Damn Spammers!

Submitted by Highlandtravler on Sun, 11/26/2006 - 22:56
I dont know what anyone can do about it, but spam is turning this forum into a site for porn, viagra, or just general bs! While I do support all of the above mentioned it just seems sorta out of place, not to mention fuckin annoying. Something like 7 out of the 10 newest post are spam. Anyone else have something to say about it?

Hi! Yes, the fucking spam is killing me! It seems they are able to determine if a forum gets a lot of traffic, and if so, the "spam bots" get all over it! Believe me, I am working on keeping this crap out of here. But I don't log on for a couple of days, and its all back again. That doesn't even include the spambots that register, but don't confirm their registration, becasue they use bogus email adresses ( doesn't do 'em any good

have you considered upgrading this version of phpBB? you can do it pretty seamlessly. they have built-in spam blockers that help out a lot. i've upgraded a few times in the past with various forums and it's only been a problem once or twice. generally, at least on my server, you can do it in like 15 minutes or so. eff spam. -brett.

Just a thought, but perhaps some of the funds generated at the festival or better yet, designate a raffle to help defer some of the administrative cost associated with up-grading this site with Spam filters. I just don?t think Jimurl should have to absorb such cost, given how popular and successful this site has been!

i'd consider doing it for free, depending on how it's set up right now. but ideally it's free for him to do too :) the forum code is open source, so it's no charge to "use" it. getting someone to fix it all up might cost in labor hours, but from the looks of it, jimurl is pretty capable. this site has been going well so far!

Hi guys, You're right Brett-- it is free software, upgrading just takes time. I just upgraded it, but, reading about the changes in this most recent version, that won't help. It only took a few minutes to upgrade, though. What WILL help are some other modifications I just made-- a question that people have to answer when they register. It's an easy question, for an ice climber, but if you are some kid in a thrid world country who is getting paid 50 cents a day to spread spam on phpbb websites, you won't know the answer. :D More likely, all this spam has come from automated "spambots"- programs that just register on forums sites and post crap. Logout, then click on "register" at the top of the page to see what the "secret question" is! [Warning: you might have to log in again to post stuff- make sure you haven't forgotten your password- or click on "profile" first, so you can reset it to something you remember.]

good call man. that turing test should really help out. i've used that a couple of times and it works. i dont know if i'd ever be of any assistance to you, but if you ever have a problem i might be able to help you troubleshoot it. keep up the good work. -brett
Spray