XF 1.5 New user shares IP with banned user?

[Wildcat Media]

This setting is under Spam Management:



Question. Does this apply to all banned users, or just to users we have banned via the spam banning system?

We have a lot of users we ban who try to sign up again to cause more problems, and I think we are catching many of them by using this, as we've been finding these new accounts up for approval and denying them.

I just wanted to be sure, before documenting the spam system further (for our staff, who I am creating a "how-to" guide for).

 

[Chris D]

It's all banned users.

Getting the number of days right is key because proxy IP addresses and dynamic IP addresses are common and the chance of re-use over a long period is high.

 

[Wildcat Media]

Yes, we've noticed that about the proxy/dynamic IPs. Although I will say that the type of banned users we catch often wait a few months or the better part of a year before attempting to sign up again, and we can deal with the false positives if it means we nip a problem in the bud early on. And, you would think that some of our banned members would attempt to use Tor, or a proxy, to sign up again, but they are creatures of habit or don't realize that the IP address is what is catching them.

I've been playing with that number just to see what we catch in the approval queue. So far, we haven't seen a large increase in false positives, but we're having a slow week due to the holiday break. Once everyone gets back to work and volume picks up, I'll be able to gauge its performance. I will likely knock it back to 180 days at maximum, as we rarely see member rejoins after that many days.