REALLY spammed-up forums: why don't the owners care?

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  • purlizz
    New Member
    • Jun 2008
    • 6
    • 2.3.3

    #16
    Yeh, i think most owners just got bored shortly after installation and left it to blow into the wind.

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    • HexOnxOnx
      Senior Member
      • Apr 2003
      • 638
      • 3.7.x

      #17
      I got bored with my forum as well and it's been deserted for well over a year. Now all that register are spammers but only a very few confirm their email address to actually spam. I do check in every few days just to ban email addresses.

      I can't pull the site offline either, it costs just $10 to keep the server account open and in fact, I've done no website work since my forum died. Just lost interest. My vB license is owned.

      I also had to update my sites URL in VBs database because Pirate reports came knocking on the door.
      http://www.icecreamforum.com

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      • Jingus
        Senior Member
        • Sep 2005
        • 130
        • 3.6.x

        #18
        Originally posted by Wayne Luke
        A lot of people don't even moderate or even visit their own forums after installation.
        Some of them may have gone to the great beyond without leaving their forums to anyone.

        Comment

        • HexOnxOnx
          Senior Member
          • Apr 2003
          • 638
          • 3.7.x

          #19
          Since I posted in this thread yesterday, the spam got bad. All those registrations over the past few months came back and spam bombed the forum yesterday. I took care of it and since the forum is not active, I set it to moderate all posts, makes it easy to delete spam.
          http://www.icecreamforum.com

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          • cheat-master30
            Senior Member
            • Jun 2008
            • 818
            • 3.8.x

            #20
            By moderate all posts, do you mean literally every post by every user, or only the first few posts by each user?
            DS Ultimate- A Nintendo DS Forum

            My Blog (Nintendo, vBulletin and other articles)

            My Profile and Modifications at vBulletin.org

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            • dtg-forums
              Member
              • Jan 2007
              • 45
              • 3.6.x

              #21
              Excellent idea !!!

              Originally posted by 1996 328ti
              I was going to set up a forum with no moderation, no CAPTCHA and no email verification just to see what would happen as an experiment. I bet it would make it to big-board status in no time.
              EXCELLENT IDEA !!! A "honeypot" forum. Hadn't thought of that.

              Maybe that's what they're doing?
              Or, perhaps attempting to gather IP addresses to BAN on a GOOD forum they may be running? Perventive blocking?

              An accomplished PHP programmer could THEN program a script that would PARSE the posts for domains (I'm sure there are plenty) ; then grab the poster's IP address, and configure a REPORT to Spam Cop and some of the other Black Hole owners, and PRESTO, the spammer is reported to the IP admin, and the HOST admin.

              I do this by hand on the 'bad' offenders in my forum.

              Once they're in the black hole, the ISP will block them all together.

              :-)

              Comment

              • dtg-forums
                Member
                • Jan 2007
                • 45
                • 3.6.x

                #22
                On second thought...

                This is something vBulletin should do.

                Comment

                • HexOnxOnx
                  Senior Member
                  • Apr 2003
                  • 638
                  • 3.7.x

                  #23
                  Originally posted by cheat-master30
                  By moderate all posts, do you mean literally every post by every user, or only the first few posts by each user?
                  Well the only "people" visiting my forum anymore are spammers so moderating all posts is the only thing that makes sense. I will never close the forum down. just don't have the heart to do so.
                  http://www.icecreamforum.com

                  Comment

                  • DoE
                    Senior Member
                    • Sep 2007
                    • 763

                    #24
                    Originally posted by HexOnxOnx
                    Well the only "people" visiting my forum anymore are spammers so moderating all posts is the only thing that makes sense. I will never close the forum down. just don't have the heart to do so.
                    Why not just turn it off until such a time you want to go back to it?

                    Comment

                    • HexOnxOnx
                      Senior Member
                      • Apr 2003
                      • 638
                      • 3.7.x

                      #25
                      Originally posted by DoE
                      Why not just turn it off until such a time you want to go back to it?
                      Because occasionally, one of the old members will come back and post something worthwhile.

                      How are these spammers doing this? I have the forum set on moderate all posts and ONE spammer posted exactly 300 spam posts in just a few hours. Is it a spam bot who was smart enough to validate their email during registration?
                      http://www.icecreamforum.com

                      Comment

                      • birdie
                        Senior Member
                        • Aug 2004
                        • 323

                        #26
                        Why not report them to the Internet Police .. or has somebody already done that as the home page redirects to Google.

                        Comment

                        • steponfrog
                          Member
                          • Mar 2006
                          • 62
                          • 3.6.x

                          #27
                          Had a second wind with my rantability

                          It annoyed me to the back teeth that Wiichat.com has so many SpamPosts that have absolutely nothing to do with games, or Wii, or any other console.. the majority of the SpamPosts are things like 'buy this new mobile cr*p' or '1'000'000 viagra for when you play tomb raider and Lara Croft gets herself into some right awkward positions'.

                          With regards the title of this thread... ...the real nut that's hard to crack is why so many people are not bothered to talk about Spam, or ways to prevent Spam. I've asked for help on ways to list usernames that fail the registration process (that don't acutally register, but have still submitted a username) ---> this thread <--- Perhaps site owners aren't bothered because they have wads of ca$h to splash about.

                          I detest Spam and Spammers to the back teeth; why should I allow someone to freely advertise on my board, when I have paid bloody good money for the software that allows them to stick their cr*ppy, useless and pathetic adverts all over my webspace, which I have also paid bloody good money for the software to run on.?

                          Spammers on my board? I don't think so! And, I'm put off visiting boards that ruin the continuity of discussions with Spam all over the bloody place.!

                          Another annoying format for Boards is that the admins refrain from placing paid adverts all over the place, but don't do a single thing about Spam.

                          </End Of Rant>

                          To be perfectly honest, I've been driven into a little quiet hidey-hole where I can hide away from being bothered about it all now, because when I ask for help with Spam prevention, either users don't understand what the hell I'm going on about (regardless of the detailed structure of description used - plain bloody English), or obnoxious toe-rags who seem to have it set in their minds that the way to deal with Spammers is to allow them to Spam all over your board, and then you go along and prune the posts. I may aslwell be small, green and speak bloody alien!

                          </End Of Other Rant..... possibly>
                          Last edited by steponfrog; Sun 13 Jul '08, 12:58am.
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                          • cheat-master30
                            Senior Member
                            • Jun 2008
                            • 818
                            • 3.8.x

                            #28
                            I'm bothered about stuff like that, but I found just premoderating the first five posts and using a complex question and answer system worked wonders in blocking spam bots and trolls alike, so I have no need for any more spam preventing techniques. What annoys me worse instead are the forums that just shut down with no warning or reason why, completely out of nowhere with millions of users.
                            DS Ultimate- A Nintendo DS Forum

                            My Blog (Nintendo, vBulletin and other articles)

                            My Profile and Modifications at vBulletin.org

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