The recent spambot attack

[RazorJAK]

Hate to say it. But maybe we should start going to something along the lines of needed to be validated before a new account is allowed to post?

[KiaKat]

I was thinking the same thing.

Or first-post moderation.

[Evandril]

We *had* been fine 'til the latest upgrade, I belive...Wonder if it opened up a flaw in the security? Though with the posting speed, might be some idiot working as a spammer *sighs* That could also be the limit the board will accept posts, as well.

If the posts get deleted without getting viewed at all...Hopefully any 'real' person will realize 'tis a waste of time, and not bother us :D

[Mike Taylor]

Wow. All the fun shit happens when I'm not here.

I'm all for the account validation and the first-post moderation thing.

[Sehson]

Unless the upgrade opened a hole the spam is from a live body.

Someone actually sit down and registers to the site then validates the account.

After the validation they will run either run a macro that will create the spam posts I doubt we will be seeing anymore spam from this group, as I have taken an agressive stance on this group.

[KiaKat]

Yay for happy spambot destruction! *dances*

EDIT: I still think perhaps a first-post moderation policy (well-publicized) is a good idea.

[Sehson]

Yea me and Raps will probly discuss it.

[KiaKat]

*pokes the mod*

heheheh. Squishy.

Sorry. For some reason, my brain just decided that I needed to irritate an Admin. :D

[Evandril]

One thing to think of...Quite a few of our newbies are coming in and just starting to post... I know there have been a few boards I decided having to wait to get my posts approved wasn't worth the hassle. We've had two annoying spambots in *how* long? I know they are the only two I've seen since I've been over here, and that's been three months. How many new users would we loose, just so we don't have to deal with spam posts for a few hours?

[KiaKat]

That's dependent on how active the admins are.

They're pretty active. I don't think most newbies would have to wait hours and hours to have their first post approved.

And it would hopefully just be first post, not first twenty. No sense in making more trouble for the mods.

Also, newbies seem to come in waves. So we'd probably have more of a problem trying to pounce them all =)

[Evandril]

Aye, but if I was told I had to wait for approval...I'd cancel then, not wait around and see if I was good enough for the forum. *shrugs* Of course, I'm more arrogant than most, but still ;)

[Leffy]

quick question though.... if we moderate first posts and such... who has to read em all to say "you stay/go/whatthefuckareyouthinking???"

[KiaKat]

The point is just to weed out spambots. Real people would be passed through by the admins - it just means that instead of having to alert them every time a spambot shows up, they catch them at the beginning.

Basically, it's just a 'scan...accept...scan...delete...scan...GETTHEFUCK OUTOFHERE*grumble*' situation.

[Rapscallion]

I run a first few posts moderated system over on CS.com - it works, but I'm sure people have been put off registering before. I'd prefer to avoid going down that route for both potential members and for the workload, but I'll discuss this with Sehson.

Rapscallion

[KiaKat]

Understood. That's actually where I got the idea.

[Travellar]

Hunt them down by thier IP addresses and send a panty party to thier home to deliever an atomic wedgie?

[KiaKat]

Looking at this new spambot that just signed up made me wonder ....

Is there a way to report a spambot without them posting? There doesn't seem to be any 'report this user' feature on the individual member pages.

[Sehson]

I personally check every new registrant to the site.

There are a couple of other people that also check out to see if people are spammers or not. So it's pretty much covered

But you can always PM me and Rapscallion as well.

[KiaKat]

Ok, good to know.

I have this passionate HATRED of spambots. They destroyed my blog a while back, and so I love making them go BOOM.

[TheMyst]

This wouldn't happen to have anything to do with my recent message would it? :D

[Sehson]

No this has nothing to do with your bored posting.

I have been checking each and every account since I realised there were people out there manually creating accounts for spam-bots.

[Mike Taylor]

One of the ways you can help Sehson is to check the "welcome to our newest member" entry at the bottom of the main page. Spambots are obvious. Usually the names are a string of nonsense, two random names mashed together, or a name with a string of numbers next to it. I do a Google search on suspect names and then, after checking to see if Sehson or Raps has banned them already, report them as necessary.

[TheMyst]

I find it kinda funny that the most recent one won't show up unless you have the right language pack installed.