XF 1.2 Proxies

[Giverny]

Hi guys,

I'm having trouble with a selected group of people on my forum who are hell-bent on causing trouble. I banned them all and discouraged their IPs with the hope that it would drive them away. They soon sussed out that the discouragement was IP based and have resorted to using proxies.

Is there any way I can stop them registering and posting from accounts that are behind a proxy?

 

[Liam W]

You can use account based discouragement if they use the same accounts, however there isn't much more you can do...

Liam

 

[Giverny]

Since the accounts are banned and have been abandoned, that's not possible In fact, the users in question are going round bragging that they have access to hundreds of proxies and have made several accounts on our forum. Kind of at a loss since these guys are determined to drive our users away by harassing them and belittling them at any given opportunity.

 

[Mike]

Unfortunately, there are virtually unlimited proxies available. You can keep blocking them.

If you disable registrations or put registrations in manual approval, you can stop or slow them down, but that's a very drastic option. Alternatively, you can limit the permissions for new registrations to force manual approval for the first few posts, for example. The goal really is to make it not worth the time and effort on their part, but as it's very hard to identify the users at registration time, it's going to affect legitimate users as well.

 

[Giverny]

Unfortunately, there are virtually unlimited proxies available. You can keep blocking them.

If you disable registrations or put registrations in manual approval, you can stop or slow them down, but that's a very drastic option. Alternatively, you can limit the permissions for new registrations to force manual approval for the first few posts, for example. The goal really is to make it not worth the time and effort on their part, but as it's very hard to identify the users at registration time, it's going to affect legitimate users as well.

Sadly this isn't practical at all due to the nature of our forum. People register expecting to be able to post their questions and have them answered right away.

Looks like I'll just have to keep on doing what I've been doing. Thanks for your input

 

[Liam W]

You could have it so new users can't post or use conversations, or reply to threads.

All posts they make are moderated, then a promotion after their first post to normal permissions.

It might be annoying, but it should work.

You can delete the accounts once you've found them.

Are they using similar email addresses to register?

Liam

 

[CTXMedia]

Try this add-on too - http://xenforo.com/community/resources/alter-ego-detector.2405/

We use it to sniff-out duplicate account holders; it may help in your case as it is not IP based.

 

[TPerry]

Hi guys,

I'm having trouble with a selected group of people on my forum who are hell-bent on causing trouble. I banned them all and discouraged their IPs with the hope that it would drive them away. They soon sussed out that the discouragement was IP based and have resorted to using proxies.

Is there any way I can stop them registering and posting from accounts that are behind a proxy?

http://xenforo.com/community/resources/stopcountryspam-spam-combat.1016/ has the ability to block registration based upon proxies built into it. Only problem it can prevent valid users (like mobile based) from registering. Might work for a period until they get tired of trying then you can disable it. There is also a free copyright displaying version of it available (the full suite of his stuff) available at http://xenforo.com/community/resources/tac-tenants-anti-spam-collection-anti-spam-free-version.1474/.

 

[Giverny]

You could have it so new users can't post or use conversations, or reply to threads.

All posts they make are moderated, then a promotion after their first post to normal permissions.

It might be annoying, but it should work.

You can delete the accounts once you've found them.

Are they using similar email addresses to register?

Liam

As I said previously, this wouldn't be practical for my forum as people expect to see their posts instantly. I don't think many of our older (60+) users will understand the concept of a moderation queue and end up leaving because they can't see their posts.

Unfortunately, the only similarity in the email addresses is that one user is using @aol.com and another is using @gmail.com - naturally, I can't filter these out.

Try this add-on too - http://xenforo.com/community/resources/alter-ego-detector.2405/

We use it to sniff-out duplicate account holders; it may help in your case as it is not IP based.

http://xenforo.com/community/resources/stopcountryspam-spam-combat.1016/ has the ability to block registration based upon proxies built into it. Only problem it can prevent valid users (like mobile based) from registering. Might work for a period until they get tired of trying then you can disable it. There is also a free copyright displaying version of it available (the full suite of his stuff) available at http://xenforo.com/community/resources/tac-tenants-anti-spam-collection-anti-spam-free-version.1474/.

Thank you guys, I'll have a look into these addons and see which of them will suit my needs best.

 

[Liam W]

As I said previously, this wouldn't be practical for my forum as people expect to see their posts instantly. I don't think many of our older (60+) users will understand the concept of a moderation queue and end up leaving because they can't see their posts.

Unfortunately, the only similarity in the email addresses is that one user is using @aol.com and another is using @gmail.com - naturally, I can't filter these out.



Thank you guys, I'll have a look into these addons and see which of them will suit my needs best.

Actually, users can see posts that are moderated. They can see the post exactly how it would normally be displayed, except there's a bar (a bit like the topic locked bar) that tells them it isn't viewable to the public and is waiting for moderator approval...

Liam

 

[Giverny]

Actually, users can see posts that are moderated. They can see the post exactly how it would normally be displayed, except there's a bar (a bit like the topic locked bar) that tells them it isn't viewable to the public and is waiting for moderator approval...

Liam

Oh wow then that's something I'll have to look in to. I suppose I'm still thinking in terms of vb, where the posts wouldn't be visible at all until approved. Thanks very much, Liam!