This topic was created by a spambot, like many others that you’ve probably seen around here.
We need to do something about this. They bypass word verification. They bypass email varification. They don’t bypass administrive account activation, but there’s a hell of a lot of spambots signing up to these forums each week and it gets to be too hard to deal with sometimes.
So any advice? I’m not expert on such things, I’ve no idea what we can do.
um… . . . . … what is trading software(does this have to do with PD) is this an advert(0_o) (what is this)
And to think I was once called a spambot…
The post was edited by Shadow, asking for suggestions that might help stop the Spambots. The topic must have originally been a spam topic, but Shadow removed most of that traces that it was.
It’s a good idea for a topic - I’m quite open to suggestions, if anyone has any.
Keep in mind that these “bots” are likely to be real people signing up and activating the accounts via email, rather than programs doing it automatically.
i advise you install Anti-Spam Admin Control Panel
cuts out about 95% of the spam recieved on one of my other boards. it logs the stuff posted as well if you like
its the best anti-spam mod ive seen so far anyway
I’ll have to test that out, Scott. Shadow will give me a hand testing that out when he’s able to tear himself away from the Halo 3 Beta, won’t he? 
By the way, Scott, what’s your opinion of phpBB3 now that it’s out? Have you heard of many hiccups when migrating from phpBB2?
Of course I’ll help - just get it installed quickly before we’re swimming in spam. =P
I havn’t actually had time to use it properly, i have a lovely modded phpBB2 board which took me AGES and i really want to use, but i would also love to start using olympus…
i feel so torn =(
but i dunno, maybe its worth transfering over and seeing what its like, or maybe just heading over to the community forums and seeing what the general users think of it, and maybe see a few examples…
Can you not use that verification thing with letters in a box you have to type. This might keep programs out but people can still get on. Spambots piss me of though. I don’t know why people think anybody trusts them on the internet anymore.
Can’t suggest any interesting solutions because I’ve no experience administrating forums, but I agree that something probably needs to be done; the on-topic forum seems to be getting about three or four times as many spam posts daily as real posts at the moment. (And that’s just ones that I’m deleting myself…)
Just thought I should say that the situation seems to be getting worse: I just deleted another six topics that had popped up since last time I deleted some (which was only yestarday or the day before), and they’re tending to have images in them now too.
EDIT: And another three…
Sorry about the delay in dealing with this.
I am currently working on a solution to this problem, using the tool that Scott mentioned. However, given the size of the forum database, and my lack of spare time at this moment this is progressing quite slowly. I want to make sure that I’m satisfied with the solution on the test forums before implementing it into these forums - once it’s implemented it may be quite difficult to remove.
hmmm i hope you’re using the easy mod tool, then its also easy to remove as well.
2 min install, 2 min uninstall
[quote=“Scott”]hmmm i hope you’re using the easy mod tool, then its also easy to remove as well.
2 min install, 2 min uninstall[/quote]
I haven’t been using any tool like that - I’d prefer to get the mod working correctly in a test environment first, before doing anything that might cause havoc on these forums.
Saying that, being able to add and remove mods quickly using an “installer” sounds quite handy, so long as it works okay, so I’ll give that a try on the test forums, and if it works, I’ll carry it over onto the real forums.
Here’s an idea Solo. Give me the mod power that I so rightly deserve in the Seekers Stronghold, since I’m pretty much online all the time now and would be able to quickly eradicate the mess they cause there.
It won’t stop them from registering, but it will be a big help with the cleanup, right?
[quote=“Neil”]Here’s an idea Solo. Give me the mod power that I so rightly deserve in the Seekers Stronghold, since I’m pretty much online all the time now and would be able to quickly eradicate the mess they cause there.
It won’t stop them from registering, but it will be a big help with the cleanup, right?[/quote]
You opportunist you.
[quote=“Jimkemon”]
[quote=“Neil”]Here’s an idea Solo. Give me the mod power that I so rightly deserve in the Seekers Stronghold, since I’m pretty much online all the time now and would be able to quickly eradicate the mess they cause there.
It won’t stop them from registering, but it will be a big help with the cleanup, right?[/quote]
You opportunist you.[/quote]
How do you think I got the mod position on this forum?
I bitched and moaned until I got my way.
Neil, I’ve sent you a PM regarding this.
Thanks babe. I got it. 
I’ve just rolled out an update to these forums, which includes the “Anti-Spam ACP” mod. This will mean that - hopefully - the amount of spam will start to decrease. I’ve seen the forums to now only let members post URLs after they’ve made at least one post.
This mod also includes the “letters in a box” verification that you mentioned Jimkemon.