum now.

allWorkNoPlay · Post by **allWorkNoPlay** » Sun Dec 09, 2007 10:02 pm

Please explain to me what the method of monetizing spam on this board is? or on any board?

I do agree that the server's connection is slow.

Aaron wrote: The reason for it being here is quite simple, Howard wants it here. It gets more people to go to the forum, which makes him more money. It's like Cliff Pennock, except not with as many cult-like followers. I for one would be more than willing to donate a bit to cover server costs if the bot shit was gone.

This is also, by far and large, the slowest forum I visit. I'm on a very fast T3 connection, and these pages still take a while to load. In fact, it is not at all uncommon to not be able to connect at all. And while the spam alone isn't causing this, it's definitely making it a lot worse.

Aaron · Post by **Aaron** » Sun Dec 09, 2007 10:02 pm

allWorkNoPlay wrote: It's been posted in privileged that more spam controls are coming with the next release of phpbb, the software that powers this forum.

Did you read my post at all?

The spam controls exist. I'm on a number of phpbb forums that have no spam problems at all. It isn't hard, expensive, or even that time consuming to get them. I think they are free actually. The answer is as I said it was, Howard or some other administrator and financial supporter of the site doesn't want them.

allWorkNoPlay wrote:Please explain to me what the method of monetizing spam on this board is? or on any board?

I do agree that the server's connection is slow.

Monitoring spam on this site? I'm honestly not sure. Spammers can become members here, but never seem to post anywhere except the bath house. But most posts there are guests, not members anyways.

Howard only allows "guest" posting in the bath house, so most spam posts go there. However spammers can also register as members here, but cannot post in any of the sections.

I know a lot of forums use email verification, the graphic alpha-numeric dynamic thingy, a random common sense trivia question, etc, in order to ensure all members are real people, not bots. Then they just disable guest posting.

allWorkNoPlay · Post by **allWorkNoPlay** » Sun Dec 09, 2007 10:26 pm

phpBB3 will have built-in spam controls that won't involve modifying the source code that works here. When that's released, this board will be updated as posted.

and thanks for admitting that you have no clue what you're talking about.

Aaron wrote:
allWorkNoPlay wrote: It's been posted in privileged that more spam controls are coming with the next release of phpbb, the software that powers this forum.
Did you read my post at all?

The spam controls exist. I'm on a number of phpbb forums that have no spam problems at all. It isn't hard, expensive, or even that time consuming to get them. I think they are free actually. The answer is as I said it was, Howard or some other administrator and financial supporter of the site doesn't want them.

allWorkNoPlay wrote:Please explain to me what the method of monetizing spam on this board is? or on any board?

I do agree that the server's connection is slow.
Monitoring spam on this site? I'm honestly not sure. Spammers can become members here, but never seem to post anywhere except the bath house. But most posts there are guests, not members anyways.

Howard only allows "guest" posting in the bath house, so most spam posts go there. However spammers can also register as members here, but cannot post in any of the sections.

I know a lot of forums use email verification, the graphic alpha-numeric dynamic thingy, a random common sense trivia question, etc, in order to ensure all members are real people, not bots. Then they just disable guest posting.

Aaron · Post by **Aaron** » Sun Dec 09, 2007 10:28 pm

allWorkNoPlay wrote:phpBB3 will have built-in spam controls that won't involve modifying the source code that works here. When that's released, this board will be updated as posted.

and thanks for admitting that you have no clue what you're talking about.

As I said before, spam controls are not hard. It's fucking easy, and we have a number of members with the time, skills, and interest in implementing them. Howard wants none of it.

phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=5845&highlight=

Kohburn · Post by **Kohburn** » Mon Dec 10, 2007 1:00 pm

we do after all have 9739 registered users

Aaron · Post by **Aaron** » Mon Dec 10, 2007 1:58 pm

With about 100 of those active.

Dirty Sanchez · Post by **Dirty Sanchez** » Mon Dec 10, 2007 2:01 pm

I set up my forum so anyone can join but they can't post anything until I approve their membership. I also have certain requirements that I look for, if I don't don't see them, I delete the account. I get around 20 new accounts every day, that I delete, because they didn't follow the rules to join.

Fastback86 · Post by **Fastback86** » Mon Dec 10, 2007 3:05 pm

I knew I couldn't be the only one who's noticed that the forum's been slow as crap lately.

DiggityBiggity · Post by **DiggityBiggity** » Mon Dec 10, 2007 3:53 pm

Fastback86 wrote:I knew I couldn't be the only one who's noticed that the forum's been slow as crap lately.

Oh man... I thought I was the only one... HOWARD WHAT CAN WE DO?!? This forum is running so slow... I sometimes avoid it.. that's not really cool, since I really like RFT

Xanth · Post by **Xanth** » Mon Dec 10, 2007 5:30 pm

DiggityBiggity wrote:Oh man... I thought I was the only one... HOWARD WHAT CAN WE DO?!? This forum is running so slow... I sometimes avoid it.. that's not really cool, since I really like RFT

I just click it on my Favorites then browse ΡFF for awhile and come back to see if its done.

Same thing with posting, gotta click submit then go get a drink.

Xanth · Post by **Xanth** » Mon Dec 10, 2007 7:52 pm

One thing, when you are using the search, just add "not buy" to the end of your search query. Eliminates a lot of the spam posts.

Post by **admin** » Tue Dec 11, 2007 12:40 am

I just got done deleting 61 pages of spam pages in the Aaron section. Will things be faster now? I don't know. let me know

Aaron · Post by **Aaron** » Tue Dec 11, 2007 12:58 am

admin wrote:I just got done deleting 61 pages of spam pages in the Aaron section. Will things be faster now? I don't know. let me know

It seemed to have helped a bit, but the forum is still slow. It isn't only the topics, it's also the 8,500 members that are all bots.

Something needs to be done to stop it, and then banning/deleting posts would actually do some good. But tomorrow there are going to be 5 more pages of topics in there, and you probably don't have the time, desire, or perseverance to babysit that section all day everyday, and I can't blame you.

So why not stop it now? It isn't hard, as I said. Falcon has said on many occasions that he'd have the spam completely stopped and completely gone in a matter of hours. I say let him. The only thing it'd hurt is Howard's bank account, and as I said before, I would be willing to donate to cover server costs, as I'm sure many members would (Though if I donate I would want control over my title and avatar again

)

DiggityBiggity · Post by **DiggityBiggity** » Tue Dec 11, 2007 5:35 am

I talked with Howard last night and it's not just the spam that is causing the problems, we're going to be working on this, we want everything back to normal soon.