how to properly deal with spammers ?

[erich37]

I just got a spammer posting some crap onto my profile (at my own Forum install).
Just recognized this spammer posted spam on each of my user´s profile page (good I do not have that many members yet ).

I deleted his spam-message and within ACP I set this user to "Discouraged".
If I understand correctly, I should not delete the user completely in order to have his IP-address still stored in my system, so that the XFsystem can check his IPaddress in case he signes up again with another username. Correct ?

Are those steps sufficient enough to get rid of this person or do I need to do anything else within ACP ?

Many thanks for your help!

 

[steven s]

What about StopForumSpam?
http://xenforo.com/community/threads/8wayrun-com-xenutiles-tools.9754/

I couldn't live without it on my vB forums.

 

[erich37]

hmmm..... I am not getting that much spam to wanting to install an add-on for this.
Just wondering about how to properly go with the standard-procedure with the tools build into XF.

 

[Paul B]

Just use the Spam Cleaner.
It will remove all messages and ban the user so the same email address can't be re-used.

http://xenforo.com/help/spam/

If you want a further layer of protection then you can ban the IP and/or email address.

 

[erich37]

thanks for the link, Brogan!

in the help-page you linked to, it says:
"To make the Spam Cleaner available at all times, set all three values to 0."

in the ACP in the "Spam Management" it says:
"The spam cleaner will only be available to act against users who meet these criteria. If any of these criteria are set to 0 (zero) they will be ignored."

not sure I understand this: setting all 3 values to zero will have the spam-cleaner always on or users with all zero will be ignored from the spam-cleaner ?

 

[erich37]

hmmm.... I actually deleted the spam-user from the ACP, which is probaly not the right thing to do.
So once the spam-user is deleted from the system, I am not able to use the Spam-cleaner and therefore need to manually check whether there is still Spam from that user in the system, right ?

 

[Paul B]

Both statements are correct.

Set all three to 0 if you want the Spam Cleaner available at all times for all users.

 

[DSF]

Erich, I think it's more important to ask "WHY I GET SPAM"?
Our xF with just 18'917 post has NO spam. Nothing!

 

[erich37]

"WHY I GET SPAM"?

 

[James]

"WHY I GET SPAM"?

Y U GET SPAM??

Ok seriously, you just use the spam cleaner to clean the content of the spammer. To stop spam, just set up some question and answer captchas using logic-based questions. If you have a forum niche, use questions related to that, if not just use logic questions such as What relation is your father's brother to you?

 

[erich37]

when I mark a certain user as "Spam" via the "Spam-Cleaner", is it also possible to delete this user from my members-list ?

 

[James]

IIRC, the only way to remove members from your memberlist is to set them to awaiting activation.

 

[erich37]

IIRC, the only way to remove members from your memberlist is to set them to awaiting activation.

but will the "Spam Cleaner" then still apply, meaning when this user signs up again with the same IP-address, will XF-system still check that IP ?

 

[James]

I'm unsure. If you set the spam cleaner to run and then change the user's status afterwards it should still apply.

I would assume it still runs the IP checking, but I cannot be 100% sure. Have to test it or wait for an official response.

 

[erich37]

would be great to have this build into XF to also "remove Spammer" or "remove banned member" from being listed in the member-list.