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I saw like 10 spam threads posted in the past week, I believe we need either a new captcha or new moderators, but this is just my opinion... I don't know why suddenly there is all this spam activity around here, maybe smspower was featured on some spambot list?

We're still protected by recaptcha, but it has the same flaw as every other sort of protection: humans can still create accounts. We could require captchas on the first n posts for new users, I guess.

Edit: implemented, captcha is required for your first 10 posts. It still won't stop automated human spam posting but it might make it more annoying for them and help the recaptcha project get some more words scanned :) and it stops any bot posts from human-registered accounts.

If recaptcha is broken then it makes no difference, but I suspect that's not the case.

Well, they're certainly being persistent, and cheeky. I'll continue to delete spam and accounts as necessary. I don't mind too much about spam accounts that never post because they are not as visible as the actual spam posts.

It looks like a resurgence of the dreaded XRumer software which plagued the internet some years ago, which apparently recently gained recaptcha support. If we've reappeared on their forum lists then we'll be hammered for a while.

I deleted about 80 suspicious-looking accounts. Anyone who registered recently but never posted is now gone, so sorry for the innocents who got caught up in that...

I've also extended the no-links policy to members with less than 10 posts. It's annoying but hopefully that'll be enough to shut the spammers up. On the other hand, it might make them post lots more link-free junk to get past us, but hopefully they can't be bothered.

Maxim wrote

It looks like a resurgence of the dreaded ... software which plagued the internet some years ago, which apparently recently gained recaptcha support. If we've reappeared on their forum lists then we'll be hammered for a while.

Ah, reCAPTCHA. I switched to that after the extension with math captchas I was using stopped working. Then I kept getting waves of spam accounts. Now I've got the math captchas working again, and spammer registration has returned to practically nothing.

Hmm :( reCAPTCHA is supposed to be as good as it gets, but the spammers seem to be getting past it. They are backed by Google now, which may or may not help with future anti-spam developments.

The flood of spam has been quite severe recently. We're still getting a lot of bot accounts created, I go and delete them every now and again. Guest posting has been turned off and an admin has to approve new accounts before they can post, so we should at least see a little less posting spam from now on. Unfortunately it will also be a block to people joining our discussions :(

Perhaps you can try to disable those measures in a few months, to see if there are still annoying spammers "haunting" the community....

Well, we seem to have stopped the flood of spam for now :) I just deleted about 800 spam accounts with no posts and suspicious-looking info, so I hope I didn't delete any real people.

Maxim wrote

Well, we seem to have stopped the flood of spam for now :) I just deleted about 800 spam accounts with no posts and suspicious-looking info, so I hope I didn't delete any real people.

I'd bet that's why my first registered account got removed. I registered on the 27th, then around the 31st I finally had something to post about but my account was gone. So I reregistered, and made my first post. No real harm done besides having to reregister :P

Looks like we've got another one. The whole "pick a sentence fragment from a previous post and add a thank you" spambot seems particularly popular lately.

EDIT: Link removed, since it now points to a different account.

I'm a new subscriber to the site, but have contributed and used MEKA since 4th May, 2000!!! I don't mind having to type in a 'capcha' code for the first 100 posts. Seriously, no one likes that thread filling garbage. The more you make it, the less likely they will be willing to stick around to dump their junk here.

I am on quite a number of other forums, and they use that capcha system for every post. It depends on your tolerance level i suppose.

I look forward to getting back into the EMU scene with the most excellent MEKA. Now, where did I leave my joystick!

-KegRaider

Author	Message
Tom Joined: 16 May 2002 Posts: 1356 Location: italy	Flood of new spam accounts Posted: Wed Jan 05, 2011 3:33 am
Tom Joined: 16 May 2002 Posts: 1356 Location: italy	I saw like 10 spam threads posted in the past week, I believe we need either a new captcha or new moderators, but this is just my opinion... I don't know why suddenly there is all this spam activity around here, maybe smspower was featured on some spambot list?

Maxim Site Admin Joined: 19 Oct 1999 Posts: 14745 Location: London	Posted: Wed Jan 05, 2011 9:02 am
	We're still protected by recaptcha, but it has the same flaw as every other sort of protection: humans can still create accounts. We could require captchas on the first n posts for new users, I guess. Edit: implemented, captcha is required for your first 10 posts. It still won't stop automated human spam posting but it might make it more annoying for them and help the recaptcha project get some more words scanned :) and it stops any bot posts from human-registered accounts. If recaptcha is broken then it makes no difference, but I suspect that's not the case.

Maxim Site Admin Joined: 19 Oct 1999 Posts: 14745 Location: London	Posted: Fri Jan 07, 2011 9:22 am
	Well, they're certainly being persistent, and cheeky. I'll continue to delete spam and accounts as necessary. I don't mind too much about spam accounts that never post because they are not as visible as the actual spam posts. It looks like a resurgence of the dreaded XRumer software which plagued the internet some years ago, which apparently recently gained recaptcha support. If we've reappeared on their forum lists then we'll be hammered for a while. I deleted about 80 suspicious-looking accounts. Anyone who registered recently but never posted is now gone, so sorry for the innocents who got caught up in that... I've also extended the no-links policy to members with less than 10 posts. It's annoying but hopefully that'll be enough to shut the spammers up. On the other hand, it might make them post lots more link-free junk to get past us, but hopefully they can't be bothered.

CRV Joined: 02 Jan 2005 Posts: 668	Posted: Fri Jan 07, 2011 3:04 pm
CRV Joined: 02 Jan 2005 Posts: 668	Maxim wrote It looks like a resurgence of the dreaded ... software which plagued the internet some years ago, which apparently recently gained recaptcha support. If we've reappeared on their forum lists then we'll be hammered for a while. Ah, reCAPTCHA. I switched to that after the extension with math captchas I was using stopped working. Then I kept getting waves of spam accounts. Now I've got the math captchas working again, and spammer registration has returned to practically nothing.

Maxim Site Admin Joined: 19 Oct 1999 Posts: 14745 Location: London	Posted: Fri Jan 07, 2011 5:00 pm
	Hmm :( reCAPTCHA is supposed to be as good as it gets, but the spammers seem to be getting past it. They are backed by Google now, which may or may not help with future anti-spam developments.

Maxim Site Admin Joined: 19 Oct 1999 Posts: 14745 Location: London	Posted: Wed Jan 26, 2011 5:40 pm
	The flood of spam has been quite severe recently. We're still getting a lot of bot accounts created, I go and delete them every now and again. Guest posting has been turned off and an admin has to approve new accounts before they can post, so we should at least see a little less posting spam from now on. Unfortunately it will also be a block to people joining our discussions :(

Cyberquake Joined: 10 Jan 2005 Posts: 60 Location: Porto, Portugal	Posted: Wed Jan 26, 2011 11:42 pm
	Perhaps you can try to disable those measures in a few months, to see if there are still annoying spammers "haunting" the community....

Maxim Site Admin Joined: 19 Oct 1999 Posts: 14745 Location: London	Posted: Wed Feb 02, 2011 2:32 pm
	Well, we seem to have stopped the flood of spam for now :) I just deleted about 800 spam accounts with no posts and suspicious-looking info, so I hope I didn't delete any real people.

losinggeneration Joined: 31 Jan 2011 Posts: 26 Location: Iowa, USA	Posted: Thu Feb 03, 2011 6:20 pm
	Maxim wrote Well, we seem to have stopped the flood of spam for now :) I just deleted about 800 spam accounts with no posts and suspicious-looking info, so I hope I didn't delete any real people. I'd bet that's why my first registered account got removed. I registered on the 27th, then around the 31st I finally had something to post about but my account was gone. So I reregistered, and made my first post. No real harm done besides having to reregister :P

goldenband Joined: 24 May 2010 Posts: 127 Location: New York	Posted: Sat Feb 04, 2012 7:34 am
	Looks like we've got another one. The whole "pick a sentence fragment from a previous post and add a thank you" spambot seems particularly popular lately. EDIT: Link removed, since it now points to a different account.

KegRaider Joined: 18 Jul 2012 Posts: 1	RECapcha Posted: Wed Jul 18, 2012 9:33 pm
KegRaider Joined: 18 Jul 2012 Posts: 1	I'm a new subscriber to the site, but have contributed and used MEKA since 4th May, 2000!!! I don't mind having to type in a 'capcha' code for the first 100 posts. Seriously, no one likes that thread filling garbage. The more you make it, the less likely they will be willing to stick around to dump their junk here. I am on quite a number of other forums, and they use that capcha system for every post. It depends on your tolerance level i suppose. I look forward to getting back into the EMU scene with the most excellent MEKA. Now, where did I leave my joystick! -KegRaider

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