Idea in fighting forum spam

[dannyd]

I found this site which lists forum spammers:

http://www.stopforumspam.com/

I think it would be a great idea if there was a mod that would check the registrants IP against this site and not allow them to register if they are known spammers.

Does something like this already exist ? What do you guys think ?

[ITA003]

Hi!
Read this topic http://www.simplemachines.org/community/index.php?topic=273816.msg1804718#msg1804718
I'm writing a mod to check that site for spam user in the registration page.
At the moment I write for 1.1.* forum in the next weeks I test the 2.0 beta forum and update my mods...

[Martin L.]

Solutions based on IP addresses (and may be RBLs) working bad.

A better idea:
Spammers are posting most on bypassing the posting form. So session traps will parry spams.

technical:
On posting form a key will be created a individual key and sended with the post by session. Spammers, their bypass the posting form have no key (or an old and expired key). Post with no actual key should be discarded.

I am SMF-Newbee. So I can not write and distribute my own Mod. If You (or anyone else) likes ...

I am no friend of capchas because:

• They can be read by ocr-routines
• They discard people, theyre handicaped with their eyes

Martin

[Elrond]

This seems to have been posted when many spikes of multiple registrations (often from the same IP address) were reported on multiple sites. I had a giant registration spike on my site starting in November and not ending until I began checking the Stop Forum Spam site. I have even added links for administrators for the online user's list (as well as the Admin member list form) to check E-mail addresses as well as IP addresses.

Captcha has little to no affect on spammers it seems.

Sending keys is a good idea too, to prevent spammers from posting. Seems to be a possible way to lower the amount of successfully-made spam posts.

Stop Forum Spam has quite a large database of spammers all over the world, and a mod that takes use of Stop Forum Spam's database would be very much appreciated.

An example of the online user's list modification would be...

Find:

Code Select Expand

(<a href="' . $scripturl . '?action=trackip;searchip=' . $member['ip'] . '" class="new-window">' . $member['ip'] . '</a>)

Add after:

Code Select Expand

                    <a href="http://www.stopforumspam.com/search?q='.$member['ip'].'" title="Spam Check on '.$member['ip'].'" class="new-window">
                        <img src="'.$settings['images_url'].'/ip.gif" alt="Spam Check" class="valign_top" />
                    </a>

What appears after the IP address of a user on the online list is the IP image that you see below someone's post on the forums, but the image could be anything, or just be replaced with some text string as per your preferences.

This makes it so that instead of opening Stop Forum Spam and then typing the IP address in yourself, just one click does all that. This can be extended onto the Administration member's list for the E-mail address and IP address.

And a mod for this would be excellent as well - maybe the online user's list could import some XML from Stop Forum Spam's database into the online list without performing any clicking.

But as said, IP address solutions can be flawed, and sometimes the IP addresses are proxies. Sometimes at the end of the day, all that can be relied upon is catching a spammer making a bad post and just deleting it, banning the spammer and on repeat offense, informing their ISP of the problem. Many ISPs do crack down on spam, but some don't crack down as much as they should. And with every method of spamming that begins to fail due to more-sophisticated routines for eliminating it, another form of spam inevitably will replace it. Staying ahead of it doesn't always guarantee 100% success in stopping a spammer from making their first post, but it really does help a good deal.

Looking forward to the mod for this.