Our Spam problem - Hi-Lo camper travel trailer forum

RichR · 08-29-2012, 02:35 PM

It doesn't appear that the spam is going to going away. We have been getting new threads daily and other moderators and myself have been deleting and blocking it. I had a message from Neal and Bev who were in touch with the website administrators. They suggested that we set things up to require Junior Members to have so many posts before they would be unlocked and allowed to have full privileges.

I wanted to throw this out to you all to see if that would be worth trying. That may knock the spammers off the forum. Please post your opinions and ideas.

Also, I will be away over the Labor Day weekend so the other moderators will have to handle the spam.

Have a great day and an enjoyable weekend!

RichR

Jeff H · 08-29-2012, 02:51 PM

That sounds like a great idea to me!

Jeff

jcurtis95 · 08-29-2012, 03:28 PM

RickR.

I think that is a good idea. Perhaps an explantion of the reason for this policy might be incorporated onto the forum home page so that potential new forum members will have an understanding as to the whys of a certain number of new member posts will require moderator approval before being posted.

Absent that, simply apply an initiation ranking i.e. "New Member" for "x" number of posts requiring moderator approval before advancing to "member" status.

This is going to require more moderator involvement until the trial posts [say 5] is met and "member" status is earned.

This would not be the first forum I've seen that required some form of editorial process before the message was posted.

Jerry Curtis
2406T

retiredcamper47 · 08-29-2012, 05:17 PM

Sounds like a good plan to me.

Bob

rrbusb · 08-29-2012, 08:08 PM

It does sound like extra work, but if the moderators are good with it, I can be also. Pick a number, I saw 5 suggested, but with this I would be good

. Thanks for all you work keeping us cleaned up and useful.

RichR · 08-29-2012, 08:50 PM

We can pick any number we want. I'm thinking three but no more than five.

sam · 08-29-2012, 09:33 PM

I'm okaY with so many posts before the moderator approves membership. A few bad apples spoil it for all.

RudyRedNek · 08-29-2012, 10:37 PM

If anyone has a legitimate email address for any of the spammers, I have a sure-fire fix, which I WILL NOT describe here!!

sayhonk · 08-29-2012, 10:47 PM

Just put a block on their username when a spam message appears. The Administrator should be able to do this.

jcurtis95 · 08-29-2012, 11:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RichR

We can pick any number we want. I'm thinking three but no more than five.

RichR,

Three is good, I just threw a number out there.

Jerry Curtis
2406T

Fireballsocal · 08-29-2012, 11:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sayhonk

Just put a block on their username when a spam message appears. The Administrator should be able to do this.

A new user name is generated each time a new batch of spam is delivered. This is all done by bot (web robot) via a software program. They just make a new user name. Once we require the moderator preview of each new post, the spammer usually finds another easier target.

hilltool · 08-29-2012, 11:47 PM

Three would be plenty, i would think. Spammers should be apparent immediately so part of me thinks this ends up being what it has been- as in spammers will be routinely shown the door but will keep coming back- to be shown the door again. Alot of work for the moderators, though.

Rick

DebW · 08-30-2012, 12:32 AM

RichR

I agree with the website administrators. They suggested that we set things up to require Junior Members to have so many posts before they would be unlocked and allowed to have full privileges. Doesn't matter to me if it's 5 or whatever. There are many forums that are setup like this because of spams issues, etc. I know the forum has just been bombarded with spam lately.

Have a fun safe Labor Day weekend.
Deb

RichR · 08-30-2012, 08:11 AM

Someone mentioned in an earlier post that part of the new member registration could include having to type in the characters that are displayed distorted, like what you see on Ticketmaster when placing secure orders. Apparently spammer software can't read and enter them. That would be a great idea but that would be up to our website designers to initiate that.

PappaP · 08-30-2012, 01:20 PM

I agree with the rest. I also like Rich's idea of having the new members to enter the distorted characters as many other sites have in place when making an order or joining a web site. Either way should hopefully help.

RichR · 08-30-2012, 01:22 PM

Neal is putting an order in to the administrator. We will have to wait and see how things will work when put in to place.

Thanks Neal!!

See you all next week. Everybody have a safe and happy holiday weekend. Off to the boondocks!!

campthewestcoast · 08-30-2012, 01:27 PM

Rich,

You'll have to tell me what I need to do to approve posts. I would recommend 5 posts before becoming a full access member.

Many of the spammer that I have been deleting have had at least 3 posts.

sayhonk · 08-30-2012, 02:32 PM

How about some way to have registration numbers of our HiLo's to join this forum; this would eliminate the Non-Hilo people, but have a site for "read only" for those wanting info and "read/write" for us owners to post? This would get rid of the scammers!

RichR · 09-05-2012, 02:02 PM

There will soon be the requirement for new members registration to type in the distorted characters. this will eliminate the Spambots.

JackandJanet · 09-05-2012, 03:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RichR

There will soon be the requirement for new members registration to type in the distorted characters. this will eliminate the Spambots.

That process is called "Captcha", by the way.

The site administrator should be able to blacklist the IP of the spammer if it's obvious that he/she has no real interest in being on the forum (someone from Beijing, China, as an example). We do this all the time on the forums I moderate. This cuts down on the second attempts, but of course has no effect on someone using a proxy.

- Jack