New anti-spam technique implemented (mods take note)

[Undertoad]

It would screw us is the problem!

If it goes on the answer is to moderate every new user, which would be a pain in the ass since the spammers started 35 accounts just overnight.

[glatt]

I just deleted like 30 spam posts this morning.
It was rather tedious. Maybe I'm not doing it the most efficient way. I go to the moderator's queue, and see the post waiting for moderation, and then I follow the link to the thread where the post is actually located, find the post, and then soft delete it as spam. Can I delete them as spam directly from the queue? I only see "approve" "delete" and "ignore" as options in the queue, and assumed the "delete" option was a hard delete so I've never used it there.

If there is going to be this much spam every day, I need to find a faster way to deal with it.

Also, a good 20 or so of the posts were from one bot. Do you think it would be a good idea to limit a new user to 5 posts until they have been approved by a mod, and then they can post all they want?

[Undertoad]

You can delete them from the queue. Problem is that doesn't ban the user and they are free to spam again.

I'll take a look at alternate methods... can't do it until later cost I'm Tapatalking this morning.

[infinite monkey]

I wish there were a way to make it a video game for long term users.

Like we can point our mouse at the screen and 'shoot' the spam post, leaving giant gaping smoking gun holes through their posts.

Oh, it won't solve anything but it'd be fun.

Wow, XRumer 7.5.28 Elite released on a week!
Its can post to trusted forums, blogs, CMS's, social networks.
Totally AUTOMATICALLY breaks ReCaptcha's! (avg. time to recognition = 0.2 sec)

Interested? Just Google for latest version of XRumer
Good luck!

P.S. Additionally questions such as "How many 2+2?" or "What color of snow" will DONT help you - XRumer 7.5.28 can break Its too
P.P.S. And - yes, profile on your forum automatically created with XRumer 7.5.28; price of this software complex at the moment = $590, price after october 2012 will grow up to $650

[glatt]

I just moved the post above to this thread. I think it offers some insight into what's happening.

[Sundae]

I'd be happy to help during this crisis.
Not to act as a mod, just to delete obvious spam posts, on threat of being banned myself if I ever abuse it.

Sure you have it under control, but being on GMT and on holiday I'm around at a slightly different time to you chaps. If the attacks are from Europe I might be useful.

[glatt]

I feel like I've banned 50 people so far today. I wish the banned user list was sortable by date so I could easily see how many I have taken out, but it's been a constant stream all day.


Hmm. That sounds like complaining. Let me give myself a violin.

[BigV]

does flagging an obviously spammy post help at all?

[Undertoad]

No it hurts, because then there are two things to deal with instead of one. We get to all of them eventually.

[Razzmatazz13]

Unensetib spambot made me read "Unsensitib" which looks like a jim style sock puppet that insults people at random...

[Undertoad]

I've changed the Human Verification Method to "Question and Answer". Now, instead of a CAPTCHA, they have to answer a question to get in.

The current question is "What seven-letter word is the name of the highest mountain in the world?"

The answer of course Everest

Here's the thing. The question and answer have to be understood by everyone we want on the Cellar, and not understood by third-world spammers OR by automation. They have clearly solved our "what is four plus five?" question.

I figured Everest is pretty universal, but if they figure it out, we may have to switch to something a little more difficult. That means culturally-biased.

So, here is the perfect politically incorrect problem for you to solve. What is the right Question?

[Undertoad]

I've also banned a bunch of spamming IP blocks. And I want to bookmark stopforumspam.com as an excellent resource.

[glatt]

Originally Posted by Undertoad

I figured Everest is pretty universal

That's pretty good. I got into the Bing translate tool and it wasn't until I got to Haitian Creole that I found a language that spells it differently. (Languages with different alphabets don't count.)

I was thinking about the numerous European cities that are spelled differently depending on the language, like Munich/Munchen.

[BigV]

Originally Posted by Undertoad

I've changed the Human Verification Method to "Question and Answer". Now, instead of a CAPTCHA, they have to answer a question to get in.

The current question is "What seven-letter word is the name of the highest mountain in the world?"

The answer of course Everest

Here's the thing. The question and answer have to be understood by everyone we want on the Cellar, and not understood by third-world spammers OR by automation. They have clearly solved our "what is four plus five?" question.

I figured Everest is pretty universal, but if they figure it out, we may have to switch to something a little more difficult. That means culturally-biased.

So, here is the perfect politically incorrect problem for you to solve. What is the right Question?

so it's a war between a robot with a the mother of all dictionaries versus one question with one one word answer? What, are you bored?

What about sidestepping the culturally biased option and ask something about the cellar, like what is the first word in the tagline? Or the third word in the tagline? Or what is the word with the fewest letters? That keeps the cultural bias out. And it's easily changeable. I don't know about the admin burden of changing it every day, but it could be like dumping the trash.