Deputy Sheriffs mopperle 4162 Posted January 17, 2011 Deputy Sheriffs Share Posted January 17, 2011 Today we reached a new dimension with the bot "Herolayelay". I'm watching this now for a few month and it is getting more worse. I already got spam as PN. I'm really concerned that Aerosoft can not configure the software in a way that makes it for bots nearly impossible to register an account! As a user of many communities, non-commercial and commercial ones, I've never seen something like this. And I'm wondering how secure is this site! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TF-197 28 Posted January 17, 2011 Share Posted January 17, 2011 a simple question in the registration process would be good fix for it I think, a question like: what is 1+2 ? or a question like: are you a bot ? and it gives you the option of yes or no. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Movieman162 15 Posted January 17, 2011 Share Posted January 17, 2011 Although i have reported as such, i have not personally gone as far as saying this is a bot. Aerosoft can only make their forums as secure as the technology provided to them which includes an IP check and the copy the code you see below. Bots do and will happen on any forum and should in no way be affiliated with the security of aerosoft Download Store and Boxed Store accounts. I do obviously say this as a matter of my own personal computer experience and not therefore representing aerosoft. EDIT: May i also advise not to follow the hyper links as the are described as to an external site. I do hope this is common sense to most users. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kaspis29 29 Posted January 17, 2011 Share Posted January 17, 2011 A month? WOW its starting to get hard to read the thread but we-and I mean we-cant do anything much about it... although the yes/no question makes a good point (I once saw a picture of a spam bot in my school e-system(e-school)) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maddz 737 55 Posted January 17, 2011 Share Posted January 17, 2011 "Herolayelay" has gone wild here! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roadburner426 0 Posted January 17, 2011 Share Posted January 17, 2011 Over on the Milviz forum we were hit pretty bad a few months back, and putting the question in the process does not work. They use people to register, and the bots to spam.. So we had to completely scrap the open registration system, and go to a system where people e-mail us directly to open accounts. This is a huge pain in the rear, but the only way we have found to solve this issue. I wish Aerosoft luck in solving this now that their site has been targeted as well as this has always been a good place to come hang out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spud 27 Posted January 18, 2011 Share Posted January 18, 2011 I own a tropical fish forum. It's only just over 1 year old and I have just over 500 members. In the first 9 months, we were getting 25-30 spammers per day. These were mostly from Russia, China and Poland. I had automatic access on registration but have since changed that to Admin approval only. Even this was a pain because with each registration, ip had to be checked before approving or not. Then one day, I stumbled over a spam blocker. I had this installed on my forum by my tech and straight away it stopped spammers in their tracks before they could even try registering. It is linked to a massive database of known spammer ip's and usernames. This has made life so much easier now and I would only get 1-2 spammers per week. You can also add any known spamers to their database list (with reason why you think they are spammers) this will be added to the honey pot. To any forum or blog owners out there, I would strongly suggest you put this into place and stop these idiots in their tracks. Here's a link and have a good read first. http://www.spambotsecurity.com/zbblock.php Cheers Spud Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shaun Fletcher 570 Posted January 18, 2011 Share Posted January 18, 2011 Hello Folks, The registration does indeed ask a question that a human needs to answer. These humans have to register and then go through the same process as anyone else did. The sorry fact is the idiot copied and pasted 101 posts which would take some time to do and they were all deleted in the press of a button. Really sad thing is the person wasted a part of there life doing something totally unconstructive. One shot at life and thats all they can do with it, pathetic. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sasa 921 Posted January 18, 2011 Share Posted January 18, 2011 Then one day, I stumbled over a spam blocker. I had this installed on my forum by my tech and straight away it stopped spammers in their tracks before they could even try registering. It is linked to a massive database of known spammer ip's and usernames. Right, but what most people using those spam IP lists don't know is that they can cause new problems for a big forum like Aerosoft's with many international customers. Trinidad for example is one of the worst sources of spam in the world. Why? Because the only two IPs (Internet Providers) available here don't do enough against spammers. So it happens from time to time that those spammer lists block both IPs for the WHOLE country. Meaning I can't post anything or e-mail anything to servers which have my Internet Provider as a whole blacklisted. I guess it also happens rather often to people from Poland, Russia and India whose Internet Providers get blacklisted including all their users. Just wanted to make clear that those spammer lists aren't necessarily the right way to solve the problems because they can cause new ones depending on how many international users you have in your forum. Bests, Sascha Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spud 27 Posted January 18, 2011 Share Posted January 18, 2011 Very valid point Sascha. I agree that a blanket ban on some countries is totally wrong. But, please understand that within 1 year, my offsider and I had to ban over 6,500 spammers manually and it was a huge task that took a lot of our time. Neither of us could be on there 24/7 which meant that when we were sleeping, they would be putting up their porn sites and pill sales (viagra etc). Being a fish forum, we get a lot of youngsters onboard to learn the hobby and we just couldn't let this happen. My forum is mainly Australian based and we have very few international members. Even though I've put Zb Block into place, we still get people registering from places such as Poland, Russia, China etc. We now have the opportunity to check their ip's and then decide to approve or not. So far, those that we have allowed haven't done anything wrong but they may just be laying in wait to pounce. Like you have said, it may not be suited to all sites. Cheers, Pierre Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shaun Fletcher 570 Posted January 18, 2011 Share Posted January 18, 2011 Hello Pierre, Our old forum software used to get spammed every single day and we used to have to do them manually which involved writing a mail to all applicants and then waiting for a reply. So that meant copying all e-mails from the forums sending a mail to them then waiting for a reply to confirm then validating there accounts when done. After a certain time the rest were removed, but unfortunately this was eating up all the support time. But as I said these people lead sorry pathetic lives if they have nothing better to do. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aerosoft Aerosoft Team [Inactive Account] 51558 Posted January 21, 2011 Aerosoft Share Posted January 21, 2011 Gents, it costs $0,05 to 'buy' a login to this forum. You simply hire a load of poor people in internet cafe's to circumvent the 'is this a bot or a real human' protection. There simply is no way to prevent this apart from manually releasing each post. Every additional protection will make it harder for you to post. It is actually a sign our forums do well when they are targeted like this. Of course it could also be that all spammers think that simmers got sexual problems and can use some fake medication.You could also just vote them down so the next user does not see them. You do know the forum software we use can hide posts that are below a certain score do you? 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
James A 39 Posted January 21, 2011 Share Posted January 21, 2011 You do know the forum software we use can hide posts that are below a certain score do you? I think Shaun and I came to the same conclusion "No" would probably be the most voted on answer. My observation's would indicate that if the thread name looks stupid, don't look or respond. It's amassing as to how many actually do!! Well, here's hoping there's hope for some of us. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deputy Sheriffs mopperle 4162 Posted January 22, 2011 Author Deputy Sheriffs Share Posted January 22, 2011 You do know the forum software we use can hide posts that are below a certain score do you? And how does this exactly work? Is the negative score related to the number of posts? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul G 13 Posted January 22, 2011 Share Posted January 22, 2011 And how does this exactly work? Is the negative score related to the number of posts? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul K 93 Posted January 22, 2011 Share Posted January 22, 2011 Are spam posts really a major problem in this forum ? I've noticed one or two, and received a spam PM before now...but none of it has ever been a huge inconvenience to me. I see the thread..say to myself 'Oh its spam' and then disregard it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deputy Sheriffs mopperle 4162 Posted January 22, 2011 Author Deputy Sheriffs Share Posted January 22, 2011 Thanks Paul G. didn't see this. But it only helps as a spammer is voted down to e.g. -10 and that takes a while. and @Paul K. it doesn't help when you are watching topics or forums. And in deed, the number of spams was growing in the last month. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul G 13 Posted January 22, 2011 Share Posted January 22, 2011 Thanks Paul G. didn't see this. But it only helps as a spammer is voted down to e.g. -10 and that takes a while. Set the threshold to 0 and any posts with a negative score will be hidden (e.g: -1.) Personally I don't use the threshold limiter at all, I just scroll past the posts that I don't have interest in reading. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aerosoft Aerosoft Team [Inactive Account] 51558 Posted January 23, 2011 Aerosoft Share Posted January 23, 2011 Are spam posts really a major problem in this forum ? Think it depends a bit on the size of your crown jewels. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shaun Fletcher 570 Posted January 24, 2011 Share Posted January 24, 2011 Hello Folks, Spam is no where near as bad as it used to be as with the old forum software. As I say as long as there account has not been removed from the forum they are easy to deal with. Just keep pressing the "Report" button and as soon as I see it their posts will be removed in one swift action and then there accounts banned. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul K 93 Posted January 24, 2011 Share Posted January 24, 2011 Think it depends a bit on the size of your crown jewels. 'Size of your crown jewels'...is that a euphemism , or should I not ask ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aerosoft Aerosoft Team [Inactive Account] 51558 Posted January 26, 2011 Aerosoft Share Posted January 26, 2011 'Size of your crown jewels'...is that a euphemism , or should I not ask ? If you are not royalty... yeah. And as far as we are aware there is only one person of royal blood a member of this forum (no, not me) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt_Smith 1116 Posted January 26, 2011 Share Posted January 26, 2011 Cant be me either, just look at the surname Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul K 93 Posted January 26, 2011 Share Posted January 26, 2011 Cant be me either, just look at the surname Actually Matt, you probably are in line to the throne, if your are of lengthy English or Scots lineage like me. I read an article years ago about it. Unfortunately, you'll probably have to wait till about 5000 others die off first before you get a crack at it. Still, if and when you do get crowned , demand tribute from Mathijs in the form of freebie downloads! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt_Smith 1116 Posted January 26, 2011 Share Posted January 26, 2011 This is true Paul, Dad's side has Scottish in them somewhere along the lines. Mothers side is a right mess though. Her dad's side were a rather wealthy Herefordshire family, until her grandad lost the lot some how! Mums mothers family are Canadians, so no hope of Royalty links there lol. Although they were probably all Scots too at some stage way back when? Only 5000 you say. That can be arranged, you know, if a big accident were to happen Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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