I'm thinking about banning every IP address from India from my message board

Collapse
X
 
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts
  • verbs
    Senior Member
    • Jan 2007
    • 121

    I'm thinking about banning every IP address from India from my message board

    I get about 1-2 people from India signing up to my board every day and they're all spammers. Since I screen and research each person beforehand, I'm thinking banning all of India's IP addresses would save me time and hassle. Has anyone else done this?

    It's an obesity help forum by the way, and I have yet to have one legit member from India vs. the 100+ spammers.

    Am I wrong for wanting to do this?
  • Fusion
    Senior Member
    • Aug 2001
    • 4346
    • 3.8.x

    #2
    Wrong? No, but you could be starting a dangerous trend.
    That they're from India is probably a fluke, it could just have been China or Mexico.
    You might want to consider setting up the forum so that the first 2-3 posts are moderated, before the user is moved to a group which may post or PM unhindered.
    Toddler from Hell

    Comment

    • Jose Amaral Rego
      Senior Member
      • Feb 2005
      • 11058
      • 1.1.x

      #3
      I am surprize that I have not heard spam from western continent of Africa in message boards as of yet... I know they get you in email, but never did ever seen an ip from a certain country of Africa. Banning country internet protocols(ips) would be good for your forum, as the topic of your forum deals with what is happening in North America, the anywhere else. I do have a list of all countries ips and even by cities, but I will not share this for simular reasons already stated by Fusion.

      Comment

      • Dean C
        Senior Member
        • Mar 2002
        • 4571
        • 3.5.x

        #4
        Don't punish the whole of India. Simple.
        Dean Clatworthy - Web Developer/Designer

        Comment

        • RedTyger
          Senior Member
          • Dec 2006
          • 335
          • 3.8.x

          #5
          I've done it. If you have no members from that area and are unlikely to have any then banning the country is going to affect nobody or virtually nobody except for the spammers. So no problem.

          Comment

          • the Sandman
            Senior Member
            • Jul 2003
            • 1539
            • 3.7.x

            #6
            On TAZ we have many valuable members from India, so this would never work for us. We do have several anti-spam measures in place, including a couple of readily available modifications from vB.org (SirAdrian's Prevent Spam Posts and antialias' NoSpam!). There is also a comprehensive list of disposable, expiring, and temporary email addresses that you can ban which we've found very helpful in cutting down the number of spammers registering - you can see it Here.
            The Admin Zone - Resources for Forum Administrators
            Articles - Forum Review
            Interviews:
            Kier • Scott • Jerry • Andreas • Steve • Wayne • Jake • Floris • Logician • Erwin •
            Paul M

            Comment

            • verbs
              Senior Member
              • Jan 2007
              • 121

              #7
              Originally posted by the Sandman
              On TAZ we have many valuable members from India, so this would never work for us. We do have several anti-spam measures in place, including a couple of readily available modifications from vB.org (SirAdrian's Prevent Spam Posts and antialias' NoSpam!). There is also a comprehensive list of disposable, expiring, and temporary email addresses that you can ban which we've found very helpful in cutting down the number of spammers registering - you can see it Here.
              But the target audicence of TAZ is very different than the target audience of my obesity forum. Apples to oranges. I do have spam measures in place, but they're not perfect. It's just annoying to deal with.

              Comment

              • verbs
                Senior Member
                • Jan 2007
                • 121

                #8
                Originally posted by Dean C
                Don't punish the whole of India. Simple.
                Can you give me a good reason why? Of the 100+ people from India that have signed up, ALL have been spammers. Maybe I lose one or two potential members in the future from India, but I think that's a price I'm willing to pay.

                Comment

                • Vile
                  Senior Member
                  • Jul 2002
                  • 2779
                  • 3.6.x

                  #9
                  Originally posted by verbs
                  Can you give me a good reason why? Of the 100+ people from India that have signed up, ALL have been spammers. Maybe I lose one or two potential members in the future from India, but I think that's a price I'm willing to pay.
                  It's your board, so do as you like. Be aware however that it's extremely easy to fake this information that you have, and that the users are more than likely from other places, you just don't know, not to mention that banning by IP address is pretty ineffective as it's easy to get around.
                  Webmaster / Administrator
                  www.MegaGames.com
                  www.MGForums.com

                  Comment

                  • Dean C
                    Senior Member
                    • Mar 2002
                    • 4571
                    • 3.5.x

                    #10
                    Originally posted by verbs
                    Can you give me a good reason why? Of the 100+ people from India that have signed up, ALL have been spammers. Maybe I lose one or two potential members in the future from India, but I think that's a price I'm willing to pay.
                    On the off chance that tomorrow, someone from India does come across your site and will want to use it. The way to fight spam, is via intelligence. Not idiocy. And that's what banning the whole of India would be.

                    Maybe ban a small IP range if the users have that in common, but not a whole ISP etc. Also clever spammers use a proxy, so it's unlikely that these spammers are even based in India in the first place, they are most likely using a proxy
                    Dean Clatworthy - Web Developer/Designer

                    Comment

                    • Asvin
                      Senior Member
                      • Jul 2007
                      • 194

                      #11
                      My friend once had an issue just like this and he banned the IP Addresses from all across INDIA!! Now, rarely anyone signs up at his forum, so it would be wiser to block users using proxies.. I am pretty sure there is a modification for that over at www.vbulletin.org

                      Comment

                      • Tez™
                        New Member
                        • Sep 2007
                        • 3
                        • 3.6.x

                        #12
                        i am indian dont block my country

                        i live in the US now though lol
                        sigpic

                        Comment

                        • Fusion
                          Senior Member
                          • Aug 2001
                          • 4346
                          • 3.8.x

                          #13
                          Originally posted by Jose Amaral Rego
                          I am surprize that I have not heard spam from western continent of Africa in message boards as of yet... I know they get you in email, but never did ever seen an ip from a certain country of Africa.
                          That's because those sending these emails aren't actually in that country, which illustrates my point pretty well.
                          Toddler from Hell

                          Comment

                          • jeffinj
                            Senior Member
                            • Apr 2006
                            • 841
                            • 4.0.0

                            #14
                            Originally posted by Dean C
                            Don't punish the whole of India. Simple.
                            I am an Indian as well. Banning the whole of India wouldn't be a wise decision. It's you own board and in the end thats your decision to make.
                            www.christianforumsite.com
                            sigpic

                            Comment

                            • Rich_Z
                              Member
                              • Feb 2002
                              • 98

                              #15
                              I think the question was CAN it be done, not SHOULD it be done. And that question, as far as I can tell, was never answered.

                              I have a site that is based on Florida interests only, and lately have been getting a rash of "@*.ru" based email addresses from spammers. So yes, if I CAN do it, I would like to ban all of those email addresses, as they are likely not legitimately interested in participating on my site.

                              So the question remains: How do I do that? Will wildcards work? I'm using an older version of vBulletin (3.0.something)....

                              Actually I believe a native geographical filtering component within vbulletin would be a valuable addition to those sites where it would be an obvious help.

                              Comment

                              widgetinstance 262 (Related Topics) skipped due to lack of content & hide_module_if_empty option.
                              Working...