Spammers on the forums?!

[Jeffers]

We seem to be inundated with spam threads and posts at the moment?

Any chance it can be stopped/blocked as it is hiding the 'proper' posts! There must be a way of stopping this either using the forum software or some other software/mechanism?

Jeffers

[Editor2]

Hi Jeffers,

I have removed the threads/posts and banned the users. I will try to find a solution for these people not to be able to connect again.

Editor 2

[imortlock]

Well done for removing the "troll" threads (I did not even know what "trolling" was till last night) - I was positivly disgusted by some of what was posted - hope there is a way of permanently banning these low lifes.

[Robbo]

I think my old username got mistaken as a troll cos it got banned for no reason :S

[Jeffers]

Hi Editor2

Thanks for that, I'm sure I wasn't the only person getting bored/annoyed/disguested with some of the posts.

If you don't mind I'll do a little research and see if there is a 'solution' to stopping something like this happening again - I might find it useful for the future?!

Jeffers

[Williams Ren 99]

Hi Jeffers,

I have removed the threads/posts and banned the users. I will try to find a solution for these people not to be able to connect again.

Editor 2
Cant you just permantely block there IP address so the site totally blocks them?

[Andy Henderson]

Yes I heard that can be done, by blocking there IP address from the site and to them it just comes up "PAGE CANNOT BE DISPLAYED" so they cant access the site.
Good Idea Williams Ren after the Posts they made thats the least they Deserve:mad:

[m0rk]

Cant you just permantely block there IP address so the site totally blocks them?

No, that is just as likely to block a whole proxy (NTL for instance...)

better moderation / administration is the only way (and yes.... I speak from experience)

[ZBOYD]

I speak with the shared experience as m0rk, it requires greater and more active moderation, to keep your forum as spam free as possible, we've been at it for over 5 years now, and you can rarely leave it free of moderation, its far better to source out some moderation duties to people, one or two people can't do it alone.

Its never something you can keep 100% secure, but if someone is available to deal with such situations as last night, immediately, then further attacks are reduced.

[Williams Ren 99]

No, that is just as likely to block a whole proxy (NTL for instance...)

better moderation / administration is the only way (and yes.... I speak from experience)
An ex Mod then?
Good point anyways
How do people get the job of being Moderaters anyway?

[Andy Henderson]

Moderators are a bad idea. They get a God complex.
I think we have another Forum trouble maker on our hands??

[Williams Ren 99]

I think we have another Forum trouble maker on our hands??
Looks like he's already been banned, lol, cause he has no PM info on his profile and I think thats when thay get banned

[Editor2]

Looks like he's already been banned, lol, cause he has no PM info on his profile and I think thats when thay get banned

I have just banned him.
I am leaving the office now guys, so please let me know if there are any people like that who have registered again.

Editor 2

[Williams Ren 99]

I have just banned him.
I am leaving the office now guys, so please let me know if there are any people like that who have registered again.

Editor 2
Nice one Editor2, Very quick response there keep up the good work!

[Soupy george]

Cant you just permantely block there IP address so the site totally blocks them?


they did that to someone I know on another website so they could probably do it here

[ZBOYD]

they did that to someone I know on another website so they could probably do it here

As m0rk already explained above, most of these spammers will login on a proxy, and not a static IP anyway. So if you ban the proxy, then everyone who uses that proxy to get on the internet, will effectively be banned from using the forum.

So if its an NTL proxy, then everyone on NTL, or in a particular NTL area, will be blocked.

Only real way to combat it, is regular moderation.

The admin might be wise to look at upgrading to a newer version of vBulletin too, we were getting a lot of spam adverts just recently, and the upgrade to the newer version has so far reduced this a great deal.

Our forum was also running version 3.5.3 like BTCC.net currently is.

[jonboy1066]

No, that is just as likely to block a whole proxy (NTL for instance...)

better moderation / administration is the only way (and yes.... I speak from experience)

That's interesting. I've recently become Admin on our online gaming forum and sometimes while online, a guest is on at the same time. When I've traced the IP
(I do this as we've recently moved forums and have lost touch with 40+ members so I'm checking to see if it's them looking for us)
it comes out as a Googlebot so I've banned the IP straight away, does that mean that I'll be banning honest people from getting in as well?

All the IP's are 66.249.??.???
I'm very new to all this administrating/moderating stuff so would appreciate any advice. Cheers

[ianc]

First of all, hello boyd n mork, you get around a bit :D

(It's Ian formerly of the white octavia 4x4 :D )

Jon,

It all depends on the users connection. Many large ISP's use proxy servers so when they access a site, you see the proxy server IP not the user's IP.

I suspect your google spider (I suspect it was a search engine program, no bad thing if you want links updating \ to attract members) is unlikely to be coming through a proxy server that users would also be using, so you should be safe in this instance.

If you do a pathping to the IP, you will probably see some clues in the later steps, if not always a name against the final IP.

[jonboy1066]

Thanks mate:cool:

[ZBOYD]

First of all, hello boyd n mork, you get around a bit :D


Hi Ian :cool:

Not regulars here, but pop in from time to time, mostly to follow the BTCC goss, which were avid followers of, especially the SEAT's :D but were not biased whatsoever. :p

[Williams Ren 99]

Too Technical for me is all this IP addy jargon,lol:rolleyes:

[FlashGordon]

Can I ask a mod to check one thing I have been told about. JUst check two peoples ip address. If its true they are the same person.

[Williams Ren 99]

Whos doing that then?

[FlashGordon]

Whos doing that then?
I am only going to tell that to Editors if the pm me asking.

[Williams Ren 99]

Well why dont you just tell us who it is??? No ones gonna lose anything

[FlashGordon]

Well why dont you just tell us who it is??? No ones gonna lose anything
I have informed Editor1. I will wait to see what he/she finds. If it turns out to be true then people will be able to guess. But till then I am not going to say who.


Its now quite easy to see if you look at the above persons contact info.

[CharlieJ]

Can I ask a mod to check one thing I have been told about. JUst check two peoples ip address. If its true they are the same person.
Not too sure about this theory Flash. Soupy is my son - we both registered from one computer and both use it, so same I.P. address, but there are definitely two of us. I also log in from work, so when I do that the I.P.address displayed would be one of the company servers.

Of course I'm not saying that you're wrong in your suspicions, just that it might not be that simple.

[FlashGordon]

Not too sure about this theory Flash. Soupy is my son - we both registered from one computer and both use it, so same I.P. address, but there are definitely two of us. I also log in from work, so when I do that the I.P.address displayed would be one of the company servers.

Of course I'm not saying that you're wrong in your suspicions, just that it might not be that simple.
Yeah But my suspicions where Andy Henderson and Williams Ren was the same person. And judgeing by the fact that Williams has been banned I think I was correct. And I know families use the same ip adress but Andy and Williams were against "each" other. I am in no means trying to say that editors should ban families but should go after people who bring others into disrepute. Dont you?

[CharlieJ]

Yeah But my suspicions where Andy Henderson and Williams Ren was the same person. And judgeing by the fact that Williams has been banned I think I was correct. And I know families use the same ip adress but Andy and Williams were against "each" other. I am in no means trying to say that editors should ban families but should go after people who bring others into disrepute. Dont you?
Yes - I'd worked out who you were talking about, and it seems you were right. I just thought it might not be that easy to pin down. Wonder why he did it?

[FlashGordon]

Yes - I'd worked out who you were talking about, and it seems you were right. I just thought it might not be that easy to pin down. Wonder why he did it?
Because the real Mr. Henderson annoyed him on the Cliosport forum. So he then tried to get his own back on him here. Only thing is he really shouldnt have added the msn address.

[CharlieJ]

Because the real Mr. Henderson annoyed him on the Cliosport forum. So he then tried to get his own back on him here. Only thing is he really shouldnt have added the msn address.
Thanks for clearing that up Flash. We can definitely do without that sort of behaviour.