A slew of spam has hit the boards tonight. I tried to delete a bunch that I saw but don't know how to stop the deluge.. Let me know if you can see that I've managed to remove a bunch of spammed topics.
This is what I would suggest if your board stats allow it:
Delete users that have not viewed posts in the last 3 months. If They have not viewed posts during basketball season, why are they here?
Delete users that have viewed post less than 3 times in the last 6 months.
These 2 steps should get rid of the great majority of the spambot created accounts.
Implement a "captcha" for joining the board. I believe @approxinfinity was looking into this before and it is the most effective way to keep spambot from registering fake accounts...depending on the strength of the captcha used.
Implement a captcha to post new topics. I understand it is a nuisance but a small one to prevent fake posts. The average user creates a new topic maybe a couple of times per week so it is not really too much of a hardship. This step alone will prevent spambot created users from posting new topics like the deluge we just saw.
@JayHawkFanToo A few of us old farts don't know what a "captcha" is. Is it something I need to have my son come home and explain, or can i get the 10 year old neighbor kid to explain it to me? Thanks!
A captcha is a system designed to distinguish humans from machines. Typically it will show a set of fuzzy, twisted characters that you need to type but machines are unable to distinguish; some might show you the picture of a house with the house number displayed prominently and you need to type that number to verify. It could show you the picture of a KU player in uniform and you need to type the number on the uniform; pretty easy for a human to see but a spambot would have trouble figuring out,...makes sense?
They are pretty common. For example, if you are on EBay and want to send a message to a seller, you need to complete a captcha before the message is sent.
Well, that was fun. Yeah, I agree a captcha system would help. I need to see what new features they've added to the board, but I can't upgrade at present. I may just block some ip blocks from the axis of spam for the time being.
@approxinfinity We love it when you talk dirty.
Lol if I could just kick these guys right in their scrotumodems
@approxinfinity OUCH!!!
Just looking at the list of latest users, there are probably 50 that have never made a post or anything. It sucks that bots pop up here and elsewhere on the internet, but I appreciate the work of the admins here to keep it cleaned up.
They are baaaack...
@JayHawkFanToo I'm deleting
