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Spam Attack


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Steve 

My staff WIZ found a control that blocks posting links for the first # ? posts. We picked 10 . This has been quite effective ... lazy spammers !

Maybe you have this control ?

As to why the amount of spammers appearing lately ..my theory is.

They come in waves...so things happening globally is my guess. ?

EX; Lots of application emails ending in .ru since the war started over there. I call it "desperation spam" , Surprisingly none from Ukraine .. (I'm NOT trying to start a political commentary here , "just the facts Mam ! "

 

I also have an alter ego mod.   I call him IDGARA the Impaler Mod. 

I like him but spammers probably wish he didn't take out the purge button so quickly..

Skuh kuh kuh kuh

If you and Chase are having trouble keeping up , I'm on east coast DST  IDGARA the Impaler Mod is available (but supplies are limited , ONLY 1 left ! Order soon.)🥸

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I checked the forum this morning, read all the posts since last night and just before walking out the door to go to work I checked the forum again and it had started, all within 20 minutes or less, 30 or so SPAM posts, I unfortunately didn't have time to report any as I was a bit late leaving for work.

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On 12/6/2022 at 3:00 PM, Geotech said:

I assume Invision lets you put new registrants in moderation, meaning their posts won't display until you approve and remove them from moderation. Next step is to start building up a .htaccess file with spammer IP addresses.

I did indeed just throw in the towel, and go to having to manually review and approve every new membership application. There are just too many spammers hitting between 2am and 5am for me to let it ride as is. It will make it take longer for a new person to register, and I may ever accidentally discard a legit person now and then, but it can't be helped. The obvious spammers I just ban and add to the database. The questionable ones I simply delete the registration so they can try again, or maybe contact me to say they are having difficulty, if they care enough to try that hard.

People have mentioned paid membership as a way of supporting the forum. A kind thought, but something I've always rebelled at even considering. It occurs to me now that having a very nominal membership fee might solve a couple issues. First, it sorts out inactive accounts on a yearly basis. But mainly it would be a serious block on spammers of any sort, bot or human. I'm nowhere near that now, but a last resort way down the road might be a $1 a year membership fee. I can't see that as an impediment to anyone that cares, and I can't see any spammers ever paying even a dollar to spam a site. Comments welcome on that subject, but don't worry, it's not happening now or anytime soon, unless this gets to be a real problem. My main fear is new AI coming online that can defeat any other possibility. It is all but inevitable I'm afraid.

Being winter it's all fine I guess, not like I'm really doing that much anyway, that checking registrations is a big deal. Might be more the issue if I take off to Alaska again next summer, and go off grid a substantial period of time. In that case I may just suspend new registrations for the period involved. Luckily chasing membership numbers is not a huge priority in my life. We have a really great crew here already! :smile:

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Duh, I’m stupid. It would not need to be a $1 a year because all I really care about is filtering new memberships. So you all get grandfathered in, and new members have to pay $1 for a lifetime membership, as long as account is in good standing. That just may be the ticket, and anyone not willing to pay a one time fee of $1 can just lurk anyway. 

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8 minutes ago, Steve Herschbach said:

Duh, I’m stupid. It would not need to be a $1 a year because all I really care about is filtering new memberships. So you all get grandfathered in, and new members have to pay $1 for a lifetime membership, as long as account is in good standing. That just may be the ticket, and anyone not willing to pay a one time fee of $1 can just lurk anyway. 

And SCAMMERS know money transaction can be traced. 

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Just my experience, but I have tried a paid membership on my forums years ago. It was more than a dollar, but I don't remember how much more. Not really expensive.

Like Steve, i did it to eliminate SPAMMERS, as well as some very pernicious and vulgar hackers. My result was that it just about brought my forums to screeching halt, lost most of the membership. In my case it was not just new membership, it had to be all members because I had "sleepers" that had signing up sometimes months before.

I ended up having to use law enforcement to take care of these problems. Law enforcement doesn't consider spamming important enough to deal with; but the hacker part they get serious about. I hope no one here has never had the experience of innocently opening a forum and seeing vivid, raw porn on the index page. It is even more disturbing if the porn has you photoshopped into the porn.

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Like I said, nobody now a member would have to pony up a dime. It would just filter new members, and if there are no more because of a dollar, I can certainly live with that. I'm not really seriously considering doing it anyway, as I think this will blow over.

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