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  1. #76
    Join Date
    Dec 2006
    Location
    crown of the continent
    Posts
    13,947
    what about a question at registration?

    skiing is done on what? [four letters]
    a single wide ski is called a what? [9 letters]
    Something about the wrinkle in your forehead tells me there's a fit about to get thrown
    And I never hear a single word you say when you tell me not to have my fun
    It's the same old shit that I ain't gonna take off anyone.
    and I never had a shortage of people tryin' to warn me about the dangers I pose to myself.

    Patterson Hood of the DBT's

  2. #77
    Join Date
    Mar 2006
    Location
    Missoula, MT
    Posts
    22,462
    That doesn't sound hard for a bot if it just goes through web address and looks for field tags. Banning characters not of the Roman Alphabet or Arabic Number System would be a good start. Basically, the list of things to include in thread titles would be shorter than the list of exclusions. That would tell you right away if it's a bot. That and some kind of Captcha. Are you using any of that at all? Look at this one at the bottom of the page.
    My knowledge of this is pretty limited, but I see lots of simple pages NOT covered in spam. Perhaps moderator approval of all new posters' threads? That would be a bit hard on the admin end, but it would be about the same or less work than you're doing now. Basically a new user gets 1 posts until it is approved by a mod, much the same way new users can't posts links. Is that something you can implement in vBulletin?
    No longer stuck.

    Quote Originally Posted by stuckathuntermtn View Post
    Just an uneducated guess.

  3. #78
    Join Date
    Mar 2006
    Location
    Missoula, MT
    Posts
    22,462
    Just signed out and clicked sign up, and there is literally nothing there as far as spambot prevention. Nothing. It doesn't matter if it's a different back end. If you have Chrome, do an Inspect Element on the text fields on your signup page. It's just basic field tags or whatever it's called. Is there at least a conformation email with a link you have to click before you can post? Can you ban the domains of the email addresses being given for signup?
    I'd be upset if I actually paid for this, but I don't so just consider these strong suggestions.
    No longer stuck.

    Quote Originally Posted by stuckathuntermtn View Post
    Just an uneducated guess.

  4. #79
    Join Date
    Sep 2010
    Location
    Golden, Colorado
    Posts
    5,868

    boy somebody spammed the fuck out of you

    Quote Originally Posted by atw527 View Post
    Most of these posts are going to be through proxies. By using whois, are you looking to detect their ISP or location? We could block huge swaths of IP ranges in attempts to filter out proxies or certain countries, but that will likely include ham posters as well.



    The only way I could see this working is if we would moderate posts that exceed a certain %age of non-standard characters. Take this title for example: "ℂaℓℓ ℊiℛℒ SeRvIcE 5555555555 Esℭℴℛt Sℰℛviℭℰ In Delhi,". Most of those keywords are mixed in with special characters, and they will simply replace similar characters until they get past the keyword filter.



    We are pretty sure that the spam accounts are not coming from bots. The reasoning is that the registration form is not through vBulletin. User registrations are handled by a separate CMS. So the bots would have to know to submit the registration request through one system and login to the other.
    Posting patterns would be time of day, frequency, could incorporate whois also - not necessarily just content. But yeah, ban non-english and then use keywords.

    For registration, thats why you use a logic list. They're unlikely english speaking or skiers. Pretty easy to use domain knowledge to kill bots and foreign humans.

  5. #80
    jgb@etree Guest
    Quote Originally Posted by Tye 1on View Post
    what about a question at registration?

    skiing is done on what? [four letters]
    a single wide ski is called a what? [9 letters]
    See, I knew someone would actually read the comments when spam is reported.

    Captcha's can be annoying, but using one to validate new registrations would probably help quite a bit.

  6. #81
    Join Date
    Mar 2006
    Location
    Missoula, MT
    Posts
    22,462
    About 10 seconds of Googling also showed that adding a field (and possibly hiding it from the user) that simply says "Leave this blank" as part of the sign up can help filter out bots.. Right now you have literally nothing to stop bots from signing up.
    No longer stuck.

    Quote Originally Posted by stuckathuntermtn View Post
    Just an uneducated guess.

  7. #82
    Join Date
    Oct 2013
    Location
    The Wilds of Maine
    Posts
    2,851
    Quote Originally Posted by stuckathuntermtn View Post
    About 10 seconds of Googling also showed that adding a field (and possibly hiding it from the user) that simply says "Leave this blank" as part of the sign up can help filter out bots.. Right now you have literally nothing to stop bots from signing up.
    True, but based off what we've seen we really don't think these are bots unless they're really, really good and putting a lot of effort in to spam our site. We're pretty sure it's actual people physically going through the registration process, which is harder to stop.
    "We're in the eye of a shiticane here Julian, and Ricky's a low shit system!" - Jim Lahey, RIP

    Former Managing Editor @ TGR, forever mag.

  8. #83
    Join Date
    Apr 2014
    Posts
    257
    Quote Originally Posted by stuckathuntermtn View Post
    About 10 seconds of Googling also showed that adding a field (and possibly hiding it from the user) that simply says "Leave this blank" as part of the sign up can help filter out bots..
    Implementing a phony field will throw some of them off, but it's not a real solution. The bot could be tweaked to leave that field blank in like 2 seconds once the spammers see the change.

    Quote Originally Posted by stuckathuntermtn View Post
    Right now you have literally nothing to stop bots from signing up.
    The nature of our registration process is something that should throw off 99.9% of the bots out there. That sign-up form you were looking at is not for vBulletin. It's for our main site. You don't know that because it's (mostly) seamless. Bots on the other hand are going to be targeted towards a specific platform (vBulletin in our case). So the bots won't click on the sign-up link like you do. They send an automated POST request to the vBulletin registration URL. Go and see what happens when you send a registration attempt directly to our vBulletin installation - denied!

    Most spammers out there target a specific platform. They write a bot that registers on that platform, and then they set it loose on a list of known installations of that platform.

    Second line of defense is the email validation. Yeah, having a bot clicking on a validation link is possible. But it helps.

    Third line of defense is catching the actual post. I assure you that spam posts are being caught and automatically moderated.

  9. #84
    Join Date
    Sep 2010
    Location
    Golden, Colorado
    Posts
    5,868

    boy somebody spammed the fuck out of you

    Just implement a logic list or the questions like Tye1on suggested and be done with it. There's probably more time being spent talking about it than to implement the change about hundred times.

  10. #85
    Join Date
    Sep 2004
    Location
    LV-426
    Posts
    21,126
    Here's your solution. And if you can't answer these questions, too goddamn bad, no TGR for you.

    To register for an account, you have to answer two questions:

    1) What's the name of the ski that this person is holding in his right hand?

    2) What's this person's last name?

    Quote Originally Posted by powder11 View Post
    if you have to resort to taking advice from the nitwits on this forum, then you're doomed.

  11. #86
    Join Date
    Dec 2006
    Location
    Your Mom's House
    Posts
    8,299
    ^^^THIS. Every other website does this. Make the user answer some question, ANY question that any skier would know, and I'm pretty sure the spam problem is gone.

    Hell, even Earn Your Turns does this. Yes, EYT, the website so fucking primitive that he has a limit of 4 photos per post because his server is such a piece of shit that it can't handle any more than that.

    If you really insist on being a "multi-sport" company or whatever, just have a drop down menu where the user selects a sport (skiing, mtb, whatever) and have it display a signup question that's related to that sport.

    I've never seen these type of spam problems on any website that required a simple question to prove you were a human at signup.

    The fact that you guys can't figure this out is embarrassing.

  12. #87
    Join Date
    Mar 2006
    Location
    Missoula, MT
    Posts
    22,462
    We have definitely spent more time talking about this than it would take to fix.
    I have noticed and appreciate your prompt deletion of spam, however that is only tackling the symptom.
    I also don't see why someone couldn't write a bot that sees the signup page and the forums and puts them together. It couldn't be that hard.
    No longer stuck.

    Quote Originally Posted by stuckathuntermtn View Post
    Just an uneducated guess.

  13. #88
    Join Date
    Sep 2010
    Location
    Golden, Colorado
    Posts
    5,868
    Win motherfucking win

  14. #89
    Join Date
    Jan 2004
    Location
    the Low Sierra
    Posts
    17,818
    Isn't that Tom Wallisch?
    I didn't believe in reincarnation when I was your age either.

  15. #90
    Join Date
    Sep 2004
    Location
    LV-426
    Posts
    21,126
    Quote Originally Posted by telemike View Post
    Isn't that Tom Wallisch?
    Shh. Don't give it away.
    Quote Originally Posted by powder11 View Post
    if you have to resort to taking advice from the nitwits on this forum, then you're doomed.

  16. #91
    Join Date
    Sep 2004
    Location
    LV-426
    Posts
    21,126
    Bump for sand spam, and still no apparent effort at implementing the saucer boy filter.
    Quote Originally Posted by powder11 View Post
    if you have to resort to taking advice from the nitwits on this forum, then you're doomed.

  17. #92
    Join Date
    May 2011
    Location
    CO
    Posts
    2,206
    I want to know more about sand, does anyone know who I should call?

  18. #93
    Join Date
    Sep 2004
    Location
    LV-426
    Posts
    21,126
    Bump for the continued failure to implement the saucer boy filter.

    Does Dunfee need some love specialists?
    Quote Originally Posted by powder11 View Post
    if you have to resort to taking advice from the nitwits on this forum, then you're doomed.

  19. #94
    jgb@etree Guest
    I've been trying to stay positive and offer helpful suggestions, but this is pretty much pathetic. I hope you guys realize that you aren't the only people on the planet running vB and there are hundreds of plug ins and options - many can be implemented for FREE - that will pretty much instantly kill the daily Indian sub continent spamfest.

    It's almost like you guys don't give a shit, or are just too lazy to actually do anything about it. Weaksauce, IMO.

    </rant>

  20. #95
    Join Date
    Sep 2004
    Location
    LV-426
    Posts
    21,126
    X2 on jgb comments. I gave you an easy solution that you could implement in five minutes. Why won't you do anything about it?
    Quote Originally Posted by powder11 View Post
    if you have to resort to taking advice from the nitwits on this forum, then you're doomed.

  21. #96
    Join Date
    Jan 2009
    Location
    Park City
    Posts
    5,013
    Oh my, the spam a thon continues. Please fixy nowy


    Killing it with the 4-5 year old crowd!
    I rip the groomed on tele gear

  22. #97
    Join Date
    Jun 2006
    Location
    Couloirfornia
    Posts
    8,871
    Fucking amateur hour around here.

    Fix this shit now, please.
    Quote Originally Posted by Ernest_Hemingway View Post
    I realize there is not much hope for a bullfighting forum. I understand that most of you would prefer to discuss the ingredients of jacket fabrics than the ingredients of a brave man. I know nothing of the former. But the latter is made of courage, and skill, and grace in the presence of the possibility of death. If someone could make a jacket of those three things it would no doubt be the most popular and prized item in all of your closets.

  23. #98
    Join Date
    Apr 2005
    Location
    A LSD Steakhouse somewhere in the Wasatch
    Posts
    13,234
    Quote Originally Posted by jgb@etree View Post
    I've been trying to stay positive and offer helpful suggestions, but this is pretty much pathetic. I hope you guys realize that you aren't the only people on the planet running vB and there are hundreds of plug ins and options - many can be implemented for FREE - that will pretty much instantly kill the daily Indian sub continent spamfest.

    It's almost like you guys don't give a shit, or are just too lazy to actually do anything about it. Weaksauce, IMO.

    </rant>
    they do care enuff to post in this thread but not quite enough to fix it
    mainlineing the weak sauce
    "When the child was a child it waited patiently for the first snow and it still does"- Van "The Man" Morrison
    "I find I have already had my reward, in the doing of the thing" - Buzz Holmstrom
    "THIS IS WHAT WE DO"-AML -ski on in eternal peace
    "I have posted in here but haven't read it carefully with my trusty PoliAsshat antenna on."-DipshitDanno

  24. #99
    Join Date
    Aug 2008
    Location
    Where the climate suits my clothes.
    Posts
    5,601
    Quote Originally Posted by skifishbum View Post
    they do care enuff to post in this thread but not quite enough to fix it
    mainlineing the weak sauce
    That's the worst part of this whole mess.

    It's not like they aren't aware there's a problem...

    It's not like there isn't a solution...

    It's just that they aren't fixing it.

    That just sucks.

  25. #100
    Join Date
    Oct 2005
    Posts
    11,736
    skibabji103 was just Dunfee. He got drunk on 6 bottles of peychaud's, ate a few buttons, invented his own language, which seemed to be an amalgamation of wingdings and Sanskrit, and went to town. I nuked him this morning.

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