Spam in this forum

[MTenzer]

Hello everybody !

I'd like to reduce the spam in this forum, any ideas how we could achieve this ?
It's because I don't like to see nude pictures or similar stuff on my workstation at the office...

How about
- double-opt-in (User has to click a link in an email to get access)
- activate a spam filter

And what about kicking the already existing spam ?
Is there any way to set a mark on a spam message so that any of the admins could easily remove it ?

Thanks for comments...

[ikutluay]

Hello everybody !

I'd like to reduce the spam in this forum, any ideas how we could achieve this ?
It's because I don't like to see nude pictures or similar stuff on my workstation at the office...

How about
- double-opt-in (User has to click a link in an email to get access)
- activate a spam filter

And what about kicking the already existing spam ?
Is there any way to set a mark on a spam message so that any of the admins could easily remove it ?

Thanks for comments...

1. activate capcha for sumiting threads
2. ban those fuckin users. (I hate those stupids)
3. get only pop3 mails for registrations. for example yahoo and like that user cant registrate themselves.

4. delete those spam thread from the database

[deboutv]

Update phpBB (it seems to be old).

[MTenzer]

Last one seems to be a smart idea.
Vboctor, could you please do that ?

[chillax]

To address a few things:

-- We are already doing the double-opt-in approach to user account activation.
-- Spam filters can be defeated just as easily as the double-opt-in
-- Users that are identified to me or by myself as spammers are deleted and their domain is banned (we have several hundred banned domains already)
-- Most of the spammers aren't using yahoo, gmail, hotmail, etc as those free services have really done a good job of cracking down on spammers, at least compared to how it used to be.
-- Spam threads are deleted when they are found by one of the moderators, sometimes there can be a lag if they aren't active over a weekend or during a busy week for them.
-- phpBB is already the most current stable release


Now, on to how you can help:

If you are an active member of the forum community, you can private message me any spammer usernames that you find. Additionally, if you want to include a link to the post I can delete those as well as I review the user's account. I typically run through my private messages and instantly ban all the spammers that are sent to me by other moderators. I review any sent by non-moderators to ensure that actual users are not being deleted as much as possible.

[deboutv]

All moderators are in the same timezone, no?

[MTenzer]

-- We are already doing the double-opt-in approach to user account activation.
...
Now, on to how you can help:
...

I'm sorry, I've forgotten about my own double-opt-in already...

Sounds great, I'll try my best to help you!

[Griswald]

I sent a message to Vboctor outlining the actions I have found useful in reducing spam on several of my forums. I have also offered to help moderate here (for spam removal and control).

I have phBB3 running here and it has much better spam control features than the 2.x versions does. I would suggest migrating to v3.x if the spam can not be controlled in the near future.

Die spammers, die.

[phoenixcreation]

Something we implented on our NBT forums was a secondary image verification. They do one when they register, and then a 2nd one when they post for the first time. We still get a lot of spam bots registering, but we have not had a single on post anything in quite a few months.

netbattletech.com / hpguplink

Take a look and if it is something you are interested in, I'll see about asking Toxic to give you the details.