Forum Spammers

[RogueWriter]

Incessant little buggers, ain't they? Every day I have to delete spammer accounts/posts at my forum. Dang roaches, wish I could squash them. Had to vent, just frustrated.

 

[MarbleHost.com]

I run a small affiliate marketing related forum. I found out most of the spammers use robots to create accounts (even those who spam manually usually use robots to register accounts). So I modified the sign up page a little (I have added a security question) and most spammers have disappeared.

 

[RogueWriter]

My software allows me to ask multiple questions at signup that varies. That did slow them down a bit, but I still get the little buggers taking the time to answer various questions during signup, which I routinely change, with email verification, even, lol. They take the time to do all of that, then post some idiotic looking post filled with spam and about that time I delete them.

I guess I need to see if the forum software can limit on geography, and cut asia, africa, south america out, lol, maybe that will help.

 

[Deathstarr]

You Should be able to install StopForumSpam its made for most forum softwares, also Use Recaptcha and depending on the software they may have other plugins to also help. You can geographicly blacklist them using IP Addresses. But then they use Proxies.

 

[RaiderGirl]

The ones I get are usually from Russia or India

modified the sign up page a little (I have added a security question) and most spammers have disappeared.

I did that too, added 2 security questions and it did drastically reduce the number, but it didn't stop it... They will sign up, answer the questions, wait a week or month and when you least expect it, they'll SPAM the hell out of you.

So I'm considering changing the security questions, making it harder for foreigners to answer.

 

[MarbleHost.com]

I believe that harder security question may help. Or rather less common than harder. I remember when I had a few contact forms with the traditional question "how much is 1 + 2" and similar many robots were able to bypass that. But with questions like "what is the name of this forum" I eliminated most of the spam.

Also, be careful about allowing to edit the users' posts. It is a common practice that somebody writes a non-spamy message and after a few weeks comes back and uses the edit feature to include some SEO spam. So I recommend to allow to edit the post e. g. only during 1 hour after posting.

 

[RogueWriter]

Also, be careful about allowing to edit the users' posts. It is a common practice that somebody writes a non-spamy message and after a few weeks comes back and uses the edit feature to include some SEO spam. So I recommend to allow to edit the post e. g. only during 1 hour after posting.

That is good advice, had not considered that, thanks.