Forum Spam

if you guys get spammed, feel free to add the IP addresses of the alleged spammers in the comments section here:

http://spambank.blogspot.com

I will add them to the front page daily!

Very cool!

Thank you, Joey.
I want everyone here to do me a favor:
When someone spams your forum (allegedly), post on my blog or PM me here.
I will keep the name of the forum on file but only post the IP address and the email.
That way we can share info such as, this guy is not going to change.
It can be a pain trying to differenciate between a confused newbie who needs another chance and a professional spammer who is moving from forum to forum.

Thank you for your support,

Mike

Any publicity is good for them. Delete the spam, ban the user, and move on.

This may seem like a good idea, but it's just more promotion for them IMO.

by posting their IP and email? :rolleyes:

by posting their IP and email? :rolleyes:

Yep, any mention is fuel IMO.

Plus you WILL become a target. It's not worth it. Some things you deal with silently.

not disagreeing. I just believe there should be something where forum owners and bloggers can share data since many of those guys move from forum to forum hit and running.

like this dude (http://www.national-real-estate-directory.com/real-estate-forum/member.php?u=141)

My only question is what would we do with those ips?

when you have a questionable member, you can see for example if he has done it before in other forums. SEBasic is now coding it for me. Sometimes you don't know if a new member is just inexperienced in forums and needs a second chance or if he is a professional forum spammer (1 post wonder).

interesting idea.

I'm just not worried about it. Most won't take the time to do email verification anyway.

Then if they are a one post wonder, me or the mods move or edit it.

I know alot of communities have problems, but my observation is they are young (people) communities and I"m just past that demographic.

Yes... I agree with noppid.

I added both email verification and visual confirmation to the forums I manage and spam dropped almost to nothing. Most of the time, the people who do slip through are more naive than dedicated spammers, and you can deal with it locally.

yup - and those who do are almost immediately spotted

Yes... I agree with noppid.

I added both email verification and visual confirmation to the forums I manage and spam dropped almost to nothing. Most of the time, the people who do slip through are more naive than dedicated spammers, and you can deal with it locally.

You have a nice bunch at your forum. I'm trying to get used to that other software though.

Yeah, I have to confess I like the phpBB customizations but there are things about vBulletin I've come to appreciate.

Im just wondering how good can a ban works.
User can easily clear cache and back again to register for further spam.

The next in my concern will be banning an ip or a range of ips may not be good as it may block out a certain group of active on a forum. well i dunno, i dealt with spam with simply a ban to restrict anything except reading.

You can ban by email address (using wildcards), domain, IP, etc., as well as member name.

If you really want to slow it to a crawl, in addition to visual confirmation (which alone will stop most of them), add admin authorization.