I think the current anti spam measures, especially during the registration phase, has been completely breached. I've probably deleted at least 100 posts today from spammers, and it's not even noon yet. I'm looking into what can be tightened asap.
That captcha you have in the registration process is useless and laughable as an attempt to keep spammers out.
It's very easy to break for anyone who knows what they are doing. Have a read on how to create a robust captcha
i'm kinda new here, but it seams to me like some simple captcha under mesage input would do the trick. i know i know it's annoying but that's how it is...
i've been working on something like that. i don't really have time these days to improve it, but if anyone here have spare hour or two, you can make a skin that would match CF theme and implement one of those.
project site: http://photocaptcha.us
Looks to me that you were caught accidentally with the checkbox. As handy as those boxes are, its easy to accidentally check it.
Sorry about that, I've gone ahead and lifted the ban on that account. I believe it takes some time to refresh that profile rank though, so it'll say banned until the cron runs for it.
Edit:
Ahh, wait a sec. George may have to take a look at that since it was an infraction ban. It looks on my end that you have had it raised, but the infraction may disagree with me otherwise. Just let us know if its a problem still.
My account atomiku is still banned ;[ I did email George 7 days ago but no response. I definitely wasn't spamming, would be interested to see which post I got banned for.
I definitely wasn't spamming, would be interested to see which post I got banned for.
It was this post, and it does kind of fit the typical spam scheme with a little text and a link at the end, so in defense of the mod who has banned you, if one is just having a glimpse at the post and your post count one could indeed mistake it for spam.
It was this post, and it does kind of fit the typical spam scheme with a little text and a link at the end, so in defense of the mod who has banned you, if one is just having a glimpse at the post and your post count one could indeed mistake it for spam.
I can see what you mean. If anything, the original post could may be spam too. 'How can i use this PERL as a scripting language. ' is a pretty broad question and I wouldn't be surprised to see that post being edited to include spam links soon.
But really though, the link I posted was in relation to my post and there's no SEO benefit for me to post it otherwise, I'm not too bothered about my PR/linkjuice for a particular page on my website for a project that has been dead for over 3 years!
My account atomiku is still banned ;[ I did email George 7 days ago but no response. I definitely wasn't spamming, would be interested to see which post I got banned for.
I'll follow up for you to get your account unbanned. Sorry for the annoyance this has caused you.
And I know we've had the discussion in the past; I personally don't think that posts for new users should be moderated.
I bow to your superior wisdom. But would that not in fact solve all your problems? Surely you could send an email message to new users explaining why moderation is necessary and that their post (if accepted) will appear within an few hours? This forum is not Twitter and I doubt if people expect an instant reply. In any case they are likely to have to wait for some hours until a response is made.
I have the idea that people in Bangaldesh are paid 0.5 cents every time they post a spam message. But they would not waste their time here if they knew to start with that moderation would be applied.
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All the code given in this post has been tested and is intended to address the question asked.
Unless stated otherwise it is not just a demonstration.
I have the idea that people in Bangaldesh are paid 0.5 cents every time they post a spam message. But they would not waste their time here if they knew to start with that moderation would be applied.
If you would just have an insight on what kinds of spam lands in the moderation queue each day you would think differently, I suppose. Most of the messages clearly can’t come out of a sane person’s mind, and especially not at a rate like this with ten posts by ten different users from ten IPs but all at the same time. This can only be an automated task executed by a computer program (a. k. a. “spam bot”). While it might be true that some poor Bangladeshi are paid to post spam, this is clearly not the issue here.
The spam you see, Philip (and based on the decreased amount of e-mails about reported spam I received from you lately, which I don’t think comes from less activity on this forum from your side, it doesn’t seem to be all too much anymore), is just a fraction of the spam that CF is getting hit with, and what I see as moderator is just the spam that makes it through the forum’s challenge-response systems and is probably still just a fraction of all the spam attempts made.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Philip M
But would that not in fact solve all your problems?
Moderating every new member will be a lot more work on our side and possibly drive new members away because they’d have to wait until a moderator comes by and notices their post. Or there has to be someone that is paid for being on 24/7 and just approving new posts/members (in fact, at least two people would have to be paid because a typical human being can’t be awake 24/7).
What we have now is a good compromise between catching spam and allowing for a quick question-response ratio. The new spam filter is catching more spam and also already requiring us to approve some legitimate posts by new members (typically until they have at least six posts), e. g. if they post a link.
It’s like democracy: There are always people that try to abuse the system, and they are a PITA, but you can’t prevent all of them from doing that without seriously restricting liberty and effectively suppressing democracy itself. And why should a majority’s liberty suffer from the abuse attempts of a minority?
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Moderating every new member will be a lot more work on our side and possibly drive new members away because they’d have to wait until a moderator comes by and notices their post. ..................
yep agree. The consequence of moderating every new member, the vast majority of which are legitimate with good intentions, being the increased possibility of them then also posting on another website is a "no brainer".
Then if a new member then posts their request for help on another website as well and is found out, they are then likely to be accused of x-posting - go figure You can't have it both ways !!!
I would think all forums would prefer their members to only post on their forum, but this is rarely the case anyway. Imho if you encourage new members to go to another site, because you want to first qc their post, and they receive a solution much sooner on the other site, then the new member is more likely to abandon using the original forum or at least use to use it sparingly.
yep agree. The consequence of moderating every new member, the vast majority of which are legitimate with good intentions, being the increased possibility of them then also posting on another website is a "no brainer".
....etc.
If the member validation was perfect bullant then you would not be back here again under a new sig posting links to the same content as in your last incarnation
MVC is the current buzz in web application architectures. It comes from event-driven desktop application design and doesn't fit into web application design very well. But luckily nobody really knows what MVC means, so we can call our presentation layer separation mechanism MVC and move on. (Rasmus Lerdorf)
If the member validation was perfect bullant then you would not be back here again under a new sig posting links to the same content as in your last incarnation
then go look at devshed, web developer, sitepoint and the many other websites that link appears on. If you think they are all posted by a single person then you've got rocks in your head
I can't remember which site I copied that link from originally. It was a few years ago now.
As I said in an earlier post, the captcha on the registration page is laughable as it's very easy to break by anyone who knows what they are doing. Instead of critisizing the link why don't you read through it and learn from it how to build at least a half decent captcha and get rid of that joke of a captcha currently being used.
If you've got people registering that you don't want then you've only got yourself to blame because it's very easy to bypass the alleged "defence" against unwanted registrations you are currently using. If you keep knocking people trying to help you and advise you on your weaknesses your not giving them any disincentive to show other people how to easily bypass your current "defences" against unwanted registrations.
If the member validation was perfect bullant then you would not be back here again under a new sig posting links to the same content as in your last incarnation
Great minds think alike! Of course, bullant (champion liar) always denied that all his doppelgangers were himself. But if it acts like bullant, talks like bullant, smells like bullant, then it surely is bullant!
__________________
All the code given in this post has been tested and is intended to address the question asked.
Unless stated otherwise it is not just a demonstration.
Great minds think alike! Of course, bullant (champion liar) always denied that all his doppelgangers were himself. But if it acts like bullant, talks like bullant, smells like bullant, then it surely is bullant!
What I find really laughable is how people go round calling other members liars and much worse in some cases but if they are all lies then how come no-one has the guts to actually take the so called liar to court and sue for defamation, slander etc etc.
I'll tell ya why - because the acusers have no proof and if it did go to court then the inability of the acusers to prove their acusations would leave them wide open and sitting ducks for a counter suit and the public revelation of what has gone in the website could irrepairedly damage its reputation.
If this bullant guy challenged you to prove your acusation I bet you have nothing at all that would stand up in court.
So as I said before
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If you keep knocking people trying to help you and advise you on your weaknesses your not giving them any disincentive to show other people how to easily bypass your current "defences" against unwanted registrations.
so I'll just keep showing people how to reregister, if they want, seeing the "defences" on this website are pretty meek and approaching useless.
The way I see, the worst that can happen is that this account is closed, but then so what? since you make it so easy to reregister
Before you post, read our: 
You can't have it both ways !!! 
