Mad influx of spammers!

I think we are getting to the point where we are just getting spammers sign up in succession. I wonder if it's time to be more restrictive and only allow email addresses with paid accounts (email you get with your isp) to be allowed to register?

Also on the subject can the mods please permanantly delete spam posts as 'spam' as it also allows you to ban the user in the same actions! Just soft deleting posts is NOT taking care of the issue.

I'd appreciate the admins input on this!

Chris here...

"blackiecats, post: 31236" said:

I think we are getting to the point where we are just getting spammers sign up in succession. I wonder if it's time to be more restrictive and only allow email addresses with paid accounts (email you get with your isp) to be allowed to register?

Also on the subject can the mods please permanantly delete spam posts as 'spam' as it also allows you to ban the user in the same actions! Just soft deleting posts is NOT taking care of the issue.

I'd appreciate the admins input on this!

I'm easy either way on the paid accounts (ISP e-mails) side of things, provided that address extensions attached to web domains (so hypothetically an e-mail like me [email]chris@willowsfolkclub.org[/email] e-mail address) won't be excluded from signing up, as 90% of all the e-mails I send are attached to a domain name (rather than ISP-based) e-mail address, and I imagine that's probably true of others... :)

A lot of our spam posts actually appears to be auto-deleted by the vBulletin software, I think MannyF set this up a while back...? :)

Whenever I delete spam posts I always ban the user via the "Delete posts as spam" option. :) It seems some of them are very crafty with their IP addresses, though... :(

When you were a mod over there, what did He-Man.Org used to do about this situation, Neil? Not that because they do something it means we should copy them automatically, but they have a very active community to put it mildly, so chances are they've encountered all these sorts of issues! :)

Take care... :)

"He-Fan, post: 31241" said:

Chris here...

I'm easy either way on the paid accounts (ISP e-mails) side of things, provided that address extensions attached to web domains (so hypothetically an e-mail like me [email]chris@willowsfolkclub.org[/email] e-mail address) won't be excluded from signing up, as 90% of all the e-mails I send are attached to a domain name (rather than ISP-based) e-mail address, and I imagine that's probably true of others... :)

Those are paid email addresses, as the willowsfolkclub.org owner paid for that domain and has assigned [email]chris@willowsfolkclub.org[/email] to an individual. What I'm talking about is free based email like @yahoo, @hotmail, @googlemail etc.... It might be extreme, but the spam is getting so bad it might put some people off posting here.

"He-Fan, post: 31241" said:

A lot of our spam posts actually appears to be auto-deleted by the vBulletin software, I think MannyF set this up a while back...? :)

Whenever I delete spam posts I always ban the user via the "Delete posts as spam" option. :) It seems some of them are very crafty with their IP addresses, though... :(

Big apologies to all!, as I thought it was a fellow moderator, but obviously it's Vbulletin! :(

"He-Fan, post: 31241" said:

When you were a mod over there, what did He-Man.Org used to do about this situation, Neil? Not that because they do something it means we should copy them automatically, but they have a very active community to put it mildly, so chances are they've encountered all these sorts of issues! :)

Take care... :)

He-Man.org only allow folks to register who provided a paid email address upon sign up. So no Yahoo, Hotmail etc... email allowed. Since spammers register on free based email it basically cuts the spam out just about ;)

Chris here...

"blackiecats, post: 31247" said:

Those are paid email addresses, as the willowsfolkclub.org owner paid for that domain and has assigned [email]chris@willowsfolkclub.org[/email] to an individual. What I'm talking about is free based email like @yahoo, @hotmail, @googlemail etc.... It might be extreme, but the spam is getting so bad it might put some people off posting here.

Cool, thanks for clarifying that - makes perfect sense! :)

"blackiecats, post: 31247" said:

Big apologies to all!, as I thought it was a fellow moderator, but obviously it's Vbulletin! :(

I think it's vBulletin - details of what MannyF implemented are in this thread here: http://thundercatslair.org/forums/showthread.php?t=3204 :)

"blackiecats, post: 31247" said:

He-Man.org only allow folks to register who provided a paid email address upon sign up. So no Yahoo, Hotmail etc... email allowed. Since spammers register on free based email it basically cuts the spam out just about ;)

Hmmmm, yeah, it might be something worth considering - we are getting a lot of spam on the forums and as much as anything else it's a nuisance to have to keep dealing with it, I have to delete spam and ban the member spamming often multiple times a week and whilst it doesn't take long, it's a complete pain! :(

Take care... :)

I went on a massive pruning spree and deleted over 400 users that had zero posts and who did not confirm their registration. basically every one of them should be a spammer if not then they will have to reregister

"MannysCollectibles, post: 31347" said:

I went on a massive pruning spree and deleted over 400 users that had zero posts and who did not confirm their registration. basically every one of them should be a spammer if not then they will have to reregister

Cheers Manny! I guessing those 400 include all the users we banned?

"blackiecats, post: 31352" said:

Cheers Manny! I guessing those 400 include all the users we banned?

Actually no...I just deleted another 100+ banned users. Our member count went from 3,000+ to 2400

Manny is there an option in the admin panel to make it so new board members have to be approved by an admin before they can post?

If so it might be a good idea to set that option up. I'd be more than happy to be in charge of approving accounts. This might be the best option to combat the spammers...

Chris here...

"blackiecats, post: 31373" said:

Manny is there an option in the admin panel to make it so new board members have to be approved by an admin before they can post?

If so it might be a good idea to set that option up. I'd be more than happy to be in charge of approving accounts. This might be the best option to combat the spammers...

I must admit based on some of the stuff I'm seeing I would very much like to see this concept implemented - I think we'd have to "go public" and explain why, but as long as it was handled by someone who was likely to be online at regular intervals (ideally at least once a day), I don't think it would cause a major problem and will certainly stop our forums descending into the spam city that they are at risk of becoming! :(

Neil, I think you'd be the perfect person to be in charge of this and you definitely have my vote! :thumbsup:

Take care... :)

"He-Fan, post: 31467" said:

Chris here...



I must admit based on some of the stuff I'm seeing I would very much like to see this concept implemented - I think we'd have to "go public" and explain why, but as long as it was handled by someone who was likely to be online at regular intervals (ideally at least once a day), I don't think it would cause a major problem and will certainly stop our forums descending into the spam city that they are at risk of becoming! :(

Neil, I think you'd be the perfect person to be in charge of this and you definitely have my vote! :thumbsup:

Take care... :)

Chris sorry to say but spammers are getting smart because most of the emails from spammers are actually paid email addresses. We get so many spammers each day that the only way is to monitor who signs up. Ive been doing that for the last 2 days or so and have a good idea who is a spammer and who isnt just by looking at their email

"MannysCollectibles, post: 31468" said:

Chris sorry to say but spammers are getting smart because most of the emails from spammers are actually paid email addresses.

Well in that case I think we need to go the route of approving users before they can post on the forums. I've seen this on other forums so I'm sure Vbulletin must have it on the software somewhere!

"blackiecats, post: 31480" said:

Well in that case I think we need to go the route of approving users before they can post on the forums. I've seen this on other forums so I'm sure Vbulletin must have it on the software somewhere!

Ive taken that route as well but I have now implemented an even more aggressive stance and that is to ban email domains alltogether. I have found a pretty big list of known email spammers on VBulletin and I have banned those emails. We're talking a few hundred email domains so it should cut out a lot of the spammers

Merged Post:
Ok guys Ive actually done some massive pruning to our "membership" and gone from over 3,000 to over 860. Most of our "members" were spammers so now it is just a matter of doing upkeep and be on the lookout. I have set it tup where members have to be approved first by an admin before being registered and on top of that Im moniotring the emails that spammers use and adding them to the ban list.

Its a neverending job but i think with the list Ive added for emails to be banned that it should greatly reduce spammers

Chris here...

On the subject of cleaning up the spam, is it possible to remove the step whereby I have to log-in again every time I want to delete a post as spam and ban the user? My password is an auto-generated one and I have to keep looking it up, and unfortunately now it's harder for me to do that because of having changed over computer recently... :(

I've spotted a spam thread that hasn't been picked up by the board software on the General Discussion board but because I can't look up my password I've had to leave it. There may well be a reason I'm not thinking of why this logging-in step is there, but anyway, just thought I'd mention this whilst I thought of it! :)

Take care... :)

"He-Fan, post: 31914" said:

Chris here...

On the subject of cleaning up the spam, is it possible to remove the step whereby I have to log-in again every time I want to delete a post as spam and ban the user? My password is an auto-generated one and I have to keep looking it up, and unfortunately now it's harder for me to do that because of having changed over computer recently... :(

I've spotted a spam thread that hasn't been picked up by the board software on the General Discussion board but because I can't look up my password I've had to leave it. There may well be a reason I'm not thinking of why this logging-in step is there, but anyway, just thought I'd mention this whilst I thought of it! :)

Take care... :)

I noticed that too and it's bloody annoying! :mad: If possible please ditch this! I actually thought it was just me experiencing it and it was something to do with things my end :(

Oh and I've sorted that spam thread ;) Why don't you just change your password to something you can remember? :confused:

Chris here...

"blackiecats, post: 31918" said:

I noticed that too and it's bloody annoying! :mad: If possible please ditch this! I actually thought it was just me experiencing it and it was something to do with things my end :(

Oh and I've sorted that spam thread ;) Why don't you just change your password to something you can remember? :confused:

Heh, good point - what can I say, sometimes I'm thick!! :D I'll get on that ASAP, at least it will make that step less time-consuming even if it is still annoying! ;)

And thanks for dealing with that spam thread I mentioned, much appreciated! :)

Take care... :)

Moved this thread over as I believe it belongs in this forum and is an issue that we are discussing at the top of this forum ;)

Read through this thread...and see MannyC's last post stated he had it set up that admins have to approve new members? So is that not working or was it abandoned? haha it's early here so I'm easily confused I guess.

"Purrsia, post: 33775" said:

Read through this thread...and see MannyC's last post stated he had it set up that admins have to approve new members? So is that not working or was it abandoned? haha it's early here so I'm easily confused I guess.

It's not you. I'm just as confused, which is why I flagged this older thread up :)

Oh, good it's not just me then lol!

And I did want to add, that my vote is to hold off on the banning of free email domains til a last resort. I believe the reason I never joined he-man.org (that is to say, I don't remember joining...I remember being frustrated trying to join) is for that extra effort required...sure I have an isp email, but we never use it and it was too much like hard work to track down the password for it etc. I don't use domain emails either - I find the set up and interface on them tedious. Yes, I am lazy. Not denying it :D So I wonder how many other lazy people we'll lose going that route?

"Purrsia, post: 33782" said:

Oh, good it's not just me then lol!

And I did want to add, that my vote is to hold off on the banning of free email domains til a last resort. I believe the reason I never joined he-man.org (that is to say, I don't remember joining...I remember being frustrated trying to join) is for that extra effort required...sure I have an isp email, but we never use it and it was too much like hard work to track down the password for it etc. I don't use domain emails either - I find the set up and interface on them tedious. Yes, I am lazy. Not denying it :D So I wonder how many other lazy people we'll lose going that route?

To be honest I 100% agree with everything you said. I still maintain the best action is to approve accounts.