Xenforo is lacking ways to fight spam

[Kaiser]

If you read announcements on vb or ipb they both have acknowledged ways to firght spam in their announcements recently, we still have yet to see one from xenforo...

This is very frustrating to me as I was hit by major spam yesterday and today. In total I was hit by 15 spam registrations which managed to bypass the Captcha... they Posted a whole bunch of hardcore gay porn, and even managed to PM members porn. I deleted the PM's through phpmyadmin, there were a good 20 PMs sents out, and a few of them were read by the members. It was easy to take care of posts thanks to the spam cleaner.

Although I did install the StopForumSpam mod, they were still able to register. I find it very annoying that xenforo dosent have the Q and A's... im sure that would do a better job along with Captcha or even better than captcha because of Captcha getting cracked.

I hope the devs can come up with something in a short period of time to address the spam. Those of you who didnt have to deal with spam recently wouldnt know but its really stressing.. specially when its gay porn being mass posted and Pm'd to members, Made me want to close my board for good. Please dont post some rude reply or something of no use which I see happening here on xenforo alot because you didnt have to go through the **** I had to go through yesterday and today.

SO please add the Q and A's field for registration.

Thanks.

 

[AnthonyCea]

I'm sure they are at least thinking about it, but you really can't depend on a script that resides on your server to stop malicious IP's, you need to install a firewall on the server to filter malicious IP's before they hit your apps.

For example, if you have 5 forums on the same server, you would have to ban 5 times, one time for each script instead of having your firewall block the bad IP's automatically.

 

[Digital Doctor]

XenUtiles now supports (as of today)
* StopForumSpam,
* Fspamlist and
* Botscout

Have you tried one of the other services besides StopForumSpam ?

Note: I am cataloging Spam options in Xenforo here.

FYI: my vBulletin forum is getting hit hard today. We disabled gmail registrations today, unfortunately.

So please add the Q and A's field for registration.

This would help. Good idea. (I added it to my list).
This thread might be better titled, "All forum software has trouble with Spam Bots." /heh

 

[Kaiser]

XenUtiles now supports (as of today)
* StopForumSpam,
* Fspamlist and
* Botscout

Have you tried one of the other services besides StopForumSpam ?

Note: I am cataloging Spam options in Xenforo here.

FYI: my vBulletin forum is getting hit hard today. We disabled gmail registrations today, unfortunately.



This would help. Good idea.

I have xen utilities, when i reffered to StopForumSpam, I meant the stopforumspam integration in the mod which didnt do a good job of preventing. But the new xen utilities hasn't been released yet with the botscout integration.

 

[Digital Doctor]

But the new xen utilities hasn't been released yet with the botscout integration.

Was Just released. Try this post.

[8wayRun.Com] XenUtiles (Tools) v1.0.4 CHANGELOG

* Added support for BotScout.com and FSpamList.com.
* Both BotScout and FSpamList require API keys to use them; however, neither of them have submission engines at the moment, as they don't have submission APIs.
* Lots of files have changed, so you may want to delete your entire EWRutiles directory before you upload these new files. You may also want to delete the "EWRutiles_forumspam" table from your database.
* Added quick banning link to the spam bot finder tools.

 

[Andy.N]

Why don't you have a few moderators who can delete porn threads on the spots?
It doesn't matter what tools you have in place, if the posters are human, you can't stop them.

 

[Digital Doctor]

Why don't you have a few moderators who can delete porn threads on the spots? It doesn't matter what tools you have in place, if the posters are human, you can't stop them.

True. But sites with less staffers need as much help as they can get.
Kaiser is a new admin, and so am I !
His staff list is like mine: me.

 

[AnthonyCea]

Why don't you have a few moderators who can delete porn threads on the spots?
It doesn't matter what tools you have in place, if the posters are human, you can't stop them.

Easy fix without all the anti-spam databases Andy !!!

http://xenforo.com/community/threads/just-got-hit-by-spam.10183/page-2#post-139275

 

[Shelley]

Why don't you have a few moderators who can delete porn threads on the spots?
It doesn't matter what tools you have in place, if the posters are human, you can't stop them.

With regards to spam I don't think those are the replies that people look for but rather a stronger prevention solution whether it's from a feature built into the core or as an add-on. And of course, what digital doctor said, new admins don't always have an abundant of staff online 24/7.

 

[Jamie]

I agree that the question answer option stops a lot of registrations in the tracks, AND I understand your frustration on the spam and THAT type of spam.. I run a Christian site and have seen it as well.

I guess my only issue with the 'tone' of your post is this. You know Kier and Mike have been in the industry forever and a day, so you know they attempt to have all bases covered, I am sure it's on their to do list. You know that this software is still Beta and isn't 'really' ready for production sites, so not having an announcement yet or plans posted isn't unrealistic.. they will come through making suggestions like this, but with less 'tone'. And lastly, and I am sure you won't want to hear this, but no matter who you go with, vB, IPB, or xF there will ALWAYS be the battle of us against 'them'.... it's just part of the admin job.

We do the best we can, we fortify our sites the best we can and stay up to date with things, but none of this will make it go away. Don't 'throw in the towel' because of spammers... just get smarter about what and how you run your site.

I liked your post because I like the suggestion of a Question Answer option, not because of the tone of your post.

Jamie

 

[steven s]

<snip>You that this software is still Beta so not having an announcement yet or plans posted isn't unrealistic.. they will come through making suggestions like this, but with less 'tone'. And lastly, and I am sure you won't want to hear this, but no matter who you go with, vB, IPB, or xF there will ALWAYS be the battle of us against 'them'.... it's just part of the admin job.<snip>

I was going to mention earlier in the thread that this is Beta and a risk we all take. My vB3 site gets spam registrations between every 15 seconds and 10 minutes. vB has been around a lot longer than XF. XF needs a bit more time. In the meantime, use the resources the good people here have provided.

 

[Kaiser]

Why don't you have a few moderators who can delete porn threads on the spots?
It doesn't matter what tools you have in place, if the posters are human, you can't stop them.

With regards to spam I don't think those are the replies that people look for but rather a stronger prevention solution whether it's from a feature built into the core or as an add-on. And of course, what digital doctor said, new admins don't always have an abundant of staff online 24/7.

What shelley said^^^

@andy I do have staff but thats not the case... dont you think I know if they are human I cant stop them? I already said that in the first post. I hate these useless replies people give when they dont know what the thread is about. I am very pissed right now and I dont need smart coments specially when you fail to realise what I am trying to say here. They just didnt post they sent out mass PMs... and as I said I already deleted the posts thanks to the spam cleaner. My site has only 211 members, I dont see a reason to have 30 people as staff, again staff is not the case, this thread is to prevent spam from our xenforo forums with a feautre built in like the Q and A's fields.

 

[steven s]

Then set Start personal conversations: Deny for now. That should buy you some time.

 

[Kaiser]

@ Jamie, I know what you are saying. just had a bad day today and yesterday, and of course you will encouter spam no matter what software is being used. Just would be nice if we had the Q & A's fields during registration, thats what I meant when I said xenforo is lacking ways to fight spam... just had a bad day with spam.

 

[Shelley]

What shelley said^^^

I do have staff but thats not the case... dont you think I know if they are human I cant stop them? I already said that in the first post. I hate these useless replies people give when they dont know what the thread is about. I am very pissed right now and I dont need smart coments specially when you fail to realise what I am trying to say here. They just didnt post they sent out mass PMs... and as I said I already deleted the posts thanks to the spam cleaner. My site has only 211 members, I dont see a reason to have 30 people as staff, again staff is not the case, this thread is to prevent spam from our xenforo forums with a feautre built in like the Q and A's fields.

You have to be aware (repeating what steven and jamie said) that Kier and mike which it's safe to say are certainly aware of this and given a little time and patience by the community they will include something in the core to reduce spam further. Maybe Jaxel may entertain the Q&A prevention feature in his Xenutiles? Might be worth asking/requesting.

 

[Kaiser]

Maybe Jaxel may entertain the Q&A prevention feature in his Xenutiles? Might be worth asking/requesting.

That would be nice.

 

[AnthonyCea]

K, you need to cool down and READ THE POSTS WE POST IN RESPONSE TO YOU !!

Create some user groups with permissions, that or force administration approval for ALL NEW MEMBERS !!!

 

[Kaiser]

K, you need to cool down and READ THE POSTS WE POST IN RESPONSE TO YOU !!

Create some user groups with permissions, that or force administration approval for ALL NEW MEMBERS !!!

YEA I SAW THAT I HAVE MANUAL APPROVAL TUURRRRRRRRNEEDDD ON ANTHONYYYY, ITS TURNED ON MY FRIEND, YESS IT YES. TURNED ON!

 

[Kaiser]

Was Just released. Try this post.

Nice, going to update now.

 

[Elizabeth]

Kaiser, yelling isn't helping matters.

Take a DEEP breath and before you post a response,ask yourself how you would feel if what you just posted was posted to you.

Remember, we are all in this together. Liz