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Dodgy user IDs on the forum

Posted: Thu Nov 16, 2006 7:15 pm
by Implode
I'm about to do a purge of dodgy user IDs from the forum, i.e. user IDs with advertising/pharmacy/mortgage/loan/porn sites as their website on their user ID. They've only added user IDs to abuse the forum as a form of advertising.

If I end up deleting someone genuine's user ID in the process, then I apologize! Just re-add yourself.

Implode.

Posted: Wed Dec 06, 2006 4:01 am
by Lupinedreams
There are spam accounts on the forums? Comedy, I haven't seen any spam posts - either Implode does an excellent job of keeping the place clean and friendly or the spammers are slacking off :lol:

Posted: Wed Dec 06, 2006 4:46 am
by Implode
I've only ever seen 1 actual spam post, and I probably check this place for new msgs at least 3 times a day (once when I get up, once after work and once just before I go to bed :) ) so chances are I'm going to clean off spam posts before anyone else sees them.

What I did find tho was probably 20+ user IDs with http://www.somedodgypharmacy.com or similar as their website address in their user profile. I spose they were just hoping someone would browser the user IDs and click the link? I dunno... I just cleaned them off :)

Implode.

Posted: Tue Dec 19, 2006 7:02 am
by ikanreed
I hate to waste your time with information that doesn't contribute to MoMIME, but the reason these are made is so that google will index their user ids via the memberlist, and the memberlist will link to their pages increasing their google pagerank.

Re: Dodgy user IDs on the forum

Posted: Sun Apr 19, 2009 1:46 am
by elliott20
wow, talk about irony.

Re: Dodgy user IDs on the forum

Posted: Sun Apr 19, 2009 3:33 am
by Lucern
lol. No kidding.

That software Tino mentioned in that other thread aside, it may be time to pass out a couple of moderator titles.

Re: Dodgy user IDs on the forum

Posted: Sun Apr 19, 2009 4:26 am
by elliott20
shit, I'll do it. I'll even try to get new members, if possible.

Re: Dodgy user IDs on the forum

Posted: Sun Apr 19, 2009 11:26 pm
by Darkpriest667
what about that stuv guy that posted his graduation b.s. on every damn board... thats spam if you ask me implode

Re: Dodgy user IDs on the forum

Posted: Mon Apr 20, 2009 11:17 am
by Tino Didriksen
Darkpriest667 wrote:what about that stuv guy that posted his graduation b.s. on every damn board... thats spam if you ask me implode
Notice the 2006 timestamps...the spammer necroed this thread.

Re: Dodgy user IDs on the forum

Posted: Mon Apr 20, 2009 12:45 pm
by Darkpriest667
his mistake... we need to do it again and purge the accounts...

Re: Dodgy user IDs on the forum

Posted: Tue Apr 21, 2009 10:32 am
by Tino Didriksen
Purging accounts is a no-win situation; they can always register. Blocking the actual posts is much more effective.

I usually run a 3-step protection:
- Cannot register with a URL in your site info. Can put one in later, just can't register with one. This cuts away most spambots and slightly inconveniences normal users.
- Block posts with 10 or more URLs in them.
- Akismet. If your post survives Akismet, it's good. If it doesn't, Akismet can be bypassed by extra user action.

Very rare for spam to get past that, and it only annoys a minor part of the regular users.

Re: Dodgy user IDs on the forum

Posted: Tue Apr 21, 2009 4:06 pm
by elliott20
also, if he built in a verification thing before registration, he can also cut down on the auto spam bot creations too.

Re: Dodgy user IDs on the forum

Posted: Tue Apr 21, 2009 8:43 pm
by Tino Didriksen
You're thinking of a CAPTCHA. And yeah, they also stop most registrations, but I find them annoying so I try to use alternative methods or very simple CAPTCHAs.

Re: Dodgy user IDs on the forum

Posted: Thu Apr 23, 2009 3:12 pm
by Darkpriest667
can we just do something about it.. its getting annoying