Anti-spam Proposal

[TinCow]

I wanted to run something by the general forum public before I went ahead and implemented it, partially for feedback and partially as a notice about the general situation. If you hadn't noticed, we've had a bit of a spam problem for the last several months. While I'm sure many of you have noticed spam posts showing up occasionally, the issue has been much more problematic than you probably realize. The total number of bots that have attempted to hit the forums over the past few months is in excess of 50 million. At one point we were getting approximately 1.3 million spambot registration attempts every day. We've adapted our protection over time to combat this influx and as of a few weeks ago I believe we finally stopped all fully automated bots from registering on the forum. I believe that all of the spam you are seeing now is by spam accounts which were created with human assistance. Unfortunately, there's nothing we can do about spammers who use humans to bypass our security system. Some of those spammers will always get through on any forum that does not pre-screen every single registration attempt, and that's not really an option for the Org for many reasons.

A pattern I have noticed in the spam posts that are still getting through is that they immediately post links in their posts, pretty much always to pirated movies of some kind. As a result, I have proposed to the staff that we add on a new level of protection that prevents newly registered members from posting links in their first X posts (I have suggested X = 3). I'm not sure how well this will work, but I believe it is worth a try. However, this does somewhat revert Org's policy on new member posting freedom which we've been opening up ever since we abolished the Junior Member system many years ago. As such, I want to get some opinions and commentary on this situation before I go any further. Please let me know what you think of this proposal.

[Visor]

But if they're human assisted, they're just post three regular posts then the links, won't they?

Another (possible) solution is to have the first 1/2 posts moderator approved.

[TinCow]

But if they're human assisted, they're just post three regular posts then the links, won't they?

Possibly, but they might not be that committed to the situation. It's probably just a sweatshop somewhere using humans to bypass Captcha checks. The posts themselves are probably just cut and paste, or maybe even automated. If it proved ineffective, I'd remove the restriction anyway.

Another (possible) solution is to have the first 1/2 posts moderator approved.

Frankly, I don't think we have the manpower to do that kind of system well. It could take days for some posts to get approved, depending on the forum, and that would likely frustrate new members into not returning.

[HopAlongBunny]

Worth trying; you seem to block most of them anyhow.

[Lemur]

Worth trying, as others have posted. If it works, great, if it doesn't we scrap it.

[LittleGrizzly]

Could just limit it to one post couldn't you....

Most of the spam bots I see only usually make one post anyway and I can't imagine too many new members put a link in their first post...

Could even introduce a warning after the posters first post telling him a link isn't allowed in a first post. I assume a bot wouldn't get through that?

[Whacker]

I wanted to run something by the general forum public before I went ahead and implemented it, partially for feedback and partially as a notice about the general situation. If you hadn't noticed, we've had a bit of a spam problem for the last several months. While I'm sure many of you have noticed spam posts showing up occasionally, the issue has been much more problematic than you probably realize. The total number of bots that have attempted to hit the forums over the past few months is in excess of 50 million. At one point we were getting approximately 1.3 million spambot registration attempts every day. We've adapted our protection over time to combat this influx and as of a few weeks ago I believe we finally stopped all fully automated bots from registering on the forum. I believe that all of the spam you are seeing now is by spam accounts which were created with human assistance. Unfortunately, there's nothing we can do about spammers who use humans to bypass our security system. Some of those spammers will always get through on any forum that does not pre-screen every single registration attempt, and that's not really an option for the Org for many reasons.

A pattern I have noticed in the spam posts that are still getting through is that they immediately post links in their posts, pretty much always to pirated movies of some kind. As a result, I have proposed to the staff that we add on a new level of protection that prevents newly registered members from posting links in their first X posts (I have suggested X = 3). I'm not sure how well this will work, but I believe it is worth a try. However, this does somewhat revert Org's policy on new member posting freedom which we've been opening up ever since we abolished the Junior Member system many years ago. As such, I want to get some opinions and commentary on this situation before I go any further. Please let me know what you think of this proposal.

I think it's a great idea, except I would make X = 10. I think 3 is way too low, even 5 sounds a bit low to me.

The only thing I can think of that would me somewhat frustrating is for new members who sign up in order to drum up visibility and support for their projects and mods by providing links. On the other hand, there's something to be said about introducing oneself first, and making an attempt to "participate" in our community before launching into a spiel.

Making X = 10 to me seems like a much greater incentive to discontinue the casual "human spam bots", because it increases their work more than threefold in order to even get to the point of posting spam links.

[The Outsider]

Dont know if you have already implemented this mate, but i think you should. It seems effective enough and we are all tired of spams so i say go for it.

[TinCow]

Links can no longer be posted on the Org by anyone who has made fewer than 3 posts. We'll see how that works and adjust accordingly.

[The Outsider]

Links can no longer be posted on the Org by anyone who has made fewer than 3 posts. We'll see how that works and adjust accordingly.

Well thats good news. I really hope that it works mate.

[rickinator9]

Sorry to bump, but did this really happen? I'm seeing plenty of spambot posts lately, all containing links.