ANNE LOCKHART

epaddon · Joined: 12 Jul 2006 Posts: 711

The newest post alas is a spam item, and I think it's a warning as to how this site may have to adopt a stricter policy on admitting people if we're going to see more of this kind of junk in the future.

Dawg · Posted: Fri Dec 08, 2006 3:10 am Post subject:

Eric, a lot of boards "powered" by the php software (which is shareware as opposed to paid-for packages like vBulletin) are seeing this kind of crap. We're constantly cleaning out similar "members" at CA and DBC. It's a weakness of the software, not the will of the folks who run the boards.

These people have software that will register, confirm the registration, and post their message (in this case, a drug-selling site, but there is a porn vendor who is making the rounds right now, too) - all automatically. There is almost nothing that can be done except to be vigilent and ban domain names as they show up. Some are going to slip through, regardless.

I am
Dawg
Cool

_________________
"...I aim to misbehave." Capt. Malcolm Reynolds, Serenity

I'm at: Dawg's House
LauretteSpang.com

epaddon · Joined: 12 Jul 2006 Posts: 711

I hope you're right, and I certainly don't mean to suggest our good moderators of this site, Mike and Marcel aren't doing a good job. I have seen too many good message boards go downhill when these things start to seep through, so there was a lot of knee-jerk concern right there when I suddenly saw one popping up here.

Senmut · Posted: Fri Dec 08, 2006 10:42 am Post subject:

I miss something?

============
-edit-

Never mind.
_________________
"The dull mind rises to Truth through that which is material." -Suger

Et verbum caro factum est, et habitavit in nobis: et vidimus gloriam ejus, gloriam quasi Unigenti a Patre, plenam gratiae et veritas.

mikedx · Site Admin Joined: 17 Feb 2006 Posts: 88

Jeez I hate to see that. I had a guestbook on my website and it got so loaded down with spam (I guess it got on some spam master list) that I was getting 3 spams a day, so I had to just delete it.

We'll do what we can here, and I'm sorry for the problem.

Mike

MAD · Posted: Fri Dec 08, 2006 3:56 pm Post subject:

We already have the typing in of conformation code image (check when you click to register a new account) and they need to click on the conformation e-mail. Still there are people smart enough to break through. You can do nothing against those few who do except to ban them. It won't happen that often (I hope).
_________________
GALACTICA.TV | My Battlestar Galactica | Terry Carter - official site | Anne Lockhart - official site

epaddon · Joined: 12 Jul 2006 Posts: 711

A second spammer just started something. This is evidently getting to be a more serious problem, or else we've got one sick person out there.

Senmut · Posted: Sun Dec 10, 2006 5:09 am Post subject:

More like the second option, I fear.
_________________
"The dull mind rises to Truth through that which is material." -Suger

Et verbum caro factum est, et habitavit in nobis: et vidimus gloriam ejus, gloriam quasi Unigenti a Patre, plenam gratiae et veritas.

Senmut · Posted: Sun Dec 10, 2006 5:11 am Post subject:

Perhaps a new rule that any future sign-ons will have to be vouchsafed by an existing member? Clumsy, I know, but we don't need that kind of sludge in here.
_________________
"The dull mind rises to Truth through that which is material." -Suger

Et verbum caro factum est, et habitavit in nobis: et vidimus gloriam ejus, gloriam quasi Unigenti a Patre, plenam gratiae et veritas.

Dawg · Posted: Sun Dec 10, 2006 8:47 am Post subject:

It's tough with the php software - and I don't know enough about it myself (I really need to make the time to dig into it - I admin at 2 sites that use it).

This kind of spammer targets the php software.

Trust me - this is a problem everyone who uses the php software is having to deal with.

I am
Dawg
Cool

_________________
"...I aim to misbehave." Capt. Malcolm Reynolds, Serenity

I'm at: Dawg's House
LauretteSpang.com

MAD · Posted: Mon Dec 11, 2006 1:02 pm Post subject:

Though this one spammer actually posted, I found another 10 new members in the past weeks with still 0 posts all coming from the same IP range and had the same domainname for their e-mail address with which they registered. I blocked all of that with some wildcards, so they won't be bothering us again! Twisted Evil

If it continues to be a problem I'll upgrade the account activation from User to Admin. This means any user registering has to get approval from Mike or me to get aboard. I'm still trying to avoid all this since it also scares new members from joining (since the might think they're not big enough fans to join this elite club). We only have 30 members, so I want to keep it as easy as possible to join. Typing in codes and confirmation e-mails are already a pain. Though I do see people going through all that and actually become members only to never be heard from again. About one month ago I invited all the 0 posters to come check out the forum and post. If not, I'm going to delete all 0 posters with a membership older than 6 months (if you don't feel like posting by then, you're out, and you can register again when you do feel like posting).
_________________
GALACTICA.TV | My Battlestar Galactica | Terry Carter - official site | Anne Lockhart - official site

MAD · Posted: Mon Dec 18, 2006 10:10 am Post subject:

Just blocked another spammer. I know someone who hacks for a living (he's invited by banks, etc. to see if he can hack their software and then upgrade their system). He says there's no way you can stop these spammers without rewriting a big part of the phpBB software. PhpBB is not doing this since the solution goes against the Privacy Law.

You can't stop the spammers with any of the normal login solutions (like typing in the coded image at registration or the confirmation e-mail) because they don't use this. They use a leak in the software and upload a post directly in your database. They do look for keywords of categories like "General Chat", so he suggested to rename those in sometimes less common. So I hope it helps...
_________________
GALACTICA.TV | My Battlestar Galactica | Terry Carter - official site | Anne Lockhart - official site

Senmut · Posted: Mon Dec 18, 2006 12:38 pm Post subject:

MAD, what about my suggestion a few posts back?
_________________
"The dull mind rises to Truth through that which is material." -Suger

Et verbum caro factum est, et habitavit in nobis: et vidimus gloriam ejus, gloriam quasi Unigenti a Patre, plenam gratiae et veritas.

MAD · Posted: Mon Dec 18, 2006 6:01 pm Post subject:

MAD · Posted: Fri Jan 12, 2007 10:27 am Post subject:

There has been a couple of very active spammers lately. One even posted porn links in 21 topics. You'll get automatic replies when you're subscribed to those threads. Problem is that the link contains a code at the end which relates to the last post in those topics, so you will be directed to that point (and don't have to flip through the whle topic). When I remove the posts made by the spammer, these replies don't exist anymore and when clicked on the links you'll receive an error that the topic you're searching for, doesn't exist anymore (while in fact only the post from the spammer is removed not the entire topic). If you go through the normal forum index page you can find those topics in their normal position again and see that they're not removed.

These big spammers has brought it to a point where I now completely closed up the forum and all new members have to report to me first that they're really members that will post about Anne on the forum. I don't think it helps since most professional spammers just hack the database and don't go through the normal procedure of registering. They simply add their stuff to the database and don't actually post. I can only continue to remove all manually and ban the member every time a spammer posts...

Marcel
_________________
GALACTICA.TV | My Battlestar Galactica | Terry Carter - official site | Anne Lockhart - official site