WatchmenComicMovie.com Forum

I notice we're getting some spam recently. I've been looking into it recently and there are a couple of quick, easy changes that can make all the difference...

http://www.phpbb.com/community/viewtopi ... &t=1437125

Custom profile fields are particularly effective:

http://www.phpbb.com/kb/article/custom- ... mmer-tool/

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AYBGerrardo
Posts: 5187


(A bit of joshing does wonders, too!)

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In the past week alone I've encountered at least three or four spambots. We never had that problem before, did we?

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"Heard them Walthers like to jump some" "As will you, with one in your elbow."

No, we haven't. We've had the occasional spambot here and there, but nothing on the level we've seen lately.

I sent an e-mail to DD a few days ago to warn him of the problem and ask that we shore up the defenses. He replied that there doesn't seem to be much more we can do, but that was before AYB's suggestions in the OP. If those solutions haven't already been implemented, I trust that DD and LaLuciano will get on that right away.

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This is truly a madhouse. And I'm the lunatic running it. I've spent three years wondering if I should be proud or ashamed.

Unless we have a lot of people with the same birthday today, it looks like we have some more bots on are hands.

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"Heard them Walthers like to jump some" "As will you, with one in your elbow."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birthday_paradox

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I wouldn't have thought twice about it until I saw five of them were all variations of the same name.

*Edit Looks like another member of the JR/Radio family has joined us.

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"Heard them Walthers like to jump some" "As will you, with one in your elbow."

We added some custom fields to the registration. Let's see if that stops the bots. I also deleted at least 100 accounts created by the bots too.

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Those who dance are considered insane by those who can't hear the music - George Carlin

Thanks DDC - hopefully it'll keep them at bay...

I was looking at my profile settings and found something you might want to change...

The middle number question gave the options 1, 2, 3
but when you put in 2 it says "The value of 'What is the middle number?' is too small, a minimum value of 3 is required."
I put in 3 and that was the answer so I presume you need to change the options to say 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

Anyway, good stuff and I hope it works!

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A quick update. The past few days I've seen several accounts. I've also seen a near-car crash and a lady trip on the sidewalk. But more importantly, I've also seen some accounts that are suspicious.

*They post exactly one message and are never seen again.
*That one message is appropriate, on-topic, and otherwise normal...but completely unrelated to Watchmen. Usually found in the Movies/TV forum or the Anything Else forum.
*The sig always, without fail, includes a link to a possible spam/virus site.
*The username often, but not always, has "Watchmen" in the name, like it was auto-generated to stay on-topic.

Not pointing fingers, but it's a bit suspicious.

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I don't mind being the smartest man in the world. I just wish it wasn't this one.

If you find any such accounts, send a PM to me or Doomsday and we'll see what we can do. Flagging the post is another good option.

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This is truly a madhouse. And I'm the lunatic running it. I've spent three years wondering if I should be proud or ashamed.

I've set up a "type in the middle number" profile thing on my forum too and it's working perfectly. Some of the more advanced spambots seem to be getting through here, though. It might help to use more digits and more spread out numbers. Mine says

Type the middle number please (1138)

and the options are

2354
7639
1138
4242
9974

I'd recommend it

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You damned hypocrite!

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Ha! You know you bought all that WOW gold as soon as you saw the link!

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A spambot posting in the spam thread. Hilarious.

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This is truly a madhouse. And I'm the lunatic running it. I've spent three years wondering if I should be proud or ashamed.

I recommend just getting rid of everyone who isn't that XMaliciousMal guy. That guy's awesome.

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I've only had one dream in my life with kids in it that didn't involve me gnawing my feet off, and it had to do with kids doing my laundry.

Well, that's debatable....

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"Heard them Walthers like to jump some" "As will you, with one in your elbow."