# ban this user posting junk?



## chris42 (12 Jul 2007)

SaschVolkin


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## chris42 (12 Jul 2007)

wow 
cheers


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## Steve Austin (12 Jul 2007)

beat me to it paul :?:


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## chris42 (12 Jul 2007)

does this type of thing happen alot?


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## Steve Austin (12 Jul 2007)

What? Paul beating me to deleting spambots? :?:

its a common occurrence on forums, not seen too much here


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## Cab (12 Jul 2007)

chris42 said:


> does this type of thing happen alot?



Spambots specifically designed to hit forums like this one are quite common I'm afraid. Happens all the time. A skilled forum admin can keep on top of such things, but it helps if eagle-eyed mods and members spot 'em and nuke 'em. If you see a spam before anyone else does, just leave it be and PM any moderator who is online.


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## Shaun (12 Jul 2007)

So far the mods are doing a fantastic job of spam killing, however I hope to add a flag facility too. This will allow members to flag-up rubbish if they see it, and alert us to any potentially harmful threads :?:


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## col (15 Jul 2007)

Sorry for being a bit ignorant here  ,but what are spam bots and what do you look out for to spot them please?


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## spesh (15 Jul 2007)

Based on my experience keeping helping to keep Ravenbait's forum spam-free, I can offer the following:

Spam bots are basically scripts run by a spammer which search out blogs and fora with the intention of maximising the exposure of a website to search engine web crawlers.

Most of the time, they don't post anything at all - when they do, it is usually to advertise generic pharmeceutical drugs, or websites supposedly offering porn (but instead are more likely to download viruses into your computer).

If a spambot posts, it is fairly obvious, but for those that just lie dormant, clogging up the membership lists, here are few pointers:

1) Wierd usernames, sometimes created by just randomly hammering at the keyboard.

2) Obvious usernames, usually with key words like "online", "casino", "poker" or variations on generic drug names.

3) If a forum profile lists location and interests, there may be clues in dodgy spelling or syntax.

4) For those with moderator/admin priviledges, try running an IP check, which may reveal the server from which the spammer has posted. That may give an indication that the country of origin is not what is advertised in the profile.

5)The sign-in email address is a huge clue, and there are no shortage of threads on the web with extensive lists of email domains routinely used by spammers. The Whois look-up can be very informative, as it reveals the registrar of the domain. Certain domain registrars are synonymous with spam, such as Estdomains in Russia.

Hope this helps.

While we're at it, can someone delete the user "onlinepokerr", if they haven't been given the order of the boot already?


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## Shaun (15 Jul 2007)

I think phpBB is open to spambot exploitation, in a way that some forum software isn't.

To help combat this, and to hopefully improve the forums and features generally, I've bought vBulletin today.

I'm hoping to install and test it during the week; then we can all kick it about a bit to hone the layout and features, then whizz everything over at a pre-planned time.


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## col (15 Jul 2007)

Thanks for that


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## Cycling Naturalist (17 Jul 2007)

Administrator said:


> So far the mods are doing a fantastic job of spam killing, however I hope to add a flag facility too. This will allow members to flag-up rubbish if they see it, and alert us to any potentially harmful threads



Er, what happens to those of us who are used to posting drivel?


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## longers (19 Jul 2007)

Patrick Stevens][quote name= said:


> Er, what happens to those of us who are used to posting drivel?





I keep expecting my name to pop up in here.


So far so good!


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