SPAM issues

Post by **Oobles** » Thu Mar 22, 2007 2:53 pm

By my calculations about 50% of the current members of the forums here were created for SPAM purposes. I would like to delete all users that either have not made a post and users that have not been activated. Does anyone have any objections to me deleting these users?

I'm not sure if the post count also includes PMs. If it doesn't then users that haven't posted but have done PMs might get deleted too. Is this a problem?

Thanks,
David. aka Oobles.

danzel · Post by **danzel** » Thu Mar 22, 2007 5:02 pm

While you are at it, set up kitten auth for registrations:
http://www.artsoft.org/phpbb_ka/download.html

I use it on a site that had spam problems, works miracles.
You could use some console pictures for the auth ;-)

J.F. · Post by **J.F.** » Fri Mar 23, 2007 4:54 am

You might back up the info in case someone complains afterwards... then restore just that person. Don't know if that's possible, but if it is, that would be a nice thing to do just to be safe. I'm certain there are lurkers who joined but made very few if any posts. I'm that way on a number of sites - join and lurk for a few months while reading the old threads. One site, I didn't actually post for almost a full year.

BlackDiamond · Post by **BlackDiamond** » Wed Mar 28, 2007 4:40 pm

J.F. wrote:You might back up the info in case someone complains afterwards... then restore just that person. Don't know if that's possible, but if it is, that would be a nice thing to do just to be safe. I'm certain there are lurkers who joined but made very few if any posts. I'm that way on a number of sites - join and lurk for a few months while reading the old threads. One site, I didn't actually post for almost a full year.

I'm one of those, btw this post should correct the problem (at least for me).

dom · Post by **dom** » Fri Apr 06, 2007 8:30 am

Hello,

I don't know if it's a good idea to have a report button but i
came on "I make the rules and you MUST obey!" topic and didn't
find a way to alert moderators for that ....

btw, i'm like that too :

I'm certain there are lurkers who joined but made very few if any posts. I'm that way on a number of sites - join and lurk for a few months while reading the old threads. One site, I didn't actually post for almost a full year.

jockyw2001 · Post by **jockyw2001** » Mon Apr 23, 2007 8:06 pm

Can annoying spammers who abuse the forums be sued?
It appears so:
http://purplecow.com/vaspam/
http://www.infoworld.com/articles/op/xm ... inman.html
...

Perhaps by adding a warning text like "spammers are sued ... bla bla" on the registration page and in the forum descriptions, that you frighten one or the other potential spammer. At least it's not much work and in my opinion worth a try.

Post by **Oobles** » Mon Apr 23, 2007 8:34 pm

I've just implemented the Kitten challenge system. We'll give this a go and see if it helps the spam issues.

Post by **Oobles** » Tue Jun 05, 2007 12:13 pm

It looks like the SPAM issues are now 99% gone! If anyone doesn't have any objections I am going to stop blocking the major email providers.. ie hotmail.com etc from joining.

David. aka Oobles.

Wally · Post by **Wally** » Tue Jun 05, 2007 12:42 pm

Good on ya!

Sick of seeing spam :/