hitmanNo2 Posted June 7, 2013 Report Share Posted June 7, 2013 With the recent influx of spam posts I was wondering if there should be a minimum post count for creating a topic. Or is this a silly idea that would just get spam in existing threads before they can create their own thread and not have any impact at all? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
TheFull9 Posted June 7, 2013 Report Share Posted June 7, 2013 Would the spam bots be clever enough to process the restriction and post in other threads before creating their own? Not really a subject I'm an expert on, but I'd have thought the idea would work. Then again, might kinda blow for newbies who want to introduce themselves in the relevant sub-section? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
AceOfSkulls Posted June 7, 2013 Report Share Posted June 7, 2013 Spambots could do that if programmed, but I doubt someone would bother. A minimum post count would mean they would just go back to spamming regular threads then creating new ones. As well as the new user section , I think it would stop new people who would maybe sign up to ask a question. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
hitmanNo2 Posted June 7, 2013 Author Report Share Posted June 7, 2013 I was thinking like 2/3 posts or something. I did think it might deter genuine newbies that wanted to ask a question though. Anyway, just an idea off the top of my head really. I have no idea at the behind the scenes stuff of preventing the spam. It just seems to have exploded recently. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
TheFull9 Posted June 7, 2013 Report Share Posted June 7, 2013 I'd imagine (again, wbesites not being exactly my area of expertise) that it's more a case of putting more stringent 'human checks' in place during the process of creating a new account. The old "Type in this string of weird looking letters" type job. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
hitmanNo2 Posted June 7, 2013 Author Report Share Posted June 7, 2013 Yeah, it's been so long since I registered I couldn't remember if there is something like a CAPTCHA in place. Perhaps one of newer, non irritating ones could be put in. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
renegadecow Posted June 8, 2013 Report Share Posted June 8, 2013 Here's an idea. Users are required to slam their faces against their keyboard. Their unique facial features will then correlate to a unique string of gibberish written by the keyboard and saved into protected files. Instead of a captcha, posts will require the input of said saved gibberish by simply slamming their faces on their keyboard. No faceplant, no password, no post. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
WTF?Shane Posted June 8, 2013 Report Share Posted June 8, 2013 Damn, just starting to see these posts you guys are talking about. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
shmook Posted June 8, 2013 Report Share Posted June 8, 2013 As an aside, and apologies for thread derailment, how do spambots come up with so much gibberish in a post, which surrounds a link or two in there? I have no idea how they work, and am curious Quote Link to post Share on other sites
AceOfSkulls Posted June 8, 2013 Report Share Posted June 8, 2013 There are loads of different types. It's like a text template / text recognition/ data base all rolled into one. So it might start off with some key words and template sentences and fill in the nouns, adjectives ect... from whats in its database/ libraries / word lists. Or acts like a search engine kind of , starts off with key words and searches the internet or its libraries, data base , lists whatever for sentences with those key words and mashes them together. Or another way, there is more than one way to skin a cat. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Danke Posted June 8, 2013 Report Share Posted June 8, 2013 Well I feel for the mods. They're stuck with whatever signup protocol the site software has. Our website at work has a forum area and every few months we'll get waves of spambots. All you can do is aggressively block IPs and email addresses and delete the offenders. When they do get through having members post in the threads instead of using the report button makes the cleanup worse. So if you see a purse or penis pill thread resist the urge to add to it. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
shmook Posted June 8, 2013 Report Share Posted June 8, 2013 Cheers. Also, any idea why so much is hitting the forums at the moment? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Tinkerton Posted June 8, 2013 Report Share Posted June 8, 2013 Having locked and deleted 6 threads this morning before i went to work, yeah. The best thing to do is just to hit the report button and let us deal with it. Thanks for the vigilance, guys! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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