What's the deal with the SPAM?

[alamo5000]

Just thought I would ask the moderators what's the deal with the SPAM on the forum? Almost every time I log in there are threads full of Vietnamese all over the place.

What's the deal? Is there any way to delete those posts so it doesn't clutter the place up?

[Boolit_Head]

It's scripts or bots depending on what you want to call them getting in and posting through a vulnerability of the phpBB software.

Generally they are for posting links to raise the search engine scoring of unscrupulous websites.

[TreeTopFlier]

Jeez its like the a digital hochiemen trail in here.

[gds]

It is one of the reasons the owner has tried to limit membership to people who have the non free email addresses. Everyone of the spamers, as far as I know, registered with a free email account, ie. hotmail, gmail etc.

I for one am all for the death penalty for spammers.

[alamo5000]

It is one of the reasons the owner has tried to limit membership to people who have the non free email addresses. Everyone of the spamers, as far as I know, registered with a free email account, ie. hotmail, gmail etc.

I for one am all for the death penalty for spammers.

I don't think limiting free emails is the solution, but a clean up on aisle 7, 9, and 14, is definitely in order. SPAM=Death Penalty in my book.

[Omega]

No definately not good to block gmail and other free emails, there are better ways. phpBB has add-ons that will filter most if not all bots, by using captcha and using the feature where it asks simple questions such as "What color is the sky?" or "Who is buried in Grant's tomb?" With user defined questions and answers it's very customizable. It forces spammers to make accounts and post live, which most won't do.

[renegade]

Just thought I would ask the moderators what's the deal with the SPAM on the forum? Almost every time I log in there are threads full of Vietnamese all over the place.

What's the deal? Is there any way to delete those posts so it doesn't clutter the place up?

I have been deleting them as I see them.

[DutchV]

Excluding Gmail accounts might help, but it also excludes some good folks. I have FIOS but no Verizon email account. I think they stopped offering it? Or wanted money for it? I forget. But I've been a Gmail user for a long time now, and most guys I know are using a free provider. It's better than tying yourself to a particular ISP in case you need to switch ISP's. (Like if you move houses, or they start to suck and you go with FIOS over cable, etc.). Using Gmail means I don't have to change my email, notify all my contacts, and update all my forum and merchant accounts.

[brutis]

It is one of the reasons the owner has tried to limit membership to people who have the non free email addresses. Everyone of the spamers, as far as I know, registered with a free email account, ie. hotmail, gmail etc.

I for one am all for the death penalty for spammers.

I helped moderate a couple of computer genre forums and what we did was set it up so new members had to get an OK for their first 3 post from a moderator before it could be seen on the board. If the post was spam they'd get the death penalty, delete the post and ban the user and it's email address. Some times it got so bad that when I checked in the morning I'd be deleting dozens of spammers.

Most of what we were getting was from Russian and Ukrainian URL's.

[alamo5000]

It is one of the reasons the owner has tried to limit membership to people who have the non free email addresses. Everyone of the spamers, as far as I know, registered with a free email account, ie. hotmail, gmail etc.

I for one am all for the death penalty for spammers.

I helped moderate a couple of computer genre forums and what we did was set it up so new members had to get an OK for their first 3 post from a moderator before it could be seen on the board. If the post was spam they'd get the death penalty, delete the post and ban the user and it's email address. Some times it got so bad that when I checked in the morning I'd be deleting dozens of spammers.

Most of what we were getting was from Russian and Ukrainian URL's.

That's not a half bad idea. I don't know how the mods feel about that. Three legit posts then set them free