Spam

Doog · Post by **Doog** » Fri 21st Jul 2006 05:00 pm

mazdog wrote: think den was refering to the forum spammers.

Well at least now he can't go wrong. General definition of spam and effects of spammers on the forum.

Post by **Lemming** » Fri 21st Jul 2006 05:30 pm

Thanks guys. I think email verification is possible but that puts a further obstacle in the path of genuine prospective members and precludes people from remaining anonymous. It also may not stop the spammers because it’s pretty easy to set up an email account somewhere and then abandon it.

Spam doesn’t do much harm but if I didn’t keep deleting it it would clutter up the forum a lot. There would also be more spam members than real ones.

I think one of the spammers objectives is to improve their ranking on Google by getting links from relevant sites. I rather object to assisting them in this objective!

Post by **Lemming** » Mon 24th Jul 2006 07:36 pm

Contrary to suggestions elsewhere, the recent outage wasn’t related to removing spam. I’m still open to ideas on how to stop the spammers.

Doog · Post by **Doog** » Mon 24th Jul 2006 11:29 pm

Doog wrote:EUREKA. Check out the Off-Topic section and see if you can spot any differences.

It seems that all the topics that subsequently promoted various substances have now been removed.

That surely must be why the forum was off line.

I'm off now to give myself a huge pat on the back for spotting it.

Lemming wrote:Contrary to suggestions elsewhere, the recent outage wasn’t related to removing spam. I’m still open to ideas on how to stop the spammers.

Hmm.Wasn't my suggestion was it

Just seemed too much of a coincidence that the Off Topics seemed to be completely spam free after the forum came back online.

Oh well, won't be quitting the day job just yet then

P.S I don't have any suggestions as to how one might stop the spammers.

Post by **Lemming** » Tue 17th Oct 2006 08:44 pm

Please do not reply to spam posts. Doing so can make my task harder for two reasons. Firstly, after one of the moderators or me have deleted the spam post, your post will no longer make any sense and may appear to refer to a previous legitimate post. Secondly, if I accidentally delete the spammer before their spam then their posts become attributed to “guest” and these are difficult to find if they are no longer the latest post in the section.

711 · Post by **711** » Tue 17th Oct 2006 09:27 pm

Lem, I have an invaluable tool for you. This phpbb mod (I tested it myself, and garuntee it's safe and working) adds a link in all user profiles, that allows you to delete a user and all their posts with one click. (well, two clicks, you have to confirm deletion) You only need ftp access the phpbb root folder.

http://phpbbhacks.com/download/6208

I did a test install on a forum I operate, and it took me just over 2 minutes, the install is VERY simple. Just download 3 files from the forum to your hard drive, edit them in notepad as is detailed in the mod install instructions, and then upload the edited files, along with a couple of additional files that make the mod run. Just message me if you decide to use it and come upon any snags. =P

Post by **Lemming** » Wed 18th Oct 2006 11:50 am

Thanks for the info. That sounds useful. I don’t have direct access to the new server at the moment but I’ll try to organise it with Peter when I get a spare moment.

dblair1969 · Post by **dblair1969** » Fri 3rd Nov 2006 04:48 am

Ha Ha Spam on the Spam thread....