Forum and spam

[lightonflux]

The amount of spam here is very high in the last weeks and days.

Other forums that use phpbb have not only the captcha when you register, but also a text field that ask a simple question, but one that is easy to understand for humans but not so much for bots.

Sometimes it is just a simple calculation, or the question how many letters a word has.

I think it would be beneficial to add a similar question to our registration process.

Attached is a screenshot of the question asked at the naev forum.

[Gael de Sailly]

Every day, there is from 3 to 9 spam topics, produced by new members. I'm not sure that it comes from bots. But we could still try to improve this captcha.
Brand lobbies may spend a lot of time spamming forums to advertise for their products.

We should report all these topics as soon as possible. Every day I report 2 or 3 ones.
The problem is simply that moderators aren't always online. The forum is spammed every day from 4 am to 9 am UTC.

Could we add a filter that prevent users to post a topic with specific links or keywords ?

[rubenwardy]

If the post mentions "FIFA", ban the user immediately. This is probably the only post on the forum that says "FIFA" legitly.

[Krock]

If the post mentions "FIFA", ban the user immediately. This is probably the only post on the forum that says "FIFA" legitly.

Except of yours.

I think questions like "What year do we have?" could reduce those spambots a bit.

[Thermal_Shock]

The problem is simply that moderators aren't always online. The forum is spammed every day from 4 am to 9 am UTC.

It would be nice to have a mod on staff that's typically active during those hours. Ideally a decently active forum would have a mod staff that sort of provides round the clock watch based on when they're typically on. But then I was used to being on forums where you'd have to deal with the odd nasty porn or gore image spam at odd hours.

[Kilarin]

We need to write a simple javascript crafting grid and ask the new users to drag and drop nodes into the grid to craft a pickaxe before they can join. :)

[Gael de Sailly]

It would be nice to have a mod on staff that's typically active during those hours. Ideally a decently active forum would have a mod staff that sort of provides round the clock watch based on when they're typically on. But then I was used to being on forums where you'd have to deal with the odd nasty porn or gore image spam at odd hours.

I can be online every day from 5:30 to 10:00 am UTC (not constantly of course !) at least during the holidays (lastest day : April 26th). And after… maybe several minutes at 5:00 and at 8:15 am. If ever there aren't other solutions, I'm volunteer. But I may not have enough trust from the community.

[BrunoMine]

We need to write a simple javascript crafting grid and ask the new users to drag and drop nodes into the grid to craft a pickaxe before they can join. :)

I liked this ideia

[Minetestforfun]

We need to write a simple javascript crafting grid and ask the new users to drag and drop nodes into the grid to craft a pickaxe before they can join. :)

+1, it's an unic concept, fun, 100% against anti-spam, i like it !

[Thermal_Shock]

We need to write a simple javascript crafting grid and ask the new users to drag and drop nodes into the grid to craft a pickaxe before they can join. :)

Some people disable javascript for security reasons. It's a cute idea, but doesn't work out well for them.

I can be online every day from 5:30 to 10:00 am UTC (not constantly of course !) at least during the holidays (lastest day : April 26th). And after… maybe several minutes at 5:00 and at 8:15 am. If ever there aren't other solutions, I'm volunteer. But I may not have enough trust from the community.

I'm sure the staff will reach out to whoever they feel is appropriate if they want more moderators. Being an e-janitor is nothing special.

[Krock]

Something similar to this crafting idea would be a field with checkboxes, a 4x4 field here as example:

Code: Select all

+-+-+-+-+
| |X| |X|
+-+-+-+-+
|X| | |X|
+-+-+-+-+
| |X|X| |
+-+-+-+-+
|X| | |X|
+-+-+-+-+

And there would be a preview image of the result next to it. This might require some work but it's something new.

[Minetestforfun]

Noscript alert you when a javascript code is blocked, however just add a small red message wich alert the new subscriber is very easy...

[ExeterDad]

As simple profile field in the sign up page might stop a bunch of it. If the new user doesn't read the question and change the already set default answer to something allowed, the registration fails.

For example:
"Are you planning to spam the Minetest Forums?"
Then the user must change the checkbox from yes to no.

Here is a description of the technique http://phpbbfaq.org/site/anti-spam/

[lightonflux]

The solution ExeterDad mentions is also my preferred option as it works well for other forum and has code that is already tested and implemented. Further it works even for users that don't yet know any recipes, or have some limitation browser side.

[Sokomine]

"Are you planning to spam the Minetest Forums?"

Don't we all do some friendly spam from time to time? :-)

There used to be a question about which version was the current stable one. Trouble was that the answer to that question was not trivial.

How about "Which color do mese crystals have?" or "How many sticks do you get from one piece of wood in minetest_game?"

[Kilarin]

We need to write a simple javascript crafting grid and ask the new users to drag and drop nodes into the grid to craft a pickaxe before they can join. :)

Some people disable javascript for security reasons. It's a cute idea, but doesn't work out well for them.

Entirely valid point. I was about to suggest that you could do this with just tables and check boxes, only to read the next message and realize that Krock had already suggested something similar.
My only change from his suggestion would be to keep it in theme. So randomly display one of these:

Code: Select all

Craft a Pickaxe
+-+-+-+
|X|X|X|
+-+-+-+
| |X| |
+-+-+-+
| |X| |
+-+-+-+

Code: Select all

Craft an Axe
+-+-+-+
|X|X| |
+-+-+-+
|X|X| |
+-+-+-+
| |X| |
+-+-+-+

Code: Select all

Craft a Shovel
+-+-+-+
| |X| |
+-+-+-+
| |X| |
+-+-+-+
| |X| |
+-+-+-+

And, of course, have a graphic that reveals the correct pattern so that you don't actually have to be familiar with minetest (or minecraft) recipes to join.

[Gael de Sailly]

No spam on Sunday :)
So, obviously, it comes from companies, not from hackers or other malicious people.

[lightonflux]

It really is annoying to see at least 4 SPAM posts every day. Can we please have a simple anti-spam method ASAP?

It is not that hard and makes using the forum so much more pleasant.


BTW: I heard that only one person has administrative access to the forum installation. Is that true? I think a community this size should at least have two people that can manage the software.

[Kenney]

In the past I've battled a lot of spammers with an easy honeypot method, read about it here (#4):
http://www.michel-kraemer.com/5-anti-sp ... for-phpbb3

[Minetestforfun]

I signal spams every days, it's boring... Please do something... It's important !

[Amaz]

Something does need to be done about the spam, the amount that is coming in every day is absurd...

[Hybrid Dog]

You could allow Members (not New Members) to hide topics that people don't need to wait until a Moderator takes care about the Report.

[Minetestforfun]

Nowadays many spam messages are receiving in my mail inbox. Is there any solution to stop the spams?

Yes, your own postfix+dovecot+roundcube solution with a great antivirus/antispam solution like Clamav+SpamAssassin

(PS : like i have)

So, return to the forum spams. The solution is easy to add.. please do something... :/

[Krock]

I like the link from Kenney. It shows easy and effective ways to kep spammers off.
Still, those improvements do not prevent bots from creating accounts.
Javascript is a good soulation until we have a better question or task on the register page.

[Sokomine]

Javascript is a good soulation until we have a better question or task on the register page.

That also puts off legitimate users.