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Registration confirmation email is considered spam

Started by Robomcd, April 19, 2018, 04:48:57 PM

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Robomcd

Our forum gets tens of spam registrations per day, and I don't know how many get deleted already before they get to the page. I have stop spammer and httpBL installed, but stop spammer is not indicating anymore what it thinks are spammers and what legitimate registers.

Unfortunately, the forum automatically replies with the friendly letter that the registration has been received and is awaiting approval. Now, AOL thinks I am sending out spam emails because the forum reacts on spam registrations. Can I switch off the email confirmation?

Deaks

have you tried adding questions that need answered, that are related to your forums topic and not just general like "what colour is grass?"
~~~~
Former SMF Project Manager
Former SMF Customizer

"For as lang as hunner o us is in life, in nae wey
will we thole the Soothron tae owergang us. In truth it isna for glory, or wealth, or
honours that we fecht, but for freedom alane, that nae honest cheil gies up but wi life
itsel."

a10

Generally about AOffL, have had tons of problems with them idiots falsely and randomly killing off legitimate mails (and mailserver IPs), member's notifications \ new registrations etc never delivered \ all bouncing back  ...with my mail server trying a dozen times to resend each before giving up, result was periods with 100's of bounced\error messages in my inbox :-X  :-X

Now refusing InaptitudeOL as mail adresses for registrations, and forced any existing member using DeficiencyOL into changing email provider.

About the spam rats, a dozen+ questions with something like 3 active and they will meet the wall.
Search forum for good ideas on type\system of questions.
2.0.19, php 8.0.23, MariaDB 10.5.15. Mods: Contact Page, Like Posts, Responsive Curve, Search Focus Dropdown, Add Join Date to Post.

Kindred

Слaва
Украинi

Please do not PM, IM or Email me with support questions.  You will get better and faster responses in the support boards.  Thank you.

"Loki is not evil, although he is certainly not a force for good. Loki is... complicated."

Robomcd

BryanD, Kindred, I have two questions (no sums) + captcha. In addition, I have stop spammer and httpBL installed. I did do the tricks with installing 2.0.15 and stop spammer in the order as recommended. However, stop spammer is still not working as it should be.

https://www.simplemachines.org/community/index.php?topic=283309.msg3969024#msg3969024

Kindred

2 questions is not enough.

You should have 20 or more questions...   and ask 2.
Слaва
Украинi

Please do not PM, IM or Email me with support questions.  You will get better and faster responses in the support boards.  Thank you.

"Loki is not evil, although he is certainly not a force for good. Loki is... complicated."

Robomcd

I will try think of something where there is a clear answer. The forum is about towns with the same name of Newcastle from all over the world. We try to get town officials involved, and it is hard work. So the questions have to be simple and understandable for people from all around the world.

Kindred, any idea about the stop spammer problem?

a10

^^^ try this question system, easy to make up \ endless variations, 0% problem for humans, 100% problem for spambots.

http://www.simplemachines.org/community/index.php?topic=531660.msg3776163#msg3776163
2.0.19, php 8.0.23, MariaDB 10.5.15. Mods: Contact Page, Like Posts, Responsive Curve, Search Focus Dropdown, Add Join Date to Post.

Kindred

no clue about your stop spammer problem. I use that mod on 4 sites and have no issues on 2.0.15...
Ask in the mod support thread?
Слaва
Украинi

Please do not PM, IM or Email me with support questions.  You will get better and faster responses in the support boards.  Thank you.

"Loki is not evil, although he is certainly not a force for good. Loki is... complicated."

GigaWatt

Quote from: a10 on April 23, 2018, 03:03:54 PM
^^^ try this question system, easy to make up \ endless variations, 0% problem for humans, 100% problem for spambots.

Exactly ;).

I've used the a10 question template (I had to call it something :D) for a few months now. I dropped the captcha and dropped the questions to only one ;). Not a single bot registered since I implemented the a10 question template ;). If the forum is in English, you might want to keep the integrated SMF captcha or make the number of asked questions two.

Kindred is also right, you have to up the number of question variations (total number of questions, not the number of questions that are asked if you try to register). And a10 is also right, the number of variations in the question template is limitless ;). I have about 20 different questions and during the registration, SMF asks only one.

Try it, I guarantee you, you'll be surprised ;). I was like ":o :o :o" after the first night I implemented it. Each morning I had to delete about 10 accounts. I had the default SMF captcha set to extra hard and 2 questions (out of 20 different ones) asked during registration. I couldn't believe no bots registered that night :o. I though "hey, even they deserve a vacation from time to time" :D :D :D. Just kidding :D. I though the host must've done something server side... I thought "no way the template is that good"... yes, it's that good :).

Thank you a10 for the awesome template ;) :).
"This is really a generic concept about human thinking - when faced with large tasks we're naturally inclined to try to break them down into a bunch of smaller tasks that together make up the whole."

"A 500 error loosely translates to the webserver saying, "WTF?"..."

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