Hi Shumoo, sorry to be late replying. Thanks for your ideas. I will keep on thinking about this. Perhaps my requirements are a little different to most people - e.g. my forum would not so much be a community of members, but an opportunity for people to comment (like a blog comment, but organised by topic). So any registration would need to be simple, or people wouldn't bother (whereas on a forum where the same people post regularly, like here, registration and approval is expected. But I appreciate the ideas from you and everyone else. Thanks.
@x00 said:
3. The taxing game, make multiple registrations more expensive in terms of resource an time.
This is actually the only way to deter human spammers. I know some individuals who hire people at sweatshop rates to manually register spam accounts on sites and forums. Being humans, they can solve any riddle and they could only be slowed down. Adding a text confirmation would make things more complicated, as they would need multiple phone numbers, and they cost money.
@ercatli said:
Hi Shumoo, sorry to be late replying. Thanks for your ideas. I will keep on thinking about this. Perhaps my requirements are a little different to most people [...] any registration would need to be simple, or people wouldn't bother
That is the same requirements we had when we implemented our site. We called the CBA (can't be arsed) factor, and we had to disable almost any "traditional" verification system. We even received complaints from people who were annoyed by having to confirm their email address, as it was too much effort for them. We ended up developing our own simple anti-spam plugin, which asks a random question on registration, and, so far, we got zero spammers. However, we expect spammers to catch up as the site becomes popular, and we will have to change the questions and extend the plugin to implement other countermeasures.
@businessdad said:
This is actually the only way to deter human spammers.
I agree, although you can also make you site less attractive to spammers in the first place, however this does not deter dumb human spammers, or simply don't care becuase they are playing a volume game, and are commissioned.
@x00 said:
I agree, although you can also make you site less attractive to spammers in the first place, however this does not deter dumb human spammers, or simply don't care becuase they are playing a volume game, and are commissioned.
Precisely. The more accounts, the better. Considering that, nowadays, it's not unusual to see job offers asking for skilled workers for $3 an hour, it would be very easy for a spammer to hire someone for $1 or $2 an hour, just to register on sites. These workers are exploited, but they need to get some income and they don't really care what the job is about.
I could also write a whole book about the times I got scam cold calls from call centres, posing as Microsoft, and introducing themselves (loudly) with "We are Microsoft, OKAY? Your computer is sending viruses, OKAY? Now do what I tell you..."
There is no limit to the tricks and exploits that spammers and scammers will play to line their pockets.
I wonder if anyone can help me with this... I have about 100 legit members. But I have 1,381 people signed up. They're all spammers - except for the 100. How can I delete them quickly. Vanilla forums is driving me crazy right now because I seem to only be able to delete them one at a time going through a laborious 5-step or so process. It's driving me crazy!
@jcncnc said:
I wonder if anyone can help me with this... I have about 100 legit members. But I have 1,381 people signed up. They're all spammers - except for the 100. How can I delete them quickly. Vanilla forums is driving me crazy right now because I seem to only be able to delete them one at a time going through a laborious 5-step or so process. It's driving me crazy!
I've been researching but maybe I've missed something... advice neeeded...
I'm using @peregrine's registration question but I'd like to have immediate access available to the forum also. Is there a way to disable the captcha requirement and only use the registration question for immediate access?
@showstuff said:
I've been researching but maybe I've missed something... advice neeeded...
I'm using peregrine's registration question but I'd like to have immediate access available to the forum also. Is there a way to disable the captcha requirement and only use the registration question for immediate access?
for non-captcha, non approval basic registration with a registration question, it's a config setting.
It's in the read me:) of addregistrationquestion plugin
@peregrine - that worked perfectly... sorry about the whole 'readme' thing... those should be labeled 'FREE MONEY'; I bet more people would start there... (I would!)
Comments
http://www.phpclasses.org/package/8177-PHP-Authenticate-users-once-using-codes-sent-via-SMS.html
http://confidenttechnologies.com/news_events/problem-two-factor-authentication-solutions-using-sms
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Hi Shumoo, sorry to be late replying. Thanks for your ideas. I will keep on thinking about this. Perhaps my requirements are a little different to most people - e.g. my forum would not so much be a community of members, but an opportunity for people to comment (like a blog comment, but organised by topic). So any registration would need to be simple, or people wouldn't bother (whereas on a forum where the same people post regularly, like here, registration and approval is expected. But I appreciate the ideas from you and everyone else. Thanks.
This is actually the only way to deter human spammers. I know some individuals who hire people at sweatshop rates to manually register spam accounts on sites and forums. Being humans, they can solve any riddle and they could only be slowed down. Adding a text confirmation would make things more complicated, as they would need multiple phone numbers, and they cost money.
That is the same requirements we had when we implemented our site. We called the CBA (can't be arsed) factor, and we had to disable almost any "traditional" verification system. We even received complaints from people who were annoyed by having to confirm their email address, as it was too much effort for them. We ended up developing our own simple anti-spam plugin, which asks a random question on registration, and, so far, we got zero spammers. However, we expect spammers to catch up as the site becomes popular, and we will have to change the questions and extend the plugin to implement other countermeasures.
My shop | About Me
I agree, although you can also make you site less attractive to spammers in the first place, however this does not deter dumb human spammers, or simply don't care becuase they are playing a volume game, and are commissioned.
grep is your friend.
Precisely. The more accounts, the better. Considering that, nowadays, it's not unusual to see job offers asking for skilled workers for $3 an hour, it would be very easy for a spammer to hire someone for $1 or $2 an hour, just to register on sites. These workers are exploited, but they need to get some income and they don't really care what the job is about.
I could also write a whole book about the times I got scam cold calls from call centres, posing as Microsoft, and introducing themselves (loudly) with "We are Microsoft, OKAY? Your computer is sending viruses, OKAY? Now do what I tell you..."
There is no limit to the tricks and exploits that spammers and scammers will play to line their pockets.
My shop | About Me
I wonder if anyone can help me with this... I have about 100 legit members. But I have 1,381 people signed up. They're all spammers - except for the 100. How can I delete them quickly. Vanilla forums is driving me crazy right now because I seem to only be able to delete them one at a time going through a laborious 5-step or so process. It's driving me crazy!
Thanks for any suggestions you might have!
http://vanillaforums.org/discussion/comment/207684/#Comment_207684
you could use cleanser plugin. just make a backup of the database (just in case you mess something up)
http://vanillaforums.org/addon/cleanser-plugin
create a list of all members (or starting from an offset or using a pattern or ip). remove the valid members from the file in
plugins/Cleanser/list/
and then after you read the instructions in the plugin and edited your list, you should be able to purge the spammer members cleanly.
cleanser is pretty good for mass deletions, if you pay attention on how to use it.
or you could try bulkedit plugin for a smaller number of deletions.
I may not provide the completed solution you might desire, but I do try to provide honest suggestions to help you solve your issue.
i seem to be missing how to use captcha and approval. if i enable approval, the captcah options are removed using 2.1.3.
@gtron
Any of my changes to Botstop or BotStop Approval died with 2.0.x and are no longer supported.
for 2.1 use
use http://vanillaforums.org/addon/addregistrationquestion-plugin
then start a new discussion relating to what you are talking about and what plugins you are using.
I may not provide the completed solution you might desire, but I do try to provide honest suggestions to help you solve your issue.
I've been researching but maybe I've missed something... advice neeeded...
I'm using @peregrine's registration question but I'd like to have immediate access available to the forum also. Is there a way to disable the captcha requirement and only use the registration question for immediate access?
for non-captcha, non approval basic registration with a registration question, it's a config setting.
It's in the read me:) of addregistrationquestion plugin
look in your config.php
for this most basic setting you can use
$Configuration['Garden']['Registration']['Method'] = 'Basic';
the above option is not available by the dashboard registration settings.
I would only use the "Basic" config seeting for registration if you have addregistration question enabled.
if you disable addregistrationquestion plugin best to change registration setting to Approval or Captcha or anything but Basic.
probably best to ask questions under the addregistration plugin in the future.
http://vanillaforums.org/addon/addregistrationquestion-plugin
I may not provide the completed solution you might desire, but I do try to provide honest suggestions to help you solve your issue.
@peregrine - that worked perfectly... sorry about the whole 'readme' thing... those should be labeled 'FREE MONEY'; I bet more people would start there... (I would!)
That by far is the best idea to get someone to read the read me !!
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