Forum Anti-Spam Suggestions

Suggestions and feedback for Linux Mint and the forums
Forum rules
Do not post support questions here. Before you post read: Where to post ideas & feature requests
ThistleWeb

Re: Forum Anti-Spam Suggestions

Post by ThistleWeb »

Garvan wrote:Limiting editing to a time period would stop people putting [SOLVED] in their post titles, unless you changed the forum to add an option to do this automatically.

Garvan
That's a good point, perhaps a separate drop down menu that does it, that's exempt from the editing window rules.
dagon
Level 7
Level 7
Posts: 1655
Joined: Mon Dec 06, 2010 4:33 am
Location: Kungälv, Sweden
Contact:

Re: Forum Anti-Spam Suggestions

Post by dagon »

ThistleWeb wrote: ...I've noticed a few tactics spammers use and have a couple of suggestions on how to deal with them a little more effectively.

Post random *** then return to edit in spam links

This enables the post to die away from the "new posts" section where it will likely be spotted, reported and deleted along with the account. They can make the edit days later and not be noticed. If that post is on an old thread like "Mint 7 XFCE Released" it will likely go unnoticed for a long time.
A recent spammer hit us with...
My daughter has recently purchased a new laptop. She has an older desktop (gateway)with windows XP, that she wants to give to her daughter & son.
At this point she wants to see that the teens stay in sights that are child safe. With no ability to download illegal content such as ****, music or movies. Is there a way to do this in windows xp? Many friends online recommended that I should buy Internet filter for mac and family keylogger mac. But it seems only apply to mac computers, i don't know if it can also use on windows......Please do tell me if you have a solution to this…

Thanks so much for your time
What is the **** for?
Last edited by dagon on Wed Aug 31, 2011 9:39 am, edited 1 time in total.
dagon
Level 7
Level 7
Posts: 1655
Joined: Mon Dec 06, 2010 4:33 am
Location: Kungälv, Sweden
Contact:

Re: Forum Anti-Spam Suggestions

Post by dagon »

As an example "I googled part of the message above:
"My daughter has recently purchased a new laptop. She has an older desktop (gateway)with windows XP, that she wants to give to her daughter & son."

How not to deal with spam:
http://forums.v3.co.uk/showthread.php?t=219841

Spamlink edited in:
http://forum.networktechs.com/showthrea ... 7a&t=10262
http://forum.networktechs.com/showthrea ... #post49037

and how to(same original message):
http://www.tech-pc.co.uk/forum/viewtopi ... =9&t=71119
User avatar
Oscar799
Level 20
Level 20
Posts: 10398
Joined: Tue Aug 11, 2009 9:21 am
Location: United Kingdom

Re: Forum Anti-Spam Suggestions

Post by Oscar799 »

Looks like the bad words filter caught the reference to adult entertainment.... :lol:
Image
AlbertP
Level 16
Level 16
Posts: 6701
Joined: Sun Jan 30, 2011 12:38 pm
Location: Utrecht, The Netherlands

Re: Forum Anti-Spam Suggestions

Post by AlbertP »

Yeah, such a simple filter can't distinguish between good and bad uses of such words. But usually bad word filters display an error message instead of replacing a word by ****. Isn't the Mint bad words filter just the built-in filter of phpBB forums?
Registered Linux User #528502
Image
Feel free to correct me if I'm trying to write in Spanish, French or German.
User avatar
Oscar799
Level 20
Level 20
Posts: 10398
Joined: Tue Aug 11, 2009 9:21 am
Location: United Kingdom

Re: Forum Anti-Spam Suggestions

Post by Oscar799 »

AlbertP wrote:Yeah, such a simple filter can't distinguish between good and bad uses of such words. But usually bad word filters display an error message instead of replacing a word by ****. Isn't the Mint bad words filter just the built-in filter of phpBB forums?
It is a simple filter that can't distinguish context - it replaces with symbols or another word if one is specified as a replacement,it doesn't display any error message,in fact it lets you think it accepted what you typed but adds the substitute while processing the message.I know this as I tried it out - in the interest of finding out how it worked of course...... :lol:
Image
dagon
Level 7
Level 7
Posts: 1655
Joined: Mon Dec 06, 2010 4:33 am
Location: Kungälv, Sweden
Contact:

Re: Forum Anti-Spam Suggestions

Post by dagon »

Oscar799 wrote:Looks like the bad words filter caught the reference to adult entertainment.... :lol:
Ok. The message was removed but the account, I think, is still there? Why?
ThistleWeb

Re: Forum Anti-Spam Suggestions

Post by ThistleWeb »

In my OP I actually typed four * as I knew the effect it'd have and the filter would kick in, so if that filter was removed on my post it wouldn't change anything. I dare say I'm rare on that use case though lol
dagon
Level 7
Level 7
Posts: 1655
Joined: Mon Dec 06, 2010 4:33 am
Location: Kungälv, Sweden
Contact:

Re: Forum Anti-Spam Suggestions

Post by dagon »

Ah! I searched "****" as I didn't get it at all and had wikipedia once more enrichen my day.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four-letter_word
AlbertP
Level 16
Level 16
Posts: 6701
Joined: Sun Jan 30, 2011 12:38 pm
Location: Utrecht, The Netherlands

Re: Forum Anti-Spam Suggestions

Post by AlbertP »

If you configure phpBB so that the first X posts have to be approved by a mod, editing a post (when the user has less than X posts) also has to be approved. This is IMO a good way to make spamming harder. And as phpBB is open-source, you can always modify the source to code your own restrictions.
You could perhaps code it so that links containing certain words are automatically converted to links to a Mint webpage. By looking through spam messages, you can collect lots of words for this. (And you can, if you have time to code it, do this only for people with less than X posts)
Registered Linux User #528502
Image
Feel free to correct me if I'm trying to write in Spanish, French or German.
User avatar
xenopeek
Level 25
Level 25
Posts: 29507
Joined: Wed Jul 06, 2011 3:58 am

Re: Forum Anti-Spam Suggestions

Post by xenopeek »

+1 to AlbertP's suggestions (don't say this out loud). I was actually about to post similar suggestion, having the first few posts of new users be moderated.

Suspect should anybody with just a few posts and with links in their signature, as the new tactic seems to be to post a random "welcome" or "thank you" message to a forum and then have a couple of links to spam in the signature.
Image
dagon
Level 7
Level 7
Posts: 1655
Joined: Mon Dec 06, 2010 4:33 am
Location: Kungälv, Sweden
Contact:

Re: Forum Anti-Spam Suggestions

Post by dagon »

Maybe it's time to prune out old accounts...
Like this: http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.p ... it=pruning
There are users who hasn't been logged in since they registered like:

buyphentermineBGJ
GarenaSix

What's the point of these accounts anyway? Does the search engines look among the profiles too?
AlbertP
Level 16
Level 16
Posts: 6701
Joined: Sun Jan 30, 2011 12:38 pm
Location: Utrecht, The Netherlands

Re: Forum Anti-Spam Suggestions

Post by AlbertP »

Search engines click links everywhere, so also in the memberlist. But you can restrict the access search engines have in phpBB. As I am not a search engine I can't try out what permissions are set, and I also have no access to the administrator panel so can't lookup how the permissions are set there. I think access to profiles is turned off by default.
Registered Linux User #528502
Image
Feel free to correct me if I'm trying to write in Spanish, French or German.
dagon
Level 7
Level 7
Posts: 1655
Joined: Mon Dec 06, 2010 4:33 am
Location: Kungälv, Sweden
Contact:

Re: Forum Anti-Spam Suggestions

Post by dagon »

AlbertP wrote:Search engines click links everywhere, so also in the memberlist. But you can restrict the access search engines have in phpBB. As I am not a search engine I can't try out what permissions are set, and I also have no access to the administrator panel so can't lookup how the permissions are set there.
robots.txt
http://www.robotstxt.org/orig.html#examples
http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthre ... 7646b2ba30

Not that spambots care for that though... :roll:
I think access to profiles is turned off by default.
I think so too. At least it should be. I've seen other places with lots of spam where they only get some 30 new users registered every day but none of them post anything. Ever.
They're only there for the links. Less agressive but spam nonetheless. And oh... their birthday is allways on the day they registered, off course!
AlbertP
Level 16
Level 16
Posts: 6701
Joined: Sun Jan 30, 2011 12:38 pm
Location: Utrecht, The Netherlands

Re: Forum Anti-Spam Suggestions

Post by AlbertP »

Anyway, it's perhaps time for a next prune. This will also decrease the database size making the load lighter for the server (which has often refused connections because there was too much forum activity at once).
Registered Linux User #528502
Image
Feel free to correct me if I'm trying to write in Spanish, French or German.
dagon
Level 7
Level 7
Posts: 1655
Joined: Mon Dec 06, 2010 4:33 am
Location: Kungälv, Sweden
Contact:

Re: Forum Anti-Spam Suggestions

Post by dagon »

How about playing the spambots a little trick?
A "present yourself" thread that looks something like this would be pretty much impossible for a bot to handle... or resist! :D
Hi!

I'm new here (not)... what do you think of my desktop?
Image
Post Reply

Return to “Suggestions & Feedback”