Regarding the smambots

[Ashelia_Crystl]

I've posted up a thread to this because I think I know the problem for you getting so many spambots and theyre coming through easily and high trafficing. I think it would be wise to switch on the security code during registration and that will stop them. I know this because I have had them on my site and no more have appeared. You can turn this on in the Vbulletin options on the Admin CP.

Hope you don't think i'm trying to be a cocky little sh*t just offering advice.

 

[Damien]

+rep , a good idea

 

[Ashelia_Crystl]

Yeh it helped me so I thought i'd share it with the forum staff ^_^

 

[Angel]

I've posted up a thread to this because I think I know the problem for you getting so many spambots and theyre coming through easily and high trafficing. I think it would be wise to switch on the security code during registration and that will stop them. I know this because I have had them on my site and no more have appeared. You can turn this on in the Vbulletin options on the Admin CP.

Hope you don't think i'm trying to be a cocky little sh*t just offering advice.

You cocky little sh....

Only kidding - we already have it in place it's just spammers sadly evolve and find new ways of annoying us. The more popular you are, the more they try to evade filters...

At least the vast majority of the spam is caught before you guys can even see it - it's the staff that get the unenviable pleasure of dealing with it before we can do anything else. Several times a day, usually.

+rep though

 

[Dark Drakan]

As Sharon said that option is already enabled but they can be programmed to read numbers to bypass it. Ive heard that theres another available that changes the number code to shapes thats harder for them. Maybe thats something to look into.

 

[Ashelia_Crystl]

Just the code stopped mine but mine uses letters with a cross through it also making it look deformed. Have you tried the e-mail verification?

 

[Angel]

All enabled - email verification slows them down but it doesn't stop them. And it doesn't stop the ones that have a valid email address such as mass marketing emails from pharmacuetical companies or mobile phone spammers.

All codes/CAPTCHA/spam verification mods are subject to VBulletin updates and add-ons so as soon as they release a secure update, we add it. Other than that, it's just a case of people reporting it and us booting them. It's quicker for us to ban them than it is for them to re-register, after all.

It is a pain though...we have it so that if a new person uses certain words in their title or post - or if they post a link (whether legit or not) then they are placed in the moderation queue. However, one way past this is to make about 10 threads so that you are then seen as a regular member and can post links/spam/etc. Upping the minimum post limit would put off new people and make them leave so it's a difficult balance to strike. Most are drive-by spammers and they don't bother making more than one or two threads but the really persistent ones will do what they can to bypass everything we throw at them.

 

[Ashelia_Crystl]

Yeh I suppose it is faster, shame they're evolving so fast though. I'm on the lookout for ya

 

[Angel]

Ta

Basically, the most who slip through are those who have yet to post something dumb and obvious...the ones with the porn in their sigs or links to viagra shops etc or their profile gives something away in the details. As we don't have time to personally check the individual profiles of the 50+ new people registering on a daily basis we tend to adopt a wait and see policy. Their links get nothing from this site which will benefit their sites, which is good, and unless they are posting stuff which bypasses the filters, they aren't noticed by the search engines - also good.

So we rely on and appreciate everyone who lets us know that they are around - many of them will never post and will instead just register then disappear forever but it's always good to get rid of their sigs/homepage links etc.