Unofficial Taylor Guitar Forum - UTGF
The Lounge => The Lounge => Topic started by: jjrpilot-admin on December 23, 2011, 01:40:17 AM
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I went to see a movie and when I got back one person had created almost 25 fake accounts. I'm sorry guys. I banned him and like usual blocked his IP address.
How do we stop this? Is there anything I can do to be proactive to stop these jerks?
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Josh, on the Lets Talk Guild forum registration is not automatic. A person desiring "admission" must e-mail the owner to request inclusion. That requires a brief statement about why the person wants to join the forum. If approved, then the owner lets the person in. So there may be a couple-day waiting period before admission is granted.
Not foolproof, and more work for you, but it seems to work well there to keep out most of the riffraff.
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Yes, I have had trouble joining forums BC of the registration process that involved several emails and verifications and such but I think the forum is able to keep the spammers away that way. It was kind of a pain at the time but I understand why they do it and so I compiled with the rules to get registered. It was very difficult for me to get an account at AGF at first BC of that.
Hey, speaking of that, this is my qualifying Jr. Member post......... ;D
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I changed the registration process to include email verification. Definitely not fool proof but it's also not instant registration either. We'll try that...
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Birds and Moons, the Unofficial Paul Reed Smith forum, has an email application process similar to the one described above.
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Unless you change to an email approval system you cant stop them. The problem with forums that require permission to join is that it turns a lot of people off so you end up with a tight knit group, a clique if you will of single minded members who will quickly take over. One of the reasons the AGF got so big is because anyone can join so the forum offers lots of different opinions, while forums like the UMGF with their by approval only memberships are less welcoming. My advice is just to keep an eye on it.
BTW, 25 user names? What were they selling?
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I changed the registration process to include email verification. Definitely not fool proof but it's also not instant registration either. We'll try that...
Good deal. IMO, making it any more complicated to join might discourage folks from signing up. You can control spammers.
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What were they selling?
(http://www.mappingtheweb.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/03/spam.thumbnail.jpg) ;D
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Ted, many of the posts weren't even readable. They had embedded links but nothing coherent.
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Unless you change to an email approval system you cant stop them. The problem with forums that require permission to join is that it turns a lot of people off so you end up with a tight knit group, a clique if you will of single minded members who will quickly take over. One of the reasons the AGF got so big is because anyone can join so the forum offers lots of different opinions, while forums like the UMGF with their by approval only memberships are less welcoming. My advice is just to keep an eye on it.
BTW, 25 user names? What were they selling?
They were selling jerseys etc. The new member doesn't get approved by me or anyone else...the email verification is just one step to prevent immediate registration then immediate spamming.
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Actually I wasn't talking about email verification, I was referring to an actual approval by email system. Some sites like the UMGF require you contact them to be approved to post. Back when I joined I got approved pretty quickly but I hear now it can take a while and a few of my clients have literally given up on them.
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Actually I wasn't talking about email verification, I was referring to an actual approval by email system. Some sites like the UMGF require you contact them to be approved to post. Back when I joined I got approved pretty quickly but I hear now it can take a while and a few of my clients have literally given up on them.
That will never happen here. ;)
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Thanks for keeping them at bay Josh. I know it's alot of work, and I appreciate it.
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Ted, many of the posts weren't even readable. They had embedded links but nothing coherent.
Like some of the papers I wrote in college :).
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Well good news...having the email verification seems to be stemming the tide of spammers. As the admin of this site, I can see how many accounts were created...and see how many are "pending"...waiting on their email verification. This morning...we had 18...and all spam accounts. I took great JOY in deleting those accounts. ;D
I also went through our member list and deleted all the spammers' accounts. (I have to block them...delete their posts...and then go back and delete the account.)
Whew! Looks like we're all caught up!
Thank you all for reporting the spam! It helps so much!
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Glad it's working, Josh.
Thanks again.
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On the AGF, there is a similar system where people apply and then wait in queue for approval from the mods. When I was one over there,it was fairly easy to pick out the spammers from their email address. When that didn't work or if there was a suspicious email, you can do an IP address look up to confirm their legitimacy. Between the two, we caught almost all the spammers pretty consistently...
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What were they selling?
(http://www.mappingtheweb.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/03/spam.thumbnail.jpg) ;D
& it wasn't even the genuine stuff either ...
some cheap, knock-off soy-based product, made overseas ::)
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... Between the two, we caught almost all the spammers pretty consistently...
It amazes me that some still get through. They go to all kinds of lengths electronically, and have even been known to post a few "legitimate" times before hawking their wares. When that happens, they're gone ASAP, no questions asked. There is no grace period for spammers.
I suppose that there must be somebody who actually sends spammers money, or they would all starve or find something better to do with their time. And ours!
cotten
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there must be somebody who actually sends spammers money, or they would all starve or find something better to do with their time
Yes, I am sure they were promised money to do what they do.
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facebook remanfactured engines & acai berry jelly ::)
PM, er report sent
Josh, i forgot to ask you how was the movie & what did you go see :)
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Turn on administrative approval. You can search the email addresses and there are plenty of sites out there that will tell you if the addresses are spam or not. Also SMF has an option to block addresses. I can send you my list if you'd like.
-Dave
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& it wasn't even the genuine stuff either ...
some cheap, knock-off soy-based product, made overseas ::)
That's no way to talk about the Kardashian sisters.
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& it wasn't even the genuine stuff either ...
some cheap, knock-off soy-based product, made overseas ::)
That's no way to talk about the Kardashian sisters.
you're right :(
i apologize ... a thousand pardons, kind sir :-[
that discussion will be moved to the 'salle marriage highly recommended' thread ;)
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you're right :(
i apologize ... a thousand pardons, kind sir :-[
that discussion will be moved to the 'salle marriage highly recommended' thread ;)
Nice.
I tend to consider most all entertainment industry news these equivalent to spamming.
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there must be somebody who actually sends spammers money, or they would all starve or find something better to do with their time
Yes, I am sure they were promised money to do what they do.
;D ;D ;D
-K
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Well, if members see a spammer, the "report to moderator" button can help speed things up.
It also helps to have mods spread out into the different time zones to catch things as fast as possible.
If you need another mod, put my name on the list.
Dan
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I have this exact problem on the Tom Anderson forum. www.andersonforum.com I have switch to a manual approval and also a encrypted message that a robot can not manipulate. It is a lot of work to stay on top of it but if you don't it will get out of hand on you. The other thing that we did was to ban all throw away accounts. No yahoo gmail hotmail accounts etc. It does upset some people but in the long run it has proven to be a blessing.
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hi Jack,
the encrypted message is good idea, i believe, & there is a way to identify & block suspect e-mail 'blocks',
but banning certain e-mail accounts altogether most likely will not completely solve the issue, as there are
ways to still use those accounts & make it appear to be that the source is coming from somewhere else -
manual approval is most likely the best way because it is much easier to deal with at that point, rather than
having to go back & delete threads, accounts & block users (more 'pro-active' & less work in the long run, imho)
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The encrypted messages have now been cracked by the spammers. The only way to handle it is looking up each email address. You can also look for duplicate IP addresses and generally throw those out as well.
-Dave
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Whatever method you need to use we should be on board with......gave up on spam after childhood!!! ;D
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We are working on the current spammer problem who is posting in the Welcome forum. Please bear with us until this gets resolved. Thank you kindly for your patience. :)
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We appreciate your work!
Ed