Spam Users...

MatsP · Post by **MatsP** » 13 Nov 2006, 16:25

One of the regulars of this forum sent me a PM on the subject of Spam users, and more importantly the fact that the site boasts some 6500 users, which is probably not quite "true" in the sense that there is most certainly not 6500 ACTIVE users.

Most spammers sign up once, and post once, and "disappear" (they probably re-appear under a different name from a different place sooner or later).

I had a quick look through, and there are some 2000+ users with "no posts". Some of those are probably people who have registered and never posted, which is perfectly fine.

Some of them are quite clearly (judging from their profile content) not at Planet Catfish for the love of catfish....

However, from a programmer perspective, it's not entirely trivial to determine which ones are what (I can read a web-page address and determine that it's aquarium related or not, but it's much harder to teach a computer how to do that - as computers are pretty darn stupid and do EXACTLY what you tell them, and you need to tell the computer ALL of the things it needs to "know"). And there's more than one user here with "Dr" or "Love" or some such in the username, so usernames aren't particularly handy for judging the type of person behind the name.

Quite clearly, the 4000 or so users that have registered and posted at least once (and that aren't the author of one of the few posts that are living in the hidden "Spam Spam Spam" forum), would be "ok to keep".

I'm not saying this needs anything done to it, just bringing it up as a topic for openly discussing it.

Facts: If you sort the memberlist by posts in ascending order, the first 2039 members are zero-post count.

--
Mats

Post by **Marc van Arc** » 06 Dec 2006, 13:33

Imo all the crap posters should be taken out of the registered users list. It's good that their posts are removed but nevertheless their profile - with rather crappy links most of the time - remains intact.
If the reason of not removing these spammers is (a lack of) time, I could always give a hand.

MatsP · Post by **MatsP** » 06 Dec 2006, 13:55

I'd like to hear Jools view, but I agree that removing the users is a good thing in general, and if it's "free" in terms of time consumed by Jools and the other current moderators, that's an even better thing...

But it's Jools web-site, not mine...

--
Mats

Post by **Silurus** » 06 Dec 2006, 14:28

I think this has been discussed in one form or another by the moderators, and the consensus seemed to be to let things be as they are right now. I would rather ban spam users rather than remove them, preferably before they post anything, but I'm not the webmaster here.

YouTube · Post by **Jools** » 06 Dec 2006, 14:30

Silurus wrote:I think this has been discussed in one form or another by the moderators, and the consensus seemed to be to let things be as they are right now. I would rather ban spam users rather than remove them, preferably before they post anything, but I'm not the webmaster here.

I have no problem with that, how would you detect them given the fact the post usually minutes but certainly hours within joining.

I am only against banning single post SPAM users. Preemtive strikes are fine with me.

http://www.phpbb.com/phpBB/catdb.php?cat=57

It's just I need the time to install all these things and then there's phpbb3 which is currently at BETA4 stage which me might think about too.

Maybe we should think about changing to new forum software that isn't so targetted.

Jools

Post by **Silurus** » 06 Dec 2006, 14:48

Jools,

I have been pre-emptively banning spam users on petfrd, simply by profiling them. There are certain free webmail services that spammers love to use, and the registered email address is usually a dead giveaway. The other thing I watch out for is whether or not they indicate a time zone in their profile (most spammers don't and leave the time at -12 hrs GMT, which is the default). Lastly, I do an IP whois search to make sure the originating IP matches the location in the profile (if one is provided).
It has been working very successfully in petfrd.com, with maybe a few slipping through the cracks every few months (the number of spam users registering has decreased quite a bit lately, but I like to think my aggressive banning regime has something to do with it).
In fact, many spammers use the same user names on all forums and those I can predict with some confidence (because they were already banned by me in petfrd).
Most spammers don't post immedaitely upon registering (the ones that do are the ones that slip through the cracks for me). I think an aggressive pre-emptive banning regime might work (it would require quite a bit of monitoring like I do on petfrd).

MatsP · Post by **MatsP** » 06 Dec 2006, 15:45

I think Mark's point is more that the user is still there (even if they never post or post only once), and some have "porn" or "sell-stuff-over the net"[Not even remotely related to this web-site, unless you wish to medicate your fish with viagra or some such] web-sites that they link to in their profile.

If you look at http://www.planetcatfish.com/forum/memberlist.php sorted by "Number of posts" in "ascending" order, you'll find that most of the ones that have a "www" address and zero posts are "not really personal/fish-related web-sites".

Getting rid of those that have these not-appropriate web-sites (or just remove their www-reference in the user-profile, I suppose woudl be good enough). For example (from the first page on the above list: http://www.planetcatfish.com/forum/prof ... ile&u=6030 . )

How to identify those without manual intervention is of course a different question.

--
Mats

Post by **Marc van Arc** » 25 Dec 2006, 20:35

Jools wrote: how would you detect them

(* edited quote MvA)

On name and website. Only today some 20 new users did register, of which 2 have "normal" names AND don't have a website.
The rest are crappers.

YouTube · Post by **Jools** » 26 Dec 2006, 11:58

I am going to attack the SPAM issue a bit over the next week. I was waiting for the new version of the forum software to be released and it came out just before Christmas.

Firstly I will upgrade, and then I will work through this:

http://www.phpbb.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=427852

Wish me luck...

Jools

Post by **Marc van Arc** » 26 Dec 2006, 14:36

Good luck

YouTube · Post by **Jools** » 26 Dec 2006, 17:26

Marc van Arc wrote:Good luck

The forum has now been upgraded to the latest release.

Jools

YouTube · Post by **Jools** » 26 Dec 2006, 17:35

The memberlist page no longer shows those with 0 posts.

Also, the "latest user" link on the main page will only show you when you post a welcome message (AND user_posts > 0)!

Jools

YouTube · Post by **Jools** » 26 Dec 2006, 17:40

Jools wrote:http://www.phpbb.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=427852

Thanks for the well wishes. I've applied the first of the mods in the post above and we will see how it goes. If anyone thinks any of the other mods should be installed let me know. I'm avoiding changing too many things as once for now...

Jools

Post by **Silurus** » 29 Dec 2006, 04:35

Culling of spammers is currently underway. The first exercise resulted in the banning and deletion of more than 400 members.

YouTube · Post by **Jools** » 29 Dec 2006, 09:13

What that last post didn't explicitly say is that Silurus is putting a lot of time and effort into the job and that gets a big thanks from me!

Jools

Post by **Marc van Arc** » 29 Dec 2006, 10:11

Thanks HH,
It's great to see Britney Spears et al leaving the forum at last