Rants *enter at own risk*

[null54]

The download counters at Codeplex have been broken for most of the past month.

[BoltBait]

This board is getting overrun by Korean spammers.

I think I'm wearing out my mouse banning all these accounts.

[toe_head2001]

Write a bot for the IP.Board software that autobans users that post nothing but Korean? Wouldn't get any false positives affecting normal users, since the rules state English only.

[MJW]

I think something automatic needs to be done. Banning accounts works until the spammer can create new accounts -- which doesn't appear to be long. Accepting posts with Korean characters in the title, but sending them straight to the bit bucket might be best, since it would seem to be less likely to invoke an attempt to get around it.

[Ego Eram Reputo]

Yup.

[david.atwell]

Yeah, this spam attack is driving me up a wall.  I wonder if it's actual people doing the account generation, or just really sophisticated bots.

[barbieq25]

I just want to say thanks guys for stemming the tide at least & working hard to find a solution.

[BoltBait]

Ugh. Just killed another 2500 spam posts.

[racerx]

Some forums I've posted on require you to wait a day or two before posting. I assume this is to stop spammers, they tend to be inpatient.

[BoltBait]

I love deleting spam accounts even before they have a chance to post.

[barbieq25]

Well there are plenty to choose from. I keep zapping away...

[Ego Eram Reputo]

Me too. It is kind of satisfying.

[BoltBait]

...but also frustrating... like playing whack-a-mole.

[barbieq25]

Whack a spammer is getting monotonous!

[skullbonz]

It appears to be getting worse each day. 

[david.atwell]

It was fun for a little while, but now I'm feeling flashbacks to OMG YER YER YER YER.

[BoltBait]

It appears to be getting worse each day.

I agree.

And, reCaptcha and security questions are doing nothing to prevent this tidal wave.

Your moderating team deleted over 10,000 spam posts within the last 24 hours.

[MJW]

I have no knowledge or experience with website administration, so I'm probably talking out of my hat (to use a rather dated expression), but If there's some level of automatic span protection available for the website, it seems like it ought to be relatively easy. How many legitimate thread titles contain Korean characters?

[Ego Eram Reputo]

We don't appear to have that level of fine control.

We use an autofilter to remove certain words & phrases, but this does not stop a post from being created.

I think the trick is to stop them at the point of account creation.

[MJW]

I think there must be some way to do it. Or at least there ought be. Spam isn't exactly a new problem. I find it difficult to believe there's no mechanism to automatically prevent or delete spam posts with such easily recognized characteristics.

[BoltBait]

I think there must be some way to do it. Or at least there ought be. Spam isn't exactly a new problem. I find it difficult to believe there's no mechanism to automatically prevent or delete spam posts with such easily recognized characteristics.

We do not have complete control over the forum software. We rely on another company for hosting and software updates.

[david.atwell]

[...] at least there ought be.

 

Ay, there’s the rub!

[MJW]

We rely on another company for hosting and software updates.

 

Perhaps they could do something. I think that a hosting company should have some responsibility for preventing spam attacks.

[mottoman]

I'm sure I read somewhere on this forum a suggestion about having text message verification upon creating a new account, I would doubt not many spammers would make the effort to either buy or use an existing cell phone sim card just to post pointless junk, some e-mail accounts now want you to enter a valid and active cell phone number in order to complete the registration process. 

[david.atwell]

The problem with that is that we don't want to keep younger users or out-of-country users from joining.  That's a barrier to entry that would impact legitimate users.