I have a new pest on my board with too much free time on his hands. He creates usernames for the simple purpose of spamming/trolling the forum.
I have decided to create a new membergroup that only has access to post in one board, the spamming board (yes, I even created that). The thing is, as soon as I add his username to this new membergroup he goes and creates a new user id with a new hotmail address. Now, amusing as it is, I rather not be wasting my time adding him to the spammer membergroup each time he gets himself a new account on my board.
Yes, I could ban his IP .. but i'm only willing to do that as a last resort.
I can also stop allowing @hotmail.com addresses from registering.
What I had in mind, however is whether it is possible to automatically assign any and all registrations from a given IP address to this spammer membergroup I've made.
If that's not possible, what other suggestions do you guys have?
Ban all his membernames, Email addresses...and check to see if he is only one using his IP...and then ban that as well....
Also makes ure you utilize the registration email thingy...as it makes it take a bit longer to register....and he may tire of his games....
Ban him don't put him in a new membergroup, when you ban them they have to get rid of the cookie to log out. Probably too much hastle for most casual spammers.
I have similar problems the last weeks. A troll harassing members of my community. He keeps registering several accounts and pretends to be different persons. So far I haven't banned him because it is so easy to register new email addresses and register new accounts. Also IP's are normally dynamic and change periodically. So far I keep deleting his worst offending posts.
Or possbile turn on Admin has to approve Account Activation, and if he trys to Register again, just don't accept him......
All of these are great ideas, and I appreciate the help.
Only thing is, by taking some of these measures, I'm going to be making it harder for
honest folk to register a name. Before I do that I'd like to exhaust all other options .. given that I have any. :)
Lainaus käyttäjältä: reznorsoft - helmikuu 03, 2005, 01:46:09 IP
I have decided to create a new membergroup that only has access to post in one board, the spamming board
I just realized that this isn't working on my main forum.
I've tested it on my test forum (a SMF 1.0.1 fresh install) and it works perfectly. However, on my main forum that has been converted from YaBBSE (some time ago), even if by permissions a user can only have access to the Spam boards, he/she still sees and can post all across the forum.
Can I fix this?
Have you made any code modifications? Are you sure you changed the board access properly?
-[Unknown]
Lainaus käyttäjältä: [Unknown] - helmikuu 04, 2005, 09:10:43 IP
Are you sure you changed the board access properly?
I think so. I tried it about four or five times, with different options like 'standard' vs. 'restrictive' and 'based off guests' (guests cannot post) and the result was always the same.
And when I'd check the board permissions, even though the Spammer membergroup check-box was unchecked, it would still have posting access.
Lainaus käyttäjältä: [Unknown] - helmikuu 04, 2005, 09:10:43 IP
Have you made any code modifications?
No. But ..
When I upgraded from YaBBSE to SMF, I didn't know about the converter, or
repair_settings.php or any mod that would make things easier.
So instead, I installed a fresh install of the then-current version of SMF, emptied its database and expected that I could simply use the data from my YaBBSE to import it into SMF (after changing the table prefixes with ConText).
That, of course didn't work because the table structures were different, and the data didn't match the entry fields. Not sure if you understand, but here's what I mean:
CREATE TABLE `smf_members` (
`ID_MEMBER` mediumint(8) unsigned NOT NULL auto_increment, <<<< YaBBSE table structure
`memberName` varchar(80) NOT NULL default '',
`realName` tinytext NOT NULL,
`passwd` varchar(64) NOT NULL default '',
vs.
CREATE TABLE `smf_members` (
`ID_MEMBER` mediumint(8) unsigned NOT NULL auto_increment, <<<< SMF table structure
`memberName` varchar(80) NOT NULL default '',
`dateRegistered` int(10) unsigned NOT NULL default '0',
`posts` mediumint(8) unsigned NOT NULL default '0',So, because the data values that I tried to import into the SMF database were not what the table structure was expecting, that didn't work.
Then I got rid of the SMF database alltogether and imported my database from YaBBSE (structure and data), uploaded it, ran Repair Tables from within the Admin Panel and had a working forum.
Does that help ???
And, more importantly, would that effect the funtionality of the permissions system?
Lainaus käyttäjältä: reznorsoft - helmikuu 05, 2005, 11:12:29 AP
Lainaus käyttäjältä: [Unknown] - helmikuu 04, 2005, 09:10:43 IP
Are you sure you changed the board access properly?
I think so. I tried it about four or five times, with different options like 'standard' vs. 'restrictive' and 'based off guests' (guests cannot post) and the result was always the same.
And when I'd check the board permissions, even though the Spammer membergroup check-box was unchecked, it would still have posting access.
Remember: if I'm a "Newbie" who is also a "Spammer", and "Newbie" is checked but "Spammer" isn't, I still have access.
-[Unknown]