anti-spam idea

[HibyPrime]

Would it be possible to prevent anyone for posting until ~10 minutes after they register?

I think it would stop a lot of the people who are just going around to as many forums as possible from posting spam, as they could easily register and post in 2-3 other forums in the time it would take to post some spam here..

Or maybe (this one would be a fair bit harder to implement) everyone's first post must contain 'Alizée' and all the variations of how to spell it..

[Seapaddler]

There are a couple decent vBulletin plugins for human spamming.

1. Post count minimum for new members before they can post a link. Might be a headache for ligit people. http://www.vbulletin.org/forum/showthread.php?t=96018

2. New members posts get checked for spam type keywords, if flagged the post sits in a queue first and checked by a moderator first. http://www.vbulletin.org/forum/showthread.php?t=131568

a couple ideas.

[brad]

there are lots of different things we can do. the most effective would probably be not allowing people to make new threads until they have a certain number of posts. I just don't want to do things that become annoying to 99% of the normal users.

I think we get most everything within 20 minutes or so .. I might try a few things if it keeps going the way it has.

[HibyPrime]

Originally Posted by brad

there are lots of different things we can do. the most effective would probably be not allowing people to make new threads until they have a certain number of posts. I just don't want to do things that become annoying to 99% of the normal users.

That wouldn't work, wouldn't the spammers just post in the already existing threads?

Yeah, it's hard to make one that's not inconvinent to the new users..

Maybe you could make one of the registration requirements is that they have to name one of Alizée's songs?

[Seapaddler]

That just gave me an idea for a plugin. I wonder if it exists.

Brad's suggestion prevents the spammers thread title from appearing on the home page but the spam reply post still gets read. So before a Mod deletes it other users could click a Report this post button would make the post disappear and wait for Mod approval before it returns. That would be sweet. Regular users can self police when a Mod isn't around.

[HibyPrime]

Originally Posted by Seapaddler

That just gave me an idea for a plugin. I wonder if it exists.

Brad's suggestion prevents the spammers thread title from appearing on the home page but the spam reply post still gets read. So before a Mod deletes it other users could click a Report this post button would make the post disappear and wait for Mod approval before it returns. That would be sweet. Regular users can self police when a Mod isn't around.

That just screams to be abused.

If 2 people are needed then that might work. Also put a restriction of 1 report per minute or so

I think Seapaddlers idea would work great with those changes.

[HibyPrime]

Originally Posted by Dotty Old Man

That's not a bad idea at all. There is alot information that only genuine Alizee fans would know about, or would take the time to do a search to find, while spammers wouldn't have a clue or the patience to look up.

For example :

• first name of her husband
• name of her dog
• name of her child
• her hometown
• her home country.

Song titles as passkeys might be "clued". For example, clues might be :

• "goldfish"
• "Bond"
• "tradewind"
• "delicacies"
• "spanish friend"
• "magic word".

Really not a bad idea in the least. It might at least frustrate enough casual spammers to bring the number of phony registration attempts down a little. Is is possible ? Can the forum software accomodate such a requirement during registration ? Worth thinking about.

It shouldn't be hard to implement, assuming the registration uses a normal html form. It would be as easy as adding, say, a requirement for the registrant to submit their email address (I know this is already implemented, but it's just an example).

[Edcognito]

Originally Posted by Dotty Old Man

For example :

• first name of her husband
• name of her dog
• name of her child
• her hometown
• her home country.

Song titles as passkeys might be "clued". For example, clues might be :

• "goldfish"
• "Bond"
• "tradewind"
• "delicacies"
• "spanish friend"
• "magic word".

Really not a bad idea in the least. It might at least frustrate enough casual spammers to bring the number of phony registration attempts down a little. Is is possible ? Can the forum software accomodate such a requirement during registration ? Worth thinking about.

Ok, i'm not a HUGE fan (since i don't recognize all these)- Let me guess:

Goldfish = Jen a' marre
Bond = JBG
Tradewind = L'alizee
Delicacies = Gourmandes
Spanish Friend = La Isla Bonita (?)
Magic Word = ? clueless

I'm willing to do anything to keep spammers blocked out - even if i don't know all the answers!

Ed

[CFHollister]

Originally Posted by Dotty Old Man

That's not a bad idea at all. There is alot information that only genuine Alizee fans would know about, or would take the time to do a search to find, while spammers wouldn't have a clue or the patience to look up.

For example :

• first name of her husband
• name of her dog
• name of her child
• her hometown
• her home country.

Song titles as passkeys might be "clued". For example, clues might be :

• "goldfish"
• "Bond"
• "tradewind"
• "delicacies"
• "spanish friend"
• "magic word".

Really not a bad idea in the least. It might at least frustrate enough casual spammers to bring the number of phony registration attempts down a little. Is is possible ? Can the forum software accomodate such a requirement during registration ? Worth thinking about.

The problem with those questions is that I wouldn't have had a clue for the answers to most of those when I joined. It was only after joining that I was able to learn that kind of information.

BTW:
Jeremy
Topaz
Anny-Lee
Ajaccio
France

J'en Ai Marre
JBG
L'Alize
Gourmandises
Hey, Amigo
Abracadabra

[brad]

yeah most of the people that sign up with our website don't really know much about Alizee yet. If you guys think it is this big of a problem, I can just make the first few posts for new users moderated.

A moderator would have to approve all posts by users with less than 3 posts or something.