[Ben]

Hi everyone,

The Spam
Seems as though MANY forums around the world are being hit by a crazy amount of spammers recently, absolute nightmare, so thank you for baring with us and reporting spam when you find it, we are doing our best to clear it.

I'm now in the process of hardening the registration procedure by running the spammers email/i.p against the blacklist database, so hopefully it should catch a few of them!

Thanks again for your patience with this.

New Link Posting Rule
In order to stop people posting pointless links within their posts they will now have to have over 25 posts to create a link (Same amount you need to create a signature) - We'll see how this goes, there is also an option to only allow links after 'x' amount of days as well, but we'll try this method first.


Many thanks,
Ben

[webdesigner93]

Yes i have noticed quite a few spam post latly hopefully the extra things you are doing will help some

[Renaissance-Design]

Good call.

[Bomb]

[andyl]

The bots are learning.

[Ben]

It's just like SkyNet!

[WBC]

I’ve been trying to catch one so I can run tests on it, maybe we can program one to be on our side!

[KCooper]

I must say, I LIKE this!

Sounds good!

[Tobes]

The blacklist doesnt catch them all, I know Im already using it.

The only way I have beaten the spammers is i get every new member to post a message to me why they want to join, its very easy to see whos a spammer and who isnt.

The mod I use is for V.3.8 its called "Intro On Register"

You can see here the intro's http://www.itstoolou...isplay.php?f=45 Ive delete all the spam pricks and their intros, and activate manually all accounts, not one spammer gets through my net.

POXY SPAMMERS,, ggrrrrrrr

Tobes

[WBC]

If I had to send an email saying that i wanted to join I wouldn't have bothered.

[Tobes]

Ben, on 31 January 2011 - 10:26 PM, said:

New Link Posting Rule
In order to stop people posting pointless links within their posts they will now have to have over 25 posts to create a link (Same amount you need to create a signature) - We'll see how this goes, there is also an option to only allow links after 'x' amount of days as well, but we'll try this method first.

This will render the "advertised jobs" forum useless if the poster cant post links to their sites, and other stuff.

Please use my method above and you wont need to do this.

Thanks

[Tobes]

WBC, on 01 February 2011 - 04:25 PM, said:

If I had to send an email saying that i wanted to join I wouldn't have bothered.

you dont, there is just an extra field on the registration page asking why you want to join, so there is nothing the user needs to do.

The work is on the admin side of things.

T

[Danny]

Tobes, on 01 February 2011 - 04:26 PM, said:

This will render the "advertised jobs" forum useless if the poster cant post links to their sites, and other stuff.

Please use my method above and you wont need to do this.

Thanks

I'm guessing that you can still post addresses, it's just that they won't be links. So shouldn't really have any affect.

[Tobes]

Danny, on 01 February 2011 - 06:09 PM, said:

I'm guessing that you can still post addresses, it's just that they won't be links. So shouldn't really have any affect.

I hope so, but generally Vbulletin blocks the post fully if the new member tries to post any link, so hopefully they are savvy and write it like mywebsite dot com or the user may just get fed up and not even post the article.

T

[webdesigner93]

Tobes, on 01 February 2011 - 04:26 PM, said:

This will render the "advertised jobs" forum useless if the poster cant post links to their sites, and other stuff.

Please use my method above and you wont need to do this.

Thanks

Odviously they would have to have 25 post before they could post in the advertising section, these type sections are a spammers haven anyways, why give them a foot stool to stand on? plus the spammer may just write a nice little message in that field ur talking about then still spam.

[Tobes]

webdesigner93, on 01 February 2011 - 07:04 PM, said:

Odviously they would have to have 25 post before they could post in the advertising section, these type sections are a spammers haven anyways, why give them a foot stool to stand on? plus the spammer may just write a nice little message in that field ur talking about then still spam.

Im all for squashing spammers, but if the new rule puts off people advertising jobs this website will lose some real qualities.

Just my 2p

T

[ayoungh]

I think this is great, in regards to the jobs board, they can always PM the link?

[Ben]

You got it, you need 25 posts to post in both the Looking to Hire and Classifieds section.

I'm thinking of reworking the Jobs section as people may join just to post a job (Legitimate. not spam) - but now they'd have to have 25 posts to do so, which would be rather frsutrating.

What I thought about was simply, do a pay-for-post... or you have to be a Gold Member to post - so that way we're going to weed out the spam and if they post in any other forum, we remove it!

Might do the same for classifieds, but have some bigger plans for that as well.

[MikeChipshop]

Nice one Ben.
Admittedly a tricky situation on how to let real people get through while keeping the spammers at bay (without spending all day hitting delete).

Thumbs up for pushing at it though and the offer of help is always on the table for ya mate.

[ayoungh]

Ben, on 03 February 2011 - 01:06 PM, said:

You got it, you need 25 posts to post in both the Looking to Hire and Classifieds section.

I'm thinking of reworking the Jobs section as people may join just to post a job (Legitimate. not spam) - but now they'd have to have 25 posts to do so, which would be rather frsutrating.

What I thought about was simply, do a pay-for-post... or you have to be a Gold Member to post - so that way we're going to weed out the spam and if they post in any other forum, we remove it!

Might do the same for classifieds, but have some bigger plans for that as well.

I'm not sure about charging for it? I think thats why people come to this forum, because they dont have to pay

[Tobes]

I agree, charging will put people off completely, I still reckon Ive given you a great solution above, I use it and it works great.

The blacklist will catch 90% of spammers, its just the other 10% youll have to delete manually, but if you use the "post at intro" plugin with the blacklist you'll know straight away why people want to join, in fact its quite nice to read why people join up, all it means is they must wait for the activation of the account, but they dont have to pay, and will already be signed up, so once you activate them, they will get an email saying its cool to use the forum.

Its a much better idea than removing links, or charging for posts

just my opinion, and like I say, Im doing it this way on my forum www.itstooloud.com

T

[webdesigner93]

Yea i can deff tell u i will leave this forum if i have to pay alot of people will

[Dizi]

Ben, on 03 February 2011 - 01:06 PM, said:

You got it, you need 25 posts to post in both the Looking to Hire and Classifieds section.

Is there a way in the looking to hire section where someone could post a job request and then the people replying to the post either can't post links at all/need 25 posts to post, that way people can't just join to spam their links to sites they have done while "applying for a job"

If not how about have the section that allows people to post a job request and then automatically closes the thread, so that people cannot post their interest in there they have to actually PM...it would stop silly bidding wars on the forum, people spamming it and those that just go their to shout that bedgets are too low. It would also help the requester as it means that they should just get genuine offers through PM rather than spammers looking for links.

As for the Pay per post option - don't like it as there are 100's of places to post a job request where you don't need to pay, so people won't post requests here + good members that help a lot who use that section would probably drift away...and really this forum can't afford to make more regular good poster vanish.

[webdesigner93]

Dizi, on 03 February 2011 - 03:26 PM, said:

Is there a way in the looking to hire section where someone could post a job request and then the people replying to the post either can't post links at all/need 25 posts to post, that way people can't just join to spam their links to sites they have done while "applying for a job"

If not how about have the section that allows people to post a job request and then automatically closes the thread, so that people cannot post their interest in there they have to actually PM...it would stop silly bidding wars on the forum, people spamming it and those that just go their to shout that bedgets are too low. It would also help the requester as it means that they should just get genuine offers through PM rather than spammers looking for links.

As for the Pay per post option - don't like it as there are 100's of places to post a job request where you don't need to pay, so people won't post requests here + good members that help a lot who use that section would probably drift away...and really this forum can't afford to make more regular good poster vanish.

I agree with this +1

[Tobes]

Dizi, on 03 February 2011 - 03:26 PM, said:

If not how about have the section that allows people to post a job request and then automatically closes the thread, so that people cannot post their interest in there they have to actually PM...it would stop silly bidding wars on the forum, people spamming it and those that just go their to shout that budgets are too low.

This is also a good idea, as it seems the way people quote is a bit cut throat, and no one can guarantee if the poster is pretending to be in the UK where actually they are abroad and are very happy to quote much lower than us lot in western Europe.

I definitely think if we cant see what others quote it will make it fairer for all.

You could always leave the 25 post rule on everywhere but the looking to hire section, and just moderate the posts to see if its spam or not.

T

[Wickham]

I've had nothing to do today. Where have all the spammers gone?

As far as posting links is concerned, it doesn't take long to get 25 posts. Perhaps there shouldn't be any working hyperlinks, all urls should just be plain text, then you copy/paste into the address bar if you want to look at it.

[MikeChipshop]

Wickham, on 03 February 2011 - 07:26 PM, said:

I've had nothing to do today. Where have all the spammers gone?

As far as posting links is concerned, it doesn't take long to get 25 posts. Perhaps there shouldn't be any working hyperlinks, all urls should just be plain text, then you copy/paste into the address bar if you want to look at it.

Brrr if there's one thing i hate as much as spammers it's non hyper-linked URLS grrrr

[Dizi]

MikeChipshop, on 03 February 2011 - 07:30 PM, said:

Brrr if there's one thing i hate as much as spammers it's non hyper-linked URLS grrrr

me too I'm lazy and prefer to be able to click a link when helping people out. As the suggested method would mean having to highlight the 'link', copy it, open a new tab, paste it and hit enter....that's far too much hard work for the free help they would be getting.

This post has been edited by Dizi: 03 February 2011 - 07:37 PM

[webdesigner93]

Dizi, on 03 February 2011 - 07:36 PM, said:

me too I'm lazy and prefer to be able to click a link when helping people out. As the suggested method would mean having to highlight the 'link', copy it, open a new tab, paste it and hit enter....that's far too much hard work for the free help they would be getting.

to be honest alot of noobs forget to use the hyperlink thing anyways lol nothing gets on my nervs more then pasting a link in the url, im lazy

[MikeChipshop]

Stretched Arsehole, on 04 February 2011 - 09:45 AM, said:

You guys are noobs. In chrome you just select the link then right click and select open in new tab, no need to copy and paste

Noob is noob.
Way to assume everyone is using Chrome, besides that's still a step to much.

[WBC]

Chrome rubbish! In my mind net browser I just look at the address and the page loads!

[Beluga]

25 is a bit high, as noobs need to ask questions. I couldn't post a question where I included inside CODE-tags a piece of jQuery code, which targets all external links.

Like this:

$(document).ready(function() {
        $("a[href*='hxxp://']:not([href*='"+location.hostname+"']),[href*='hxxps://']:not([href*='"+location.hostname+"'])").after('Test');
});

Replaced the http with hxxp.

This post has been edited by Beluga: 05 February 2011 - 08:06 AM

[Ash Scott]

damn i hate spam, as soon as i see it, i report it lol, nice to know that you're doing something to help prevent it. On a forum for my clan we have a system called Anti Spam ACP - its for PHPbb3 - but im sure there is one for IPB

[Renaissance-Design]

How about Akismet?

[NeRo]

Dizi, on 03 February 2011 - 03:26 PM, said:

If not how about have the section that allows people to post a job request and then automatically closes the thread, so that people cannot post their interest in there they have to actually PM...it would stop silly bidding wars on the forum, people spamming it and those that just go their to shout that bedgets are too low. It would also help the requester as it means that they should just get genuine offers through PM rather than spammers looking for links.

• Good idea, but one drawback is how does the OP post back to say they've offered the job to someone?
  
• Could "Looking to hire" have an archive, so that after x weeks the ad gets archived - these are usually the posts that get resurrected

[Ash Scott]

^thats true - a lot of threads get 'bumped' with spam such as web design companies making spam bots. Its easier nowadays as the can use a piece of software which can read captchas.. which is a pain in the ass. Like the idea of having the older ones archived. You should do it so that when they have been archived, there is a notification sent to the OP.

[ayoungh]

I don't think the 25 post thing is a good Idea as Ive noticed genuine people not being able to put links etc

[Dizi]

They can post links, they just can't include http:// or www. so a link needs to be ' something.com ' instead, so that it isn't a direct link to a site.

[WBC]

If you look at it from a usability stand point, even though logically it makes sense there is a clear issue were people don’t understand that they can put example.com instead. The decision is whether the end justifies the means.

[Dizi]

The majority of new members have been doing that though, its just a minority that haven't where they have spanned the link across a few lines or had a bitch about not being able to do it.

The forum on the other hand has been pretty much spam free since the limit has been applied. So personally I'd much rather be repeating myself with new members about how they can post links, instead of having go through all the spam the forum used to get to find the real members...as in the end its helping them as much as us, as we can help them quicker as we don't have to go on a hunt for them any more