XF 1.0 Cleaning-Up Spam

The proliferation of human-backed CAPTCHA breakers and all manner of other means to break through anti-robot protection on forums means that spam prevention systems must now be joined with spam clean-up utilities.

With this in mind, XenForo introduces the Spam Cleaner - a one-stop shop for quickly and easily dealing with spam that has made it onto your forum.

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I suggest you view this video at full-size by clicking the full-screen gadget in the bottom-right of the video.

 

[Been Told]

Only just got around to watching... Very nice!!!

 

[Floris]

I wouldn't be surprised if StopForumSpam.com does a mod for this, and either way I'll gladly help out coding a mod for it if I can!

I'll pay for a high quality stopforumspam addon by them

 

[Mez]

Is the "Email a spammer" thing worthwhile? It's never a good idea to email a spammer... even with funny messages.

 

[Floris]

Is the "Email a spammer" thing worthwhile? It's never a good idea to email a spammer... even with funny messages.

There are enough times where valid users with a history suddenly start spamming, handling their spam and informing them via a msg is something I would use quite a bit actually.

Since it's not worthwhile for the robot spam, it's therefor auto unchecked. (or at least it is an option to auto uncheck it).

 

[Mez]

There are enough times where valid users with a history suddenly start spamming.

Which wouldn't allow you to use the spam cleaner on there

 

[James]

Which wouldn't allow you to use the spam cleaner on there

It would if you set certain options to 0 (disabled)

 

[Carrie Lewis]

This is a very cool feature! I am so digging it.

 

[dutchbb]

Looks nice - but im happy with the way IPB works in relation to even letting spammers create accounts. Useful for big boards targeted by human spammers i guess.

Here's how IPS Spam Service works

Step 1

When a user registers at your community, your board calls out to the IPS Spam Monitor. The service uses advanced algorithms to determine the likelihood of the user being a spammer, and assigns them a value between 0 and 4.

Step 2

Your IP.Board takes an appropriate action, based on parameters you as the administrator specify. You could choose to automatically ban a user rated 4, or allow a user rated 2 to register but require post approval, for example.

Step 3

The IPS Spam Monitor service keeps track of spammer accounts, fed from thousands of IP.Board communities, allowing it to better analyse future registration requests. The system learns over time how to more effectively spot spammers.

Not sure why this is such a big deal.

I'm running a big board vB and the only thing we use is Captcha at registration with random letters/numbers. We get maybe one or two spam threads in a week. That's 1/15,000 post ratio. Why would you need such a complex and heavy system to prevent that? Seems like overkill to me and no argument in favor of IPB TBH.

 

[Phases]

Very nice. I do wish though, after investigating IPs and seeing the other users... you could - should you identify from right there in that overlay screen that you believe they too are spammers - select them with check boxes and apply the tool there. It seemed tedious to click a avatar, then the view profile link, then the postings link, then go into a thread, then apply the tool. Then go back and do the same for the next user.

Still, very nice - I will much appreciate the restore capabilities.

 

[Trevor]

Awesome. Another reason to purchase XenForo!
It just keeps getting better and better.

 

[Carlos]

I like the check boxes for spam. I will uncheck delete spam messages on the ACP, for many reasons. One of them is when a user suddenly becomes a spammer, I want to ban him, but keep his older posts, and delete his spammy messages. Great features, Kier.

 

[Mike]

Very nice. I do wish though, after investigating IPs and seeing the other users... you could - should you identify from right there in that overlay screen that you believe they too are spammers - select them with check boxes and apply the tool there. It seemed tedious to click a avatar, then the view profile link, then the postings link, then go into a thread, then apply the tool. Then go back and do the same for the next user.

I'm pretty sure it's been mentioned since that video was recorded that things have changed a bit. Most notably, you can get the spam cleaner direct from a user's profile/card as well.

 

[feldon30]

Not sure why this is such a big deal.

I'm running a big board vB and the only thing we use is Captcha at registration with random letters/numbers. We get maybe one or two spam threads in a week. That's 1/15,000 post ratio. Why would you need such a complex and heavy system to prevent that? Seems like overkill to me and no argument in favor of IPB TBH.

I think you have been extremely lucky. Captcha is not enough for many forums. Depending on the content and perceived monetized value of your forum, some may even pay a team in India to enter captcha codes to get into your forum. Pennies for hundreds of entered captcha codes.

 

[whynot]

I think you have been extremely lucky. Captcha is not enough for many forums.

Very lucky. The bots are smiling happily when they see captcha.Going through the registration in less than 3 seconds.

 

[dutchbb]

I think you have been extremely lucky. Captcha is not enough for many forums. Depending on the content and perceived monetized value of your forum, some may even pay a team in India to enter captcha codes to get into your forum. Pennies for hundreds of entered captcha codes.

I find it hard to believe that after 8 years it's still just luck. reCAPTCHA seems to be doing the job fine for a lot of sites.

 

[Forsaken]

I find it hard to believe that after 8 years it's still just luck. reCAPTCHA seems to be doing the job fine for a lot of sites.

reCaptcha has already been cracked; you can even download a script that allows you to bypass that, and most other captcha systems.

 

[Paul B]

The bots still haven't cracked my most basic of systems.

Two custom fields which require those registering to enter 2 different numbers.

 

[dutchbb]

reCaptcha has already been cracked; you can even download a script that allows you to bypass that, and most other captcha systems.

My claim wasn't that it's 100% secure, but that it does the job fine for a lot of sites, two different things.

 

[Forsaken]

My claim wasn't that it's 100% secure, but that it does the job fine for a lot of sites, two different things.

My reply wasn't meant to say anything so much for your site, but more to let you know that reCaptcha has been cracked, and isn't as fool-proof as most people assume.

 

[SchmitzIT]

The bots still haven't cracked my most basic of systems.

Two custom fields which require those registering to enter 2 different numbers.

I use a captcha with two questions like: "Type the first letter of the word <insert word>", and "Enter the number 'five'". I have seen less than a handful of spammers with that setup *knock on wood*