INPUT NEEDED - Spam

billysback, on 19 November 2012 - 04:52 AM said:

Nope; to be honest it won't effect everyone who will be able to post here as they will all already have an account, this is silly.

Challenge.Accepted, on 19 November 2012 - 04:55 AM said:

In fact I would also suggest adding a captcha for the first few posts a user makes if that is possible.

MechaTallon, on 19 November 2012 - 11:34 AM said:

I haven't seen spam on the forums since… hmm… October? xD but on the contrary I'm surprised the forum board lasted so long without being heavily spammed… and it didn't even have a capcha.
Another thing you could try doing is allow Email based verification of your account. This would prevent some people from creating a billion accounts under fake names.

MechaTallon, on 19 November 2012 - 12:18 PM said:

o_o there was?
never seen them

KaoS, on 19 November 2012 - 04:55 AM said:

this is a great idea. we need to sort out the spamming problem. is there no way to record the IP of someone who posts? if I ever ran a forum server I definitely would record all IPs… DDOS :(/>/>

D3matt, on 19 November 2012 - 03:20 PM said:

KaoS, on 19 November 2012 - 04:55 AM said:

this is a great idea. we need to sort out the spamming problem. is there no way to record the IP of someone who posts? if I ever ran a forum server I definitely would record all IPs… DDOS :(/>/>

Recording IPs is pointless. Spam bots very rarely post from the same IP, from my experience. And the IP very rarely belongs to the hacker, usually an innocent victim. And DDOS is not a tool for enforcing the law.

KaoS, on 19 November 2012 - 08:18 PM said:

D3matt, on 19 November 2012 - 03:20 PM said:

KaoS, on 19 November 2012 - 04:55 AM said:

this is a great idea. we need to sort out the spamming problem. is there no way to record the IP of someone who posts? if I ever ran a forum server I definitely would record all IPs… DDOS :(/>/>

Recording IPs is pointless. Spam bots very rarely post from the same IP, from my experience. And the IP very rarely belongs to the hacker, usually an innocent victim. And DDOS is not a tool for enforcing the law.

I'm gonna admit to being a ruthless bastard and say that I'm not concerned about the law or innocent bystanders. if someone wrongs me I stop them, that's just me

KaoS, on 20 November 2012 - 11:48 AM said:

if people actually did it would eventually work. if people cannot think enough to install antivirus and antimalware and watch the links they click then they end up spamming others. once such people are removed we shouldn't have an issue. in my mind the perpetrators are guilty. those who allow them to do what they want are just as guilty

D3matt, on 20 November 2012 - 12:11 PM said:

KaoS, on 20 November 2012 - 11:48 AM said:

if people actually did it would eventually work. if people cannot think enough to install antivirus and antimalware and watch the links they click then they end up spamming others. once such people are removed we shouldn't have an issue. in my mind the perpetrators are guilty. those who allow them to do what they want are just as guilty

If you block the IP AFTER they post, you've done nothing useful.

Espen, on 21 November 2012 - 12:35 AM said:

Maybe in addition to entering a captcha, a little context-knowledge might go a long(er) way?
I.e. I'v seen on other forums that they ask you Minecraft-related questions, like:
Who created Minecraft? -> Notch
What is used to connect levers to pistons? -> redstone
Are fences a solid block? -> no
etc.

That at least should cut off any automated spammers who's operators either don't know the context-knowledge or the ones who won't invest the extra time to create a table with question<->answer pairs for their bots, just to get into the 136th website on their spam-list.

Doyle3694, on 04 January 2013 - 04:44 AM said:

any news on spambots? Seen 2 earlier today, just saw one, all 3 are reported. Have something been recently changed for easier registration, or anything like that?

EDIT: 4th one….

Doyle3694, on 04 January 2013 - 04:44 AM said:

any news on spambots? Seen 2 earlier today, just saw one, all 3 are reported. Have something been recently changed for easier registration, or anything like that?

EDIT: 4th one….

KaoS, on 04 January 2013 - 06:29 AM said:

if you look at the accounts used to post the spam you may notice that they were registered long ago. the new methods should work but it will take time to weed out the sleeping spam accounts

Cranium, on 10 January 2013 - 09:38 AM said:

So, quite some time has passed since we started seeing spam on the forums. I see that we now use a reCaptcha and a security question,

Spoiler

but it seems that it is not enough to stop them, as new accounts are being made every day. Is there any other way we can prevent the spam? It's getting ridiculous, and the idea of "Just ignoring it" does not really appeal to me.

NeverCast, on 10 January 2013 - 10:01 AM said:

I've got it, what would all minecrafters know?
Blocks!

We have screenshots of each block which we fuzz with GD library and then ask, "What block is this" in the registration… What board software is this.. IP.Board, I'll see if a module/addon already exists for this purpose.

PixelToast, on 10 January 2013 - 10:03 AM said:

http://www.minecraft...om/data-values/
not going to work
it will only work for questions you cant just google

Cranium, on 10 January 2013 - 10:10 AM said:

Although I think we might have to make it multiple choice for those who cannot spell ANYTHING.

tiin57, on 10 January 2013 - 10:14 AM said:

Cranium, on 10 January 2013 - 10:10 AM said:

Although I think we might have to make it multiple choice for those who cannot spell ANYTHING.

Lol, if they can't spell "dirt", then I say they shouldn't even be in here in the first place :P/>

Cloudy, dan, Lyqyd, Cruor, Lochie, FuzzyPurp, casper (is he still alive?) and other assorted forum staff; have you thought about adding more moderators? :D/>

tiin57, on 10 January 2013 - 10:14 AM said:

Lol, if they can't spell "dirt", then I say they shouldn't even be in here in the first place :P/>

Cloudy, dan, Lyqyd, Cruor, Lochie, FuzzyPurp, casper (is he still alive?) and other assorted forum staff; have you thought about adding more moderators? :D/>

AfterLifeLochie, on 10 January 2013 - 10:20 AM said:

tiin57, on 10 January 2013 - 10:14 AM said:

Cranium, on 10 January 2013 - 10:10 AM said:

Although I think we might have to make it multiple choice for those who cannot spell ANYTHING.

Lol, if they can't spell "dirt", then I say they shouldn't even be in here in the first place :P/>

Cloudy, dan, Lyqyd, Cruor, Lochie, FuzzyPurp, casper (is he still alive?) and other assorted forum staff; have you thought about adding more moderators? :D/>

The number of moderators is certainly not the issue, I'll tell you that.

The fact of the matter is, the quantity and the rate of the spam becomes unmanageable. Last night I just sat on the forums, and after I'd delete three spam users, another two would reappear and litter the place with posts. I had to sit here and entirely devote my attention to watching the forums like a hawk and remove stuff straight away - and when I wake up, it's the same thing - go through the list of reports and clear them all out. There is an almost unbroken wall of spam-reports in the Reports Center, stretching back to at least, and if not further than, Page 8 now.

I still really, really suggest we approve new member's (<10) posts. It's much easier to delete content before it appears - and it keeps the Reports system in a manageable state.

WeebleWobble, on 10 January 2013 - 10:45 AM said:

Ok. Ummm….this is Cranium, and creating an account should not be this easy.
+1 for user experience, -100 for security.

awsumben13, on 10 January 2013 - 10:49 AM said:

i know this may sound crazy but are there any similarities in the usernames of the spammers and would it be possible to auto remove accounts that have a certain pattern or something…also you could put this on a page that lets ppl try ingame as a challenge (try and come up with a code that does the above)

Leo Verto, on 10 January 2013 - 10:55 AM said:

I think the names are just randomly generated from huge lists of words and random numbers.
A sample code wouldn't help much because you could use the same code over and over again, a dynamic verification that you're a human would be better.

Cranium, on 10 January 2013 - 10:57 AM said:

Leo Verto, on 10 January 2013 - 10:55 AM said:

I think the names are just randomly generated from huge lists of words and random numbers.
A sample code wouldn't help much because you could use the same code over and over again, a dynamic verification that you're a human would be better.

True, but so far, the only one I know if is that silly captcha.
Unfortunately, it either isn't working, or we have someone who is taking the time to create all of these accounts manually, and then having them spam.

zekesonxx, on 10 January 2013 - 11:31 AM said:

What about http://areyouahuman.com/? They've worked pretty well in my creations.

crazyguymgd, on 10 January 2013 - 11:34 AM said:

zekesonxx, on 10 January 2013 - 11:31 AM said:

What about http://areyouahuman.com/? They've worked pretty well in my creations.

Ha that was kind of fun too.

zekesonxx, on 10 January 2013 - 11:31 AM said:

What about http://areyouahuman.com/? They've worked pretty well in my creations.

billysback, on 10 January 2013 - 11:30 AM said:

we could ask questions about minecraft, like "who is the creator of minecraft/computercraft" and "what is the minecraft world made up of", then you can only register when these questions are answered correctly; use random questions from a selection.
I've seen that on some forums before… doesn't sound like it would be too effective but who knows?

Leo Verto, on 10 January 2013 - 11:56 AM said:

That page told me I'm a bot :/

Gotta think about my life…

Cranium, on 10 January 2013 - 12:00 PM said:

Leo Verto, on 10 January 2013 - 11:56 AM said:

That page told me I'm a bot :/

Gotta think about my life…

I do everything my turtle overlords tell me to….. It's not so bad being a slave.

zekesonxx, on 10 January 2013 - 11:44 AM said:

EDIT: And check out this better demo.

Cranium, on 10 January 2013 - 10:57 AM said:

True, but so far, the only one I know if is that silly captcha.
Unfortunately, it either isn't working, or we have someone who is taking the time to create all of these accounts manually, and then having them spam.

Dlcruz129, on 10 January 2013 - 06:41 PM said:

While I would usually hate the idea of blocking a users first few posts, we're out of options. I say we go for it.

Leo Verto, on 11 January 2013 - 04:07 AM said:

Dlcruz129, on 10 January 2013 - 06:41 PM said:

While I would usually hate the idea of blocking a users first few posts, we're out of options. I say we go for it.

I still think just don't let them post links in the first post or disallaw links (except for pastebin ones) for members of the clueless.

Leo Verto, on 11 January 2013 - 04:07 AM said:

Dlcruz129, on 10 January 2013 - 06:41 PM said:

While I would usually hate the idea of blocking a users first few posts, we're out of options. I say we go for it.

I still think just don't let them post links in the first post or disallaw links (except for pastebin ones) for members of the clueless.

sjkeegs, on 11 January 2013 - 02:34 AM said:

Cranium, on 10 January 2013 - 10:57 AM said:

True, but so far, the only one I know if is that silly captcha.
Unfortunately, it either isn't working, or we have someone who is taking the time to create all of these accounts manually, and then having them spam.

They have automated systems that ship the captcha off to places where people answer it and send it back.

Cranium, on 11 January 2013 - 05:56 PM said:

We could stop new users from creating topics until they have maybe 10 approved posts on other topics? Although I think that would cause problems with the Ask A Pro section.

Cranium, on 11 January 2013 - 05:56 PM said:

We could stop new users from creating topics until they have maybe 10 approved posts on other topics? Although I think that would cause problems with the Ask A Pro section.

Cranium, on 11 January 2013 - 06:18 PM said:

Yeah, but I'm wondering if they will just start to spam Ask a Pro?

AfterLifeLochie, on 11 January 2013 - 06:21 PM said:

I'm going to repeat myself a little here. It's much easier for us (or me, personally), to approve posts and delete spam in an unapproved state, here's why.

If spam is posted to the site and is automatically approved - as it is right now - it fills the Reports System with garbage, not only making it harder for us to do our job to move stuff around, but makes it incredibly hard to navigate for things that have been reported - and personally, I do not have permissions to permanently remove reports, and neither do the other Moderators.

This certainly does not mean you should not, or must not, report spam - as it is currently the only way we see spam in posts that are not new (eg, a new thread created by a spammer is much easier to see, rather than necroposts/etc).

Whereas, if spam remains in an unapproved state, we can deal with it much more easily - press the Delete button on the post/thread the spambot created, hit "Flag Account" - rather than having to manually delete all the users' posts - and be careful we don't delete a legitimate thread - and clear any reports for that user. It's actually become one of my nightmares now. (I'm not kidding.)

I still, again (and I quote myself) "really, really suggest we approve new member's (<10) posts. It's much easier to delete content before it appears - and it keeps the Reports system in a manageable state." There are enough moderators that content will be approved expediently and we operate in timezones where we overlap by at least a few hours each, so the forum usually does not go un-watched by someone - and if all else fails, the reports system won't overflow.

Dlcruz129, on 11 January 2013 - 06:29 PM said:

You're the moderator. Whatever is easiest for you works for me.

1. Run a script at registration that times how long it takes for the application to be filled out, and how long it takes for a response to be made on the registration email. If it is not done in a HUMANLY time frame, then we flag that IP as 'suspicious'.
1. A moderator could watch the account, and approve the posts they make.
2. Or, the system could place an automatic block on the account, and the user would have to re-verify themselves before continuing.
2. Add additional security questions. But use random ones from a list. Also, the question should not be in plain text, but in an image, such as a .PNG.
1. Two or three questions, pooled from a list of about twenty.
3. This one is a little more tricky, but we could have an 'advanced' registration. The user could check a box, and they can use a lua prompt to create a function to return a certain value that we need.
1. Spoiler

   

Cranium, on 13 January 2013 - 07:11 AM said:

New suggestions:

1. Run a script at registration that times how long it takes for the application to be filled out, and how long it takes for a response to be made on the registration email. If it is not done in a HUMANLY time frame, then we flag that IP as 'suspicious'.
1. A moderator could watch the account, and approve the posts they make.
2. Or, the system could place an automatic block on the account, and the user would have to re-verify themselves before continuing.
2. Add additional security questions. But use random ones from a list. Also, the question should not be in plain text, but in an image, such as a .PNG.
1. Two or three questions, pooled from a list of about twenty.
3. This one is a little more tricky, but we could have an 'advanced' registration. The user could check a box, and they can use a lua prompt to create a function to return a certain value that we need.
1. Spoiler

   

I don't know if any of these are really that good of ideas, but it's definitely something to ponder.

Dlcruz129, on 13 January 2013 - 07:25 AM said:

#3 looks fun, but it would be way too complicated for new users.

PixelToast, on 13 January 2013 - 12:01 PM said:

a "implement a expression that returns x" would be easy for humans, and hard for bots
though they manage to ship captia off to places where the sun dosent shine and still gets past it :s

Cranium, on 13 January 2013 - 08:14 PM said:

PixelToast, on 13 January 2013 - 12:01 PM said:

a "implement a expression that returns x" would be easy for humans, and hard for bots
though they manage to ship captia off to places where the sun dosent shine and still gets past it :s

True, but they can't ship off a whole javascript that would choose a question at random. Something like that would be fairly easy for some of the people here to make, and probably not to hard to add to the regist

KaoS, on 17 January 2013 - 07:10 AM said:

if it is a single company won't they be using a single/finite list or IPs? can't we just ban them?

Who created Minecraft?
>Markus Alexej "Notch" Persson
[nope]
>Markus "Notch" Persson
[nope]
>Markus Alexej Persson
[nope]
>Markus Persson
[nope]
>Notch
DING DING!

TheOriginalBIT, on 19 January 2013 - 03:33 PM said:

Maybe keyword blocking may come in handy too… for example I dont ever see any point to someone on this forum posting the word "viagra" so that could go on the list of words, then thats about 30% of the spam stopped…

BigSHinyToys, on 19 January 2013 - 03:38 PM said:

TheOriginalBIT, on 19 January 2013 - 03:33 PM said:

Maybe keyword blocking may come in handy too… for example I dont ever see any point to someone on this forum posting the word "viagra" so that could go on the list of words, then thats about 30% of the spam stopped…

uggboot would remove another 30%

TheOriginalBIT, on 19 January 2013 - 05:02 PM said:

mainly Russian

Cranium, on 19 January 2013 - 05:31 PM said:

http://puu.sh/1PyfJ
And this is how they get around most of what you guys just said……

TheOriginalBIT, on 19 January 2013 - 06:28 PM said:

True… but we would see a large decrease until the bots figured out to do that… :P/>

Cranium, on 19 January 2013 - 06:33 PM said:

I doubt it. I still think preventing the account creation is more effective than blocking keywords or posts, or links.

BigSHinyToys, on 19 January 2013 - 07:19 PM said:

In a prefect world it would be great to stop them before they make an account

D3matt, on 19 January 2013 - 04:24 PM said:

One way that I've seen done before is to block newly registered users from posting links. If somebody with less than 5 posts tries to post a link (Maybe we can allow links to certain whitelisted websites like Pastebin so new users can post their programs still), they are prevented from making the post (otherwise the spam would still go through, just sans link)

TheOriginalBIT, on 19 January 2013 - 03:50 PM said:

BigSHinyToys, on 19 January 2013 - 03:38 PM said:

TheOriginalBIT, on 19 January 2013 - 03:33 PM said:

Maybe keyword blocking may come in handy too… for example I dont ever see any point to someone on this forum posting the word "viagra" so that could go on the list of words, then thats about 30% of the spam stopped…

uggboot would remove another 30%

More like 50%

www.primarylouisvuittonsale.comkh55
www.bestfeelingmulberry.co.ukgb11
www.varioustypesuggs.co.ukyl11

Hellkid98, on 20 January 2013 - 09:46 AM said:

And all the spam is always getting posted in General,
I mean seriously everytime I look there it's always new spam!

ardera, on 20 January 2013 - 08:52 PM said:

What about questions about CC at registering? I don't think that these spammers know what CC is. They could google it, but I don't think that they would find out so much…

User-agent: *
Disallow: /

Dlcruz129, on 20 January 2013 - 04:08 AM said:

I think moderators should have to approve a user's first few posts.

RunasSudo, on 20 January 2013 - 09:44 PM said:

How about we just add a

User-agent: *
Disallow: /

to the robots.txt and hope for the best? </joke>

Dlcruz129, on 20 January 2013 - 04:08 AM said:

I think moderators should have to approve a user's first few posts.

While that would definitely work, it would probably clog up the system with new user posts. Not to mention the "I want a solution and I want it now!!!!" mentality of new user Ask a Pro posts. I've just had to register an account and jump through all those hoops, and now I have to get my post approved?!

ardera, on 20 January 2013 - 08:52 PM said:

What about questions about CC at registering? I don't think that these spammers know what CC is. They could google it, but I don't think that they would find out so much…

RunasSudo, on 20 January 2013 - 09:44 PM said:

How about we just add a

User-agent: *
Disallow: /

to the robots.txt and hope for the best? </joke>

TheOriginalBIT, on 23 January 2013 - 12:33 PM said:

So updates have been rolled out that prevent a new user from posting a topic? whats the requirements for them to be able to?

KaoS, on 23 January 2013 - 02:49 PM said:

TheOriginalBIT, on 23 January 2013 - 12:33 PM said:

So updates have been rolled out that prevent a new user from posting a topic? whats the requirements for them to be able to?

Dan200 appeared on IRC earlier this evening, he was notifying us that he has corrected a security flaw and has added additional security that puts new users in a group of their own, they will be unable to create a topic for a total of 3 days and if their issue is particularly urgent they can approach people on the IRC

he was also immediately waylaid by various users including myself for information :D/> gotta feel sorry for the guy sometimes. recognition is great but it may get a bit much from what I can see :)/>

Leo Verto, on 24 January 2013 - 09:55 AM said:

Yup, them spamming existing threads would be really a pain.

shiphorns, on 30 January 2013 - 07:29 PM said:

I manage a lot of forums, and I've had the best luck keeping out spambots by baiting them with CAPTCHA but requiring real people to put something else into the field. For example, my forums display a CAPTCHA code with a text entry box next to it, but there are bold instructions to ignore the code and just type "hello" in the box instead, or the answer to a simple trivia question. The spam bots get hung up trying to parse the captcha code, and obviously it takes a real person to read the instructions that tell you to ignore the code.

tiin57, on 31 January 2013 - 03:19 AM said:

shiphorns, on 30 January 2013 - 07:29 PM said:

I manage a lot of forums, and I've had the best luck keeping out spambots by baiting them with CAPTCHA but requiring real people to put something else into the field. For example, my forums display a CAPTCHA code with a text entry box next to it, but there are bold instructions to ignore the code and just type "hello" in the box instead, or the answer to a simple trivia question. The spam bots get hung up trying to parse the captcha code, and obviously it takes a real person to read the instructions that tell you to ignore the code.

That's an excellent idea.

GoldTrousers, on 05 February 2013 - 03:04 PM said:

So are new accounts now allowed to post threads? I signed up to ask a question on the 'ask a pro' but it says I "cant start a new topic" Sorry if this is a strange place to post this question, but all I can do is make comments on threads.

TheOriginalBIT, on 05 February 2013 - 03:06 PM said:

Good to see that people read forum stickies, especially when they are in the section that you want to post in, here is one sticky (http://www.computerc...rum-guidelines/) read the bold bit. Then here is a second sticky (http://www.computerc...ns-please-read/) which is also helpful for you. Both of these stickies are in the very section you wanted to post.

ArmchairArmada, on 19 February 2013 - 05:59 PM said:

Warning: The following will be entirely off-topic.

I cannot start any new topics anywhere on the forum and I don't know why (hence, why I didn't start a topic to get help with this.) Every forum category says, "You cannot start a new topic" at the top. If it helps, I reset my password about a week ago then noticed this problem. I thought maybe I had to just wait it out, but I guess not.

Cranium, on 20 February 2013 - 03:42 AM said:

ArmchairArmada, on 19 February 2013 - 05:59 PM said:

Warning: The following will be entirely off-topic.

I cannot start any new topics anywhere on the forum and I don't know why (hence, why I didn't start a topic to get help with this.) Every forum category says, "You cannot start a new topic" at the top. If it helps, I reset my password about a week ago then noticed this problem. I thought maybe I had to just wait it out, but I guess not.

Did you not read the several posts above yours? They are the exact same question.

ArmchairArmada, on 19 February 2013 - 05:59 PM said:

Warning: The following will be entirely off-topic.

I cannot start any new topics anywhere on the forum and I don't know why (hence, why I didn't start a topic to get help with this.) Every forum category says, "You cannot start a new topic" at the top. If it helps, I reset my password about a week ago then noticed this problem. I thought maybe I had to just wait it out, but I guess not.

Cranium, on 20 February 2013 - 03:42 AM said:

ArmchairArmada, on 19 February 2013 - 05:59 PM said:

Warning: The following will be entirely off-topic.

I cannot start any new topics anywhere on the forum and I don't know why (hence, why I didn't start a topic to get help with this.) Every forum category says, "You cannot start a new topic" at the top. If it helps, I reset my password about a week ago then noticed this problem. I thought maybe I had to just wait it out, but I guess not.

Did you not read the several posts above yours? They are the exact same question.

Skullblade, on 01 February 2013 - 01:48 PM said:

I like that idea but if this is a individual intentional attack then it will only be a little until the "attacker" realizes the new restriction and always types "hello"

ben132, on 22 March 2013 - 07:48 AM said:

I am really sorry to post here. But I cannot start any topics in an of the sub-forums
P.S. I know this is in the wrong place but there is nothing that I can do.

TheOriginalBIT, on 05 February 2013 - 03:06 PM said:

Good to see that people read forum stickies, especially when they are in the section that you want to post in, here is one sticky (http://www.computerc...rum-guidelines/) read the bold bit. Then here is a second sticky (http://www.computerc...ns-please-read/) which is also helpful for you. Both of these stickies are in the very section you wanted to post.

ben132, on 22 March 2013 - 07:48 AM said:

I am really sorry to post here. But I cannot start any topics in an of the sub-forums
P.S. I know this is in the wrong place but there is nothing that I can do.