Quote: Originally Posted by
mpre53 .
This site was running the Huddler platform, not vBulletin, when I joined. From the page layout, it looks like it still is.That's how I found it in the first place, researching Huddler. I'm one of several administrators on another website (not cycling related) that switched from vBulletin to Huddler. There were some glitches in the switch, and I was curious to see whether other Huddler sites had the same issues. One common one seems to be the "unintended" double post. I have to say that their IT people in their San Francisco base have been very helpful at addressing issues.
There are a few things that can block spammers. One is the mix of random letters that have to be manually entered to complete a registration, that defeats the bots, but it doesn't block human spammers. The most effective one that we've found is the Huddler feature that automatically queues new registrations for 10 posts/1 week pending moderator approval, so even if a spammer blitzes with 50 posts, none of them show to regular users. You can also block IP addresses from certain countries or domain names that are rife with spammers. But all of them involve some inconvenience to new people joining, and the automatic queue makes more work for the moderators.
And I do realize what moderators and administrators go through when spam bots lock onto a site. They all have lives away from the internet, especially those who are cyclists.They can't be online all the time.
Havent checked web related scripts much... I checked the VBulletin editor and there seem to be lots of tools or add ons or how they are called for it.
This is a pro-looking forum so I guess a proper IT company specializing in spam control could offer a solution.
I think that the random letter mix is the visual presentation of letters in an image file in the page that cant be automatically read by the spam bot. Probably the "Captcha" thingy... Thats the thing though. Everything else can be automated.
I download alot of stuff from these file host websites like "megashare" "filegator" etc. They have a thing where you are not allowed to download more then one file per hour. That is checked from your IP address. I downloaded a program which basically you just insert the URLs of the files from the hosting website and the program downloads them automatically, resets your router automatically and starts downloading the next file. The only time it needs input is when the "captcha" appears. But even then, it shows the "captcha" form in the program, you type the code and it starts all over again.
I suspect that the spam bot is working in the same way. One user just inputing some URLs from forums, the spam message and then just types the "captcha" everytime is required. Resetting routers and ip addresses and the lot. The thing probably works at a rate of fire of 5000 posts per minute or something.
Even the user names dont make sense, even those might be auto created too.
Btw banning email addresses doesnt have much point either, as they might be using a remailer to get a fake email address to register. I messed with "Quicksilver" or what it was called once to check how it works... The original email adress doesnt appear in the receipients inbox and tracing is tricky. A favorite amongst terrorists or "sensitive groups" as the remailer program software companies say. The servers are run by who knows who too...
I think that just the URL posting blocking in the first few posts until approval might work... I am pretty sure an IT solutions company that specializes in forums might make a tool like that for this plaltform. Actually it might not be too hard to make it on your own too... Like the no photo until approval in first few posts that I vaguelly remember when I joined . Pending approval for all posts though might require alot of work from admins... There were about 20 threads earlier just in this sub-category.