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I'm having a massive spamming problem

Started by krash661, January 15, 2012, 04:48:47 PM

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krash661

I'm having a massive spamming problem,where do i go to find a resolution on here about this ?

let me rephrase this, whats the best anti spam mod so far?


Illori

the built in anti-spam verification questions

krash661

Quote from: Illori on January 15, 2012, 06:05:22 PM
the built in anti-spam verification questions
ok illori, ill look into that under the manuals, thanks.

krash661

below is a image. I'm not understanding this " Verification Questions  ". I insert the question, do I insert an answer? and If I insert the answer,How would a guest who's registering know the answer to the question? The manual does not explain this well,it's not clear on how to set this up and how it works,thanks for your help.


Illori

if you dont insert an answer how would the forum know that the people trying to register has entered the corrrect answer?

krash661

Quote from: Illori on January 16, 2012, 12:44:03 PM
if you dont insert an answer how would the forum know that the people trying to register has entered the corrrect answer?
I don't understand, how would the  people trying to register know what the correct answer would be? That's a one in a million(s) chance of them knowing,Maybe there's something that i dont understand how this works?
EXAMPLE : if i put in the question " what's my favorite color " and the answer is " green "....how would they know the answer is green?

Illori

you need to use questions your users would know the answer to, not random questions or math questions.

krash661

Quote from: Illori on January 16, 2012, 12:53:07 PM
you need to use questions your users would know the answer to, not random questions or math questions.
exactly,so if i have this set,and they are not users yet,(registering for an account),how would they be able to register for an account?
Maybe I'm not understanding...Is this for guest registering for an account, or is this setting for existing members only?  I'm not trying to stop existing spammer members from posting..I'm trying to stop spammers from registering..how do i do that?


Illori

you want the questions to relate to your forum so that users that register will know the answer and the bots/human spammers can not easily guess the answer.

krash661

Quote from: Illori on January 16, 2012, 01:02:28 PM
you want the questions to relate to your forum so that users that register will know the answer and the bots/human spammers can not easily guess the answer.

so in other words,they have to " guess " the right answer? what if they can never guess the right answer and then give up? 
" users that register will know the answer ",as someone who i never met,how would they " know " or " guess " the right answer? to me this does not make sense.

or

Is this for guest registering for an account, or is this setting for existing members only?  I'm not trying to stop existing spammer members from posting..I'm trying to stop spammers from registering..how do i do that?

kat

Krash... Take a few minutes to read this topic, again.

You're missing things. ;)

krash661

Quote from: K@ on January 16, 2012, 01:28:13 PM
Krash... Take a few minutes to read this topic, again.

You're missing things. ;)

I'm reading this right now,
http://www.simplemachines.org/community/index.php?topic=452752.0

and from what I gather its a " they have to guess the right answer " kind of thing.I'm just wondering if they can't guess correctly (even tho it's something that I THINK would be easy,may not be easy to someone else),then give up and decide it's a hassle to register.
Quote from
http://www.simplemachines.org/community/index.php?topic=452752.0
Quoteand if the question is too hard, I just choose not to register because of that and that is bad for marketing.

kat

YOU choose the questions, OK?

So, if you invent questions that are related to your forum, questions that your members will KNOW, you can use those. Your members won't need to guess. Outsiders will.

That's what Illori's been trying to tell you.

krash661

Quote from: K@ on January 16, 2012, 01:55:06 PM
YOU choose the questions, OK?

So, if you invent questions that are related to your forum, questions that your members will KNOW, you can use those. Your members won't need to guess. Outsiders will.

That's what Illori's been trying to tell you.
Well, that's the thing, there's some miss understanding...I'm not after the members, I'm after the guest who are registering to be a member. My site has 3 sections. 1-GUEST( does not have access to the site.) 2-MEMBERS(guest who have registered for an account) 3-SUBSCRIBERS(members who have paid for certain boards on my forum). I'm trying to stop the spammers from registering,not stop members from spamming.

Illori

those are your "users" that register, your "guests"

if a user really wants to register on your forum they should know something about your forum's content, what type of forum it is about. if they dont then your questions should tell them to buzz off as they cant complete the registration.

kat

I think you'll find that's designed to stop Spam bots, rather than humans, isn't it?

There are various mods that are designed for deterring human Spamtards, I believe.

I'm hoping someone will design a mod that'll send their computers up in flames, myself... ;)

krash661

Quote from: Illori on January 16, 2012, 02:12:19 PM
those are your "users" that register, your "guests"

if a user really wants to register on your forum they should know something about your forum's content, what type of forum it is about. if they dont then your questions should tell them to buzz off as they cant complete the registration.
That's the misunderstanding,my guest don't have access to the site and need to register for access,and when they do register,they are now members.it's not classified on my site as Users,It's classified as  guest,members and subscribers.

and also

Quotethey should know something about your forum's content, what type of forum it is about.
this is what i realized after i read    http://www.simplemachines.org/community/index.php?topic=452752.0

so I think I understand..thanks for your help Illori and k@

krash661

Quote from: K@ on January 16, 2012, 02:14:49 PM


I'm hoping someone will design a mod that'll send their computers up in flames, myself... ;)
:)  i get ya.

Illori


krash661

Quote from: Illori on January 16, 2012, 02:31:01 PM
no you are the one misunderstanding.
I already stated that. I know.

anyways one last question.
if one of my verification questions is ,
what is this site about? :
as an answer, i can i have : Investing, trading, business
or am i only allowed one word of use like i only could use one of those words above for an answer?

Illori



Absorb

Hi krash661,

I had massive spam problems until I started using the verification questions right.

Before I was using them - Spam everywhere

When I first started using them I put in simple questions like "what is the sum of 2 + 3" - Answer "5" and those Spam Bot programs were still getting through big time.

How I rectified - I put a picture on my front page that had letters in it and I asked the verification question of what were the three letters in the picture. People registering simply had to scroll to the top of the page to get the answer and this was an impossible task for an automated Spam Bot, they do not see pictures on a page, just text.

I was reading in another part of this forum where someone else had the same problem and they had a picture of an Eagle in the background - They asked the question "What is the Animal in the picture"

Until you organise the picture try a difficult type of simple question that everyone should know
Q. "What is big, furry, white and growls that lives at the North Pole" - A. "Polar Bear"
Working to decrease our dependency on Fossil Fuels with Hydrogen
http://www.reduceyourfuelbill.com.au/forum

Arantor

QuoteWhen I first started using them I put in simple questions like "what is the sum of 2 + 3" - Answer "5" and those Spam Bot programs were still getting through big time.

Math questions are trivial to beat. As a guide, try searching for them on Google and see if you get the answer. Even your question, if put into Google will yield the Wikipedia page for 'polar bear' as the first response, and it won't be long before it's broken.

Better still, pick a question that applies to what your forum is about, rather than a general one. You get the benefit of likely keeping bots out but you also help keep out the sort of people who just sign up to spam (because they're the ones who will have to do some work to find the answer)

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