Fake member explosion?

[pmc]

These days when I search for someone in the memberlist there seems to be literally hundreds of members listed that are clearly not real members of the forum.

I'm sure in the past there were far less pages in the memberlist - now it seems huge whenever I look through it.

Is that just me mis-remembering or has there been a fake member explosion over recent months?

[Dreedo]

Could do with a purge and remove inactive members. Seems the majority of our members have 0 posts.

http://eab.abime.net/memberlist.php?...sername&page=2

Thats a good example.

[Allen1]

There are some flaky names amongst those ie visa and credits etc but some of them might be more into reading posts rather than joining in. Maybe a Mod could check who hasn't been online since joining and suspend the account to maybe see if anyone enquires about it.

There are a lot of them with a www homepage leading to financial/credit sites so obviously these are fakes that have wormed their way in.

[FOL]

Originally Posted by Allen1

There are some flaky names amongst those ie visa and credits etc but some of them might be more into reading posts rather than joining in. Maybe a Mod could check who hasn't been online since joining and suspend the account to maybe see if anyone enquires about it.

There are a lot of them with a www homepage leading to financial/credit sites so obviously these are fakes that have wormed their way in.

I normally scan database for key words like s*x etc etc, to weed out dodgy accounts. I also installed software to cross reference every memeber with spam forums site. It then puts their account into limbo until admin checks them.

It does put strain on sites, the overhead must be massive on EAB. As its a popular site.

[Allen1]

I wouldn't envy anyone who had to sort through fake members to get rid of the spammers amongst them, its a serious problem that sometimes gets through to the forum itself as in viagra and mobile phones type spam. Until one of the dodgy ones actually post such a thing then no-one is sure who is really genuine apart from the ones with an obvious www homepage.

Some of the sites I have seen in the past where you could leave comments on, were terrible for online drug suppliers (prescription type drugs) and the likes, it seems like the people in charge of cleaning up those posts either didn't bother or maybe just gave up trying. Thankfully most sites are dealing with such things before they become a problem nowadays but I must admit that I am surprised at some of the names that have been allowed to be used ie blatantly obvious ones followed by a homepage

[Arnie]

Maybe we could have a Login cut off date whereby if you haven't logged in by a certain date then the account would be suspended. Then if someone tries to login and can't they can contact the Admin to get the account reinstated?

[atchoo]

There are "Account termination" rules: http://eab.abime.net/faq.php?faq=eab...aq_eab_account
I thought they were "automatic"!

[pmc]

Reading those rules it seems there's quite a few "members" in the memberlist that fit into the auto-delete no questions asked category...

[prowler]

Thanks for reporting this issue, guys!

When I get a few moments I'll look into the matter of whether inactive members with low post counts should be automatically purged and if so why it doesn't appear to be working. If it's not automatic, then it looks like the GMs are going to be busy for a while.

[TheCyberDruid]

Originally Posted by prowler

If it's not automatic, then it looks like the GMs are going to be busy for a while.

Been there, tried that Really, RCK needs to make a script for that (pretty easy actually) and I don't get why he hasn't already. He purged the DB from those '0 post' spambots a few times in the past

[prowler]

Phew! That solution sounds like a lot less hassle!

[Paul_s]

Originally Posted by prowler

Phew! That solution sounds like a lot less hassle!

Alas, if RCK puts in the following line of code you will have the duty to recover all the users

IF postcount >0 then purge

[prowler]

Let's hope it doesn't come to that!

[dirkies]

as an admin of a non-Amiga board, it was a fight I could not win, blacklisting etc, each time bots found a way to pass the checks. So I had to resort to a simple open question at registering, which can only be answered by a human being who actually is interested in the board topic. A simple human question could be for this site "What was the model number of the first Amiga released?").
Spambot registration dropped to zero overnight on my BBS with such a simple style question!

[RCK]

13000 account deleted following our rules
simple question updated to "What the forum is talking about ?"

[CodyJarrett]

The question could be rewritten to something like "What is this forum about?" or "What is the subject matter of this forum?".

[slk486]

Originally Posted by CodyJarrett

The question could be rewritten to something like "What is this forum about?" or "What is the subject matter of this forum?".

It should be very clear to any human user what the answer is. The first one is a bit too open: is it amiga or amiga discussion or ?. "Could be What is this forum about (single word)". The latter may be good enough.

I like this one best: "What was the model number of the first Amiga released?" and both Amiga and Amiga 1000 should be valid replies Anyone interested in Amiga will know or could easily research this.

[Arnie]

Originally Posted by slk486

Anyone interested in Amiga will know or could easily research this.

I don't agree, there are some people that are just getting in to the Amiga. To have to research a question just to join a forum can be off putting to some (myself included).

[Allen1]

Originally Posted by slk486

It should be very clear to any human user what the answer is. The first one is a bit too open: is it amiga or amiga discussion or ?. "Could be What is this forum about (single word)". The latter may be good enough.

I like this one best: "What was the model number of the first Amiga released?" and both Amiga and Amiga 1000 should be valid replies Anyone interested in Amiga will know or could easily research this.

Or maybe something simpler like "who made the Amiga and C64 series of computers". I think most folk would know the answer to that one.

[prowler]

Hey, what about this, then?

Originally Posted by RCK

13000 account deleted following our rules

Edit:

Members: 3,654, Active Members: 1,510

That's a much more realistic proportion.

[roy bates]

to be honest if i was joining now,i wouldent mind one question to gain access to the wealth and freindlyness(if theres such a word)of eab.

[RCK]

Updated to: What is this forum about ? (single word)

[MrCheese]

Carbon based unit here and a recent member. Just thought I would post this and giggle at the legitimate use of the word member. I had a forum question when I joined up, something like "What is this forum about". Good anti spam idea. Some sites show a picture and you have to select what it is from a few radio buttons e.g. picture of cat, choice of dog, cat, sheep, fish. Or you can have "What is the missing letter "Amga", with the answer in this case being i.

[Graham Humphrey]

We're still getting a few spammers through (I've killed one off just now, for instance) but the number registering has dropped significantly recently, so something appears to be working

[Graham Humphrey]

Looks like the spambots are getting through thick and fast once more

Just today I've caught and banned six that have signed up... a quick look at the members list reveals that the actual number is likely to be many more than that.

[pmc]

Is it maybe possible to add one of those "type the letters you can see displayed as graphics in the box above" type things - not sure what the proper name for those is.

Yes they can be annoying but I'm guessing they're pretty effective at stopping bot sign up?

[Synthesize Me]

Originally Posted by pmc

Is it maybe possible to add one of those "type the letters you can see displayed as graphics in the box above" type things - not sure what the proper name for those is.

Yes they can be annoying but I'm guessing they're pretty effective at stopping bot sign up?

I think you are talking about a CAPTCHA, the only problem with these is that there is software out there that can actually read and type in the text automatically.. I personally think the "What is the model number of the first Amiga released?" question is a great solution. If you are new to the Amiga then you can easily find out the answer within a minute by Wiki'ing it.

[Galahad/FLT]

i dunno, you need to not be too harsh with the questions.

I went onto Amiga.org to look for something yesterday, and I consider myself pretty Amiga knowledgeable, yet I struggled over some of the questions!

[FOL]

Originally Posted by Galahad/FLT

i dunno, you need to not be too harsh with the questions.

I went onto Amiga.org to look for something yesterday, and I consider myself pretty Amiga knowledgeable, yet I struggled over some of the questions!

Aye, I could'nt get in (to amigaworld I think) cause I didnt know the certain spelling of billy's surname.

It put me off.

[Ian]

The problem is that these days it's actually people creating the accounts. So all the captcha systems are pretty much useless.

There are plenty of spamblock hacks for vbulletin, some of which consult the known spammers list and some that use various different variations of captcha.

Best solution for a board this size is to make only one forum accessible for zero posters and moderate all post in there.

Any spam will be stopped before us "normal" people see it and the mods should then ban the account through the modcp.

Then when RCK has a spare few seconds he can just permanently ban all those accounts or he could assign it to his most trusted mod and give them limited admin rights.

[StingRay]

Originally Posted by Ian

Best solution for a board this size is to make only one forum accessible for zero posters and moderate all post in there.

Good idea indeed!

[pmc]

Seconded.

Sounds like a good effective solution to me.

Nice one Ian

[RCK]

yup, it's a good idea !

what about this, zero poster member would be in a "new member" group that could only see "Member Introductions" forum with moderation active like "news" forum.
If real human post are validated, their post number would grow up to 1 and then EAB will move them to normal 'register' usergroup, without restriction.

[Akira]

But then people will be complaining that they don't see the rest of the board. It could turn people off to force them to post in the introduction section.


I have seen this implemented by force in other forums and it didn't work really well. People get angry when you constrain them :P

[RCK]

We can show the other forums in read only
Or better, let's close new inscription and make the board invite only

[cosmicfrog]

blimey 2 posts from rck in the same day \o/

what ever gets rid of the bots works for me

[Akira]

Originally Posted by RCK

We can show the other forums in read only
Or better, let's close new inscription and make the board invite only

Haha!
Well as always do what you think is best, but I believe forcing people to introduce themselves first might not work really well with some people who will bitch about it endlessly :/

If I get this correctly, this all depends on admin moderation anyway, right? So, is there a system like Wordpress's Akismet that checks posts for them being spammy? If such system existed, said posts would be flagged for admin approval and then the admin can see if it's spam or not and act accordingly.

You could also make this even more precise and only have it work with new users, so the system doesn't go and check for every damned post being made on the board.