Reducing spam

[steveps3]

Well it would appear as if the forum is under attack from spammers at the moment. Unfortunately unless someone keeps on top of the spam posts then it will do nothing other than attract more spammers. I report every spam post that I come across but it can be a couple of days before they actually get removed. RS needs to keep on top of this problem before it gets out of control.

[andrian]

+1

[colin]

+1

[tehfailsafe]

I run a very large forum as well and this is a constant problem.

Generally a large swarm of incoming spam means there's new hole in the bb security, and generally there's an update from the software developer shortly.

If that's doesn't do it there's several steps to take to simply prevent non-people from making an account.
The CAPTCHA stuff where you have to write random letters on the screen, but that generally gets beaten as screenreading software gets better.

The best solution is generally one that takes a real human to answer. It can be a very simple for people but impossible for bots. For example one of the best I've seen shows 16 random pictures of dogs and cats and makes you select all the cats. Impossible for a bot, but easy for any real person.


Though that level can be tricky to implement, the easiest is to ask a question that the user would have to know the answer to, but it is not standard for web forums. For example, "What is the name of this render engine?" > "Octane". Then at least you'll minimize the completely automated bots from registering and posting. You will still have the random person behind the spam getting in but those are generally few and far between.

[hadouken]

It seems like all the recent spam today is from one user so maybe just permabanning him would make the spam go away? Temporary fix, but easy for only one source of spam.

[steveps3]

Maybe something as simple as a few more moderators would at least get the spam removed quicker.

[dadou351]

+1000

[Zay]

Spam bots use search engines nowadays to answer registration questions. So if one wants to use a registration question & answer method, make sure a search engine can't find the answer.

[Carl S.]

I have greatly reduced the amount I come here because of spam, and I will never log on from my workplace again.
Somebody is dropping the ball.

[radiance]

Hi guys,

I'm well aware of the recent influx of spam posts.
We're building an improved website with a better / newer forum, redesigned organization and several anti-spam measures.
So I would like to focus on that instead of making quick changes now.

I think in the end it's not that bad, if you don't want to see any spam, just keep to the licensed customer forums,
as these are not public, that don't get any spam, it's only the public areas, especially the demo questions forum...

Radiance