Spam, again

[bythesea]

four of the five new posts on my home page are spam, I have reported three already this weekend, two removed, one thread closed which I really don't get.

So again, why do other forums not suffer in this way, when will the software be updated, at least there is no porn as there was a while back, everyday...

[bythesea]

And now we have more... come on now, things can be done to prevent this and I don't mean pre modding every post...

[Hamish]

Hi,

Just my thoughts.

Although in a perfect world we would like to catch all the spam before it gets on, this is not always possible. This can be due to numerous possibilities.

I don’t profess to know the intricacies of the forum software, but a thread on forum attacks which specifically talked about spam bot’s, informed us that the programmers of such bot’s had circumvented the software used by most forums. This then leaves it down to the manual detection of such spam which is dealt with by the forum mod’s.

Now although the mod’s do their utmost to intercept these registrations at source, there are those that get through. It is then only spotted when the bot (or actual spammer) posts on line that it is recognised as spam and on investigation is found to originate from a spam source. I and I know all of the others deal as quickly as possible with instances of porn/spam, but it must also be remembered that the mod’s do have a life and on some days, especially at weekend there my be little or no cover from them.

So thank you for bringing the offending posts to our attention it helps us tremendously and perhaps one day we may be provided with software that can actually route out all porn/spammers at source but until then please bear with us.

Thanks

Hamish

[bythesea]

No worries Hamish, thanks for the polite reply, the software is available and used by many other forums, I guess it is just a waiting game until HQ release the funds that will allow it to happen here.

[Woz]

No worries Hamish, thanks for the polite reply, the software is available and used by many other forums, I guess it is just a waiting game until HQ release the funds that will allow it to happen here.Already in hand. Sorting out forum and the SDC program of events at the moment along with all sorts of other IT stuff.

[ChristianG]

Already in hand. Sorting out forum and the SDC program of events at the moment along with all sorts of other IT stuff.
I wonder.

I just came back from lunch (four hours or so) and am greeted by seven, and growing, rubbish posts on the General Diving Forum, clearly perpetrated by the same spammer.

To my knowledge things have never been as bad as that.

[bythesea]

Maybe if advertising space were sold then the software upgrade costs could be met, this seems the normal way to do things with forums.

[Ron MacRae]

Maybe if advertising space were sold then the software upgrade costs could be met, this seems the normal way to do things with forums.
I'm not sure if advertising is any better than spam.

Ron.

[bythesea]

Of course it is Ron, it produces income which can be reinvested, it instigates control. There is loads of uncontrolled advertising on here anyway. IMO, time to make it pay, upgrade, provide a better forum for the members at zero outlay for BSAC...

It is hardly rocket salad...

[Ben Panter]

Of course it is Ron, it produces income which can be reinvested, it instigates control. There is loads of uncontrolled advertising on here anyway. IMO, time to make it pay, upgrade, provide a better forum for the members at zero outlay for BSAC...

It is hardly rocket salad...

The money was assigned in September, and the forum software is in the process of being upgraded. Sadly due to the various add ons and changes that have been made over the years this is not a trivial task. It is also just one of the projects underway, and has lower priority than some that have more immediate effect on members.

Ben

[Fred]

They're still at it

http://www.bsacforum.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?p=154421#post154421

[Russell]

It's a daily ritual now - why not just validate any new members ?

[Tristan Green]

It's a daily ritual now - why not just validate any new members ?
When the software is upgraded that is what we are expecting to do. For now we don't have that facility with this version.

Thanks for reporting the spam and for bearing with the admins and moderators actions in clearing the posts as soon we can. We are only human after all.

Cheers,
Tristan

[fishersaise]

I dont know how you report people on here but i m getting a PM spam from a member called weiliaBit
http://www.bsacforum.co.uk/forums/member.php?u=66823

[PeteM]

I dont know how you report people on here but i m getting a PM spam from a member called weiliaBit
http://www.bsacforum.co.uk/forums/member.php?u=66823

He has now been banned. Best approach is to PM a moderator, we must have the user login and a link to the member record is very handy so the contents of your post was perfect

[bythesea]

Excellent, now they are spamming the thread about spamming and this one really went for it, 32 spam posts in one day...

[Matt-75]

Haha.

This has been going on for years (since i joined here long ago), and i dont see it changing. They said YD hasnt the problem because of mods, etc, but they only get hit once in a while, so i say the problem is vBulletin, not to mention 3.5.4 is out of date somewhat.

There exists a site that catalogues spam email addresses. Which if hooked into the registration process here would probably get rid of a lot of the problems. It may be quicker than hacking something together to allow members to view certain parts of the forum when they stick their membership details in a box.

http://stopforumspam.com/apis

I suggested this long ago and no idea if it was ever implemented, but i guess not since ive seen usernames on here, that match usernames on that site.

But making suggestions here is like the hog loop thing, all you get back is reasons why it cant be done, which leads me to believe the admins generally dont care.

PS. No offence to the admins, but we've had many threads about this in the last 3-4 years and nothing has ever been done.

[PeteM]

Haha.

This has been going on for years (since i joined here long ago), and i dont see it changing. They said YD hasnt the problem because of mods, etc, but they only get hit once in a while, so i say the problem is vBulletin, not to mention 3.5.4 is out of date somewhat.

There exists a site that catalogues spam email addresses. Which if hooked into the registration process here would probably get rid of a lot of the problems. It may be quicker than hacking something together to allow members to view certain parts of the forum when they stick their membership details in a box.

http://stopforumspam.com/apis

I suggested this long ago and no idea if it was ever implemented, but i guess not since ive seen usernames on here, that match usernames on that site.

But making suggestions here is like the hog loop thing, all you get back is reasons why it cant be done, which leads me to believe the admins generally dont care.

PS. No offence to the admins, but we've had many threads about this in the last 3-4 years and nothing has ever been done.

We use stopforumspam all the time.

Personally I find it extremely offensive that you say we don't care. I was working on this site for about four hours yesterday and about an hour so far today, if that is not caring I don't know what you expect.

Yes we know that this version of vButtetin is pre Jurassic and is the cause of 99.9% of the problems but we have only just got the OK to upgrade.

[aliphilp]

I run a fishing forum and we suddenly started getting spammed to death.
I made a few changes to the CAPTCHA part of the registration processes and that filtered some out but apparently the newer version of phpbb 3.0.8 has much more security options to get rid of bots and spammers or it’s possible to just update the CAPTCHA http://blog.phpbb.com/2009/06/27/3-0-6-captcha-plugins-and-you/ is the link to it if anyone can use it.

But as said it’s not just a matter of a forum update when there’s as many plugins running on a forum as this one must have.

[Matt-75]

We use stopforumspam all the time.

Personally I find it extremely offensive that you say we don't care. I was working on this site for about four hours yesterday and about an hour so far today, if that is not caring I don't know what you expect.

Yes we know that this version of vButtetin is pre Jurassic and is the cause of 99.9% of the problems but we have only just got the OK to upgrade.

Sorry that was kind of insensitive of me, but...

So often i will stop by here and find 2 or more spam topics. Their has been talk about dealing with it, but nothing much else, and several years later the problem is still getting worse.

What is required to get the forums upgraded?
Who is the one holding up the process?

Maybe you could tell us the name of the person who has been holding up the upgrade, so we can feel free to call them when we want to bitch about all the porn links on the forum every night. ;)

[MattS]

So often i will stop by here and find 2 or more spam topics. Their has been talk about dealing with it, but nothing much else, and several years later the problem is still getting worse.We could deal with it by closing the public forums and it would only take a minute to do. I don't want to close the public forums. I guess the legitimate people that use the public forums don't want them to close either. So I take a few minutes to delete the spam now and again and hope the people that use the forum will cooperate by providing a little patience in exchange.

Deleting 33 posts from one user, clearing their sig, avatar, ICQ and banning them, is no biggie. It takes zero thought and a tiny amount of my spare time in the day. Investigating why we get the spam we get. Why it is not necessarily the same as the spam other forums get. Why measures which are effective on one forum are not effective or acceptable on another forum. It's ther research that takes up the hours and days, which are much harder to find. You see spam, I see the version of the spam bot and the campaign it's being used by!

What is required to get the forums upgraded?No one thing.

I started looking for a budget years ago, when our vB version went out of developer support. Sadly the forums have been well down the list of priorities that are BSAC projects looking for a budget. I got some commitment late last year, did the investigation, then went on hold awaiting decisions concerning other areas of the BSAC online presence. Those decisions came in a couple months ago, coinciding with the busy period in IT which occurs around the April year end.

The main hurdle at the moment, happens to be the most effective spam filter we have. The BSAC membership verification is 100% effective at preventing spam hitting the forums. The verification system is not so much a hack, as a bespoke integration layer sitting between foreign back ends, on foreign O/Ss on foreign networks, and all potentially subject to DPA audit. Suffice to say it is complicated enough that it is not going to survive the schema upgrade. It took a couple days of my time, carefully constructing a test environment and carrying out a pilot late last year to ascertain that.

Who is the one holding up the process?No one person. Things have to be discussed with various stake holders. Those discussions are taking place but it all takes time.

Maybe you could tell us the name of the person who has been holding up the upgrade, No one person but have my name if it makes you happier.

It's my fault, for not having man weeks of time to volunteer to re-writing the BSAC membership verification system. As I can't do it immediately for free, we are having to look for someone we trust that is willing to do it at a price BSAC are prepared to pay. There is some overlap with other areas of BSAC's online activities and we may end up incorporating the development works into a related project. It would reduce cost to members but causes the upgrade to become dependant on scheduling of whatever project we tack it onto.

...so we can feel free to call them when we want to bitch about all the porn links on the forum every night. ;)I will tell you you have two choices ;)

[MattS]

Thread locked as it's still attracting spam. If you want to comment on my last post, feel free to start a thread in the BSAC members forums.