anti spam

Oranage2

I was thinking for ways to stop spam and that in the register phase a simple question could be asked for example what does dia duit mean or what county Dublin is in.

Bang cut out some spam.

MugMugs

Spammers can use Google though.....

OldGoat

I'm unable to answer the first question.

Oranage2

Well there would choose another question option, then you'd given another question -

If you have 3 chances, if you still don't know then you'd have to write a few sentences why you dont know the answers and why you want to join -

seamus

Oranage2 wrote: »

Well there would choose another question option, then you'd given another question -

If you have 3 chances, if you still don't know then you'd have to write a few sentences why you dont know the answers and why you want to join -

That's a great idea.

I nominate you to review every answer and make a decision on each of the 300 new accounts signed up every day. You don't get paid of course.

TouchingVirus

You're already asked to fill in a captcha from reCAPTCHA and a NoSpam! question, not sure what the addition of more questions will do

Oranage2

seamus wrote: »

That's a great idea.

I nominate you to review every answer and make a decision on each of the 300 new accounts signed up every day. You don't get paid of course.

Brilliant - I see you've just gone out and rubbished my idea typical Irish fashion -

I made a suggestion - a FREE idea - it's not the blueprint - perhaps whoever makes the decisions might see some potential -

A local general knowledge question might cut down on some spam - Sure even the aardvark forum doesnt cut out on all spam and that's hailed as a marvellous idea.

TouchingVirus

The aardvark forum is to catch procedural "first forum, spamming time" bots, you'll never get rid of targetted spam (i.e. some person over there in China who's paid to post streams to the Rugby forum during the world cup).

Maybe you're right though, I like the idea that the questions could perhaps be made a little less trivial

BuffyBot

This is a local site for local people..

TouchingVirus

That doesn't mean we should exclude users from elsewhere. We do have users from abroad like brummytom who might not know the answers to questions like what does "Dia duit" mean. Even some people living here/from here might not know what it means.

There's a case to be made for non-trivial questions, but that doesn't mean they have to be localised to Ireland.

seamus

Oranage2 wrote: »

Brilliant - I see you've just gone out and rubbished my idea typical Irish fashion -

I made a suggestion - a FREE idea - it's not the blueprint - perhaps whoever makes the decisions might see some potential -

You made a suggestion that people would type in their reasons for wanting an account and for not being able to answer the questions. This would have to be reviewed manually by someone. Totally pointless and unfeasible. There's no potential benefit in making the process more manual.

There has to be a benefit analysis to this. There is a fine balance between having enough controls to minimise spam accounts and as few barriers as possible to legitimate accounts signing up.

Spammers want to sign up to the site, more than your average joe does. So they will jump through more hoops. If you add in obscure or esoteric questions on signup, the spammers will eventually find the answers and power on through. Your average signup will close the window and go elsewhere.
By increasing your anti-spam measures, you can actually increase, proportionally, the amount of spam that you get because your non-spam traffic goes elsewhere.

If I went to sign up to any site and it had

a) More than 2 anti-spam measures
b) Exceptionally troublesome anti-spam measures (like: "Go to google.com, type in 'puppy' and paste in the first result")
c) A text box to type in a small essay justifying why I'm not a spammer

I would just close the window and jog on.

As it is, the signup process already includes an anti-spam measure in the form of a "NoSpam!" visual question.

That's about as far as you can go with anti-spam before you drive new users away.

Oranage2

seamus wrote: »

You made a suggestion that people would type in their reasons for wanting an account and for not being able to answer the questions. This would have to be reviewed manually by someone. Totally pointless and unfeasible. There's no potential benefit in making the process more manual.

There has to be a benefit analysis to this. There is a fine balance between having enough controls to minimise spam accounts and as few barriers as possible to legitimate accounts signing up.

Spammers want to sign up to the site, more than your average joe does. So they will jump through more hoops. If you add in obscure or esoteric questions on signup, the spammers will eventually find the answers and power on through. Your average signup will close the window and go elsewhere.
By increasing your anti-spam measures, you can actually increase, proportionally, the amount of spam that you get because your non-spam traffic goes elsewhere.

If I went to sign up to any site and it had

a) More than 2 anti-spam measures
b) Exceptionally troublesome anti-spam measures (like: "Go to google.com, type in 'puppy' and paste in the first result")
c) A text box to type in a small essay justifying why I'm not a spammer

I would just close the window and jog on.

As it is, the signup process already includes an anti-spam measure in the form of a "NoSpam!" visual question.

That's about as far as you can go with anti-spam before you drive new users away.

I'm not talking about the Dan Brown Da vinci code where you must run around Rome deciphering riddles.

Maybe the local question might deter non irish people so perhaps like touching virus said and have it non trivial.


A simple one question like what colour is boards?

And a multiple choice option:

Blue
Black
Green
Yellow



Or even on the top of the terms and conditions have

the answer is = seven


The in the resistration part have - what is the answer?

Gordon

I recently had to watch a google video to view the captcha on one site, I would have jogged on if I didn't need to check it out.

I think we're pretty good at keeping spam at bay tbh, and afaiu boards will be considering a new and improved spam catching force to be reckoned with, so watch this space (not this one, but another one, somewhere). It's inherently tricky getting automated processes to fight spam, it's like the body fighting against viruses and illness - natural selection and realtime evolution in the microbe world is a great similarity to spammers and how they get around defenses. Probably.

MrStuffins

My idea would be for new users to have their 1st post reviewed and confirmed before it's published, with publishing rights not given until that particular post is reviewed.

MIght be a slight pain in the arse but I almost guarantee it would almost eliminate thiose particular spammers.

mcmoustache

How about making a user unable to post until their post-count reaches 25 or something? I'd like to see a spammer get past that.

Seriously, though, what about

"No posting until you view 25 threads. These must also include the boards.ie and vBulletin FAQ pages located here. Please pay special attention to the Rules of Etiquette." or something like that.


Obviously some spammers will be patient enough but it might be enough to stop the spammers who inadvertently pop in to pimp their band/website/business and don't realise that it's not on. At the very least, they will have been pointed to the rules and will have no excuse for their ignorance.

Corsendonk

Oranage2 wrote: »

I'm not talking about the Dan Brown Da vinci code where you must run around Rome deciphering riddles.

Maybe the local question might deter non irish people so perhaps like touching virus said and have it non trivial.


A simple one question like what colour is boards?

And a multiple choice option:

Blue
Black
Green
Yellow



Or even on the top of the terms and conditions have

the answer is = seven


The in the resistration part have - what is the answer?

What colour is boards? Is that a riddle? Was struggling on the Irish phrase but this thread is descending into Mastermind. Boards is an a open community which includes all IQs! Are you really trying to keep the Dumb Asses out? What will the soccer forum ever do?















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