Approximately two weeks ago I implemented a new anti-SPAM measure on the forums. Now, whenever you register or log-in to the forums, your username, email address, and IP address will be checked against the list contained at http://www.stopforumspam.com. There are some thresholds set, for example your IP address must have been reported 3 or more times in the last 5 days before it will cause you to not be allowed access. In the past two weeks I've only heard of two false-positives, so this is reassuring.

UPDATE 2/9/2009
I've now implemented a "Human Verification System" which requires you to answer one of several random questions. These should be very simple and easy for humans, but cut down the bogus bot registrations.

Please let me know if you have trouble accessing the forums, either via email at yakuza AT mediasmartserver DOT net or via the Contact page.

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Alex Kuretz
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Seems to be working... I have not seen a problem in about three weeks now...

Is there a way that the moderators can see the "banned" list?

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....JBick

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I caught one that got through this past weekend. Basically if they show up on stopforumspam.com they won't be allowed to register. If it's an erroneous block, they can email me and I can work something out. There's no master list I've got stored other than what is reported on the stopforumspam.com site.

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Alex Kuretz
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Working good **Fingers Crossed**

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that one got through Alex.

Yeah, I've been fine tuning the filter rules, and unfortunately the author of the mod provided basically incomplete code so I've been having to write some php which I'm not very good at. I think I've got the bugs resolved now, and just tightened the filters a little after the 3 that got through today.

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Alex Kuretz
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Yakuza,
I'm starting to think that the Spammers are trying to call you out, by always posting in this thread first.

Must be trying to send you an "In your face".

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Chris Bickerstaff
HP MSS DataVault X510
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Well, buddy just got "punked".

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Richard

My gadget blog: http://www.gadgetinsane.com

CBick I'd thought the same thing. Oh well, it's a challenge I know I'll never win, I just want to make it as difficult for them as possible.

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Alex Kuretz
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I'm one of the admins over at the Gentoo Forums and we've been battling forum spammers for quite a while now. One suggestion would be to keep an eye on the new accounts that get registered as well. There's at least 4 of them that I saw in the last 100 or so registered users that haven't posted anything (or, if they did, the mods deleted the posts), but their www address is still set in their profile. Spammers like this because, especially with more popular forum sites, it increases their Google page ranking.

Examples:

• Rutru3006
• vg322434
• Fulucy335
• lyjg0108

Most of these appear to be companies that sell stuff for a popular MMORPG that if I named, seems to make phpBB want to report me... (I get a "PLEASE REPORT THIS POST!!!")

Unfortunately, this is only going to get worse as this site increases in popularity.

hth.

--kurt

Not without making them site admins. The gentoo forums have a special moderator forum that only mods and site admins can see. In there, we keep a log of who has been banned and why. The "why" part is especially useful in case someone writes in later complaining that they were banned for no reason. Otherwise, you just have phpBB's list of banned users, but no explanation as to why they were banned.

--kurt

Updated original post to include notice about the new "Human Verification System".

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Alex Kuretz
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I did this on a forum I admin. We were getting probably 20-30 porn registrants per day. No posting, but they had the links in their profile. We implemented a mod (Security Question I think is what it is called) It asks a simple question like "The sun rises in the ...." We immediately went to 0 bots registering per day.

Kuddos on the site. I find I'm here 3-4 times a day seeing what is new.

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Guy

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