Unsolicited Threads On Forum.

[anuragz 4]

hi,

i m an avid visitor of rimweb.in & i log on this forum around 4-5 times a day.

From past two days i m observing that betwen 10pm to 11pm some new members posts threads which contains unsolicited & unpermissble materials.

for eg. on 17feb around 10:30pm someone posted a link to warez site which contained pirated & porn stuff. The link also tries to push some malware into your system. Thanx to my Antivirus !

Even today(18feb) at the same time some new member called 'artinstituteo' posted a thread which contained links to art institutes, moreover those links were fake & direct u to some other site.

when i checked the profile of the member it did not contaied any information except a username.

Although both the days those threads were deleted within minutes but still i request the administrators to make sure that such incidents do not take place.

This is a very informative forum & we require more members to exchange knowledge. But some steps should be taken to check the authenticity of the new members & make sure only genuine members join the forum.

Regards

[Vishal Gupta 4]

The threads, you are talking about, are posted by Spambots and not by human beings.

We are trying our best to stop such spam messages and thats why we all always remove such posts as soon as possible.

So don't worry about these posts and always report such posts, whenever you see them.

[Arun 795]

As you may have noticed, almost all such topics are being removed off the forum within 5 - 10 minutes. We are getting around 5 such topics per day these days, and it doesn't happen during any particular time of the day, but throughout the day. As Mr.Vista has pointed it out, these posts are created by Spambots, rather then human beings. I have mentioned about it in this topic.

Anyway, I am planning on a "permanent" fix for this issue by not allowing new member's topics to be displayed without a moderator's approval. This will apply only for the first topic/post by a new member and once his/her first topic/post is approved by a moderator, he/she can post further without the need of approval from a moderator.

[anuragz 4]

As you may have noticed, almost all such topics are being removed off the forum within 5 - 10 minutes. We are getting around 5 such topics per day these days, and it doesn't happen during any particular time of the day, but throughout the day. As Mr.Vista has pointed it out, these posts are created by Spambots, rather then human beings. I have mentioned about it in this topic.

Anyway, I am planning on a "permanent" fix for this issue by not allowing new member's topics to be displayed without a moderator's approval. This will apply only for the first topic/post by a new member and once his/her first topic/post is approved by a moderator, he/she can post further without the need of approval from a moderator.

dear Arun

i think your idea of moderators approval will be very beneficial in stopping such threads.

try to apply it ASAP

thanx

[rEdshiFt 1]

yes arun, permission for the FIRST post sound promising... should put a lid on these damn bots

[Honest 836]

^^^

I too agree with you all my dear friends. Breaks should be applied as soon as possible on these spambots.

Regards.

[Vishal Gupta 4]

Thats really a good idea Arun. I'm ready for this task.

[Sadikk 301]

I have seen on some sites that u have to enter some digits or alphabets before proceeding further for registration or I AGREE stuffs.

See to it, it can be helpfull as putting those mixed numbers is only possible by HUMAN but spambot.

i am not sure though.

[Vishal Gupta 4]

Filling those random number/character can be easily done by spambots, so its not very useful but I hv seen "Forum Guidelines" option at Registration page is useful in stopping such spambots.

There are 4 options in drag-n-drop box for "Forum Guidelines", Have you read the guidelines?:

No, because I'm a spambot

No

Yes

Yes, but I can't remember

These options can be edited/removed from ACP. Spambots used to select the first option "No, because I'm a spambot" always.

[Arun 795]

Yes, entering the random letters/numbers is called CAPTCHA method, which is already implemented at RIMweb.in when registering. Unfortunately, the CAPTCHA method is cracked by spambots already.

Interesting idea there Vishal, worth a try indeed, I'll look into it.

[copperco2 24]

Can we have this like..

while registration some numbers and alphabets are entered.

and if it is not done in the manner prescribed then shows error and asks you to do it again.

can we show error by default and ask for the second confirmation..giving the error message.

the spambots if are programmed then they will be giving the right sequence in the first place and this confirmation- error message could baffle.(if it is possible) them.

[swaroop 0]

I have observed that some spam bots have reverse engineered the "captcha".. So i tried "Akismet" with my blog (comments section is really prone to such attacks).

But i think it doenst support for IPBoard(it surely does for phpBB) .. there should be something like the already for IPBoard too. Just an idea..

Cheers

[HetalDP 947]

CAPTCHA methods are hard to Crack and after more than 100 to 200 trial the SPAM get success in one Sign up.

My suggestion to make CAPTCHA images more colorful, mixed of Different Font and Some time Two or Three image should be shown using Java in on or Multiple Sequence.

Hey Vishal any Suggestions

[HetalDP 947]

Like Ramdom system will Generate more than 2 or 3 Images for CAPTCHA. and then this images are transfer into Web Browser in Asynchonus manner using Front end Java Applets.

We can also have Adobe FLash instead of Plain Image where the sytem Generate Flash file dynamically. and hey this Flash file should display this character one after one (FIrst is shown then that hides then second is shown ..on.. on). User should Plan Flash Content and see what is written in it.

[supernova 47]

i think arun idea of moderator approval is best . in this way new members would also search forum before posting .

[anuragz 4]

[off topic]

hey Arun, is there a possibility that online members on the forum can chat with each other ?

[GSV13 0]

Chatting hmm i think shoutbox would do that!!!

[Arun 795]

anuraz/GSV13, I think someone had asked it here.

back to the topic... I just noticed that CAPTCHA was disabled in the Registration settings after the 2.2.x upgrade ! No wonder SPAM topics were on the rise even though Invision Power claimed that combating SPAM will be much better in 2.2.x using the advanced CAPTCHA method which utilizes GD2 library and random fonts. I have just enabled this, lets see how it goes now.

[HetalDP 947]

Thanx Arun,

Lets see more Cleaner Forum.

[Arun 795]

Yipeee, no spam topics seen for a week now !

geez, can't believe CAPTCHA was disabled till now after the 2.2.x upgrade !

Thanks to anuragz for starting this topic so that I could find it out !

[Vishal Gupta 4]

Yeah! No SPAM posts and forum is looking clean.