Forum Discussion

[Tom]

So no more kitchens???

[Jubal]

In theory

[Tom]

But they're my 

[Cuddly Khan]

I'm the one that feed of them, why do you think they always disappear?

[Jubal]

And apparently that didn't work. This is ludicrous.

[Clockwork]

I think they usually appear after the mods have gone to bed, I'm usually still up then. Would you consider giving me the ability to remove them without making me a full moderator?

[Jubal]

We can't get that level of fine-tuning on the permissions :/

[Mars]

Might want to consider looking up lists of known spambot IP ranges and blocking them to see if that has an effect. Either that or change the checking system to something which makes them less likely to respond.

Edit: Found what I was looking for, try this package: http://custom.simplemachines.org/mods/index.php?mod=3685

[Jubal]

I only changed the system yesterday to install a better captcha - installed that mod as well, fingers crossed that it'll help. 

[Mars]

I only changed the system yesterday to install a better captcha - installed that mod as well, fingers crossed that it'll help. 

Should hopefully cut down the amount of spambots registering to near zero.

[Jubal]

Nope, one just got through.

What is it with the damn kitchen bots?

[Mars]

Nope, one just got through.

What is it with the damn kitchen bots?

Hmm... I'll do some more research into blocking them. By the way, you might want to consider specific IP ranges/host providers to see if that removes some of traffic.

Edit: Try this setup.

[Jubal]

I'm reluctant to block big IP ranges because so many IPs are pooled nowadays and we'd risk hitting regular users.

I've already replaced the basic Captcha with the Arantor captcha, I've installed the mod you posted earlier, and we have one custom question in place.

Link blocking I'm much more dubious about, simply because a lot of the people we need to cater for include for example game devs who start by dropping in and posting their stuff; I think people do need to be able to post links from the start.

Which doesn't leave us much - I could tweak the custom questions?

[Mars]

Simply block the link posting of new members until they show themselves to not be spambots after which point, they are granted the privilege?

There are certain IP ranges (such as the Ukraine) which are rarely going to be getting actual members registering, yet there is always the chance that legitimate users are affected, and I'm certain if that's the case, you could always set up an email address which they could contact to get their IP whitelisted. If it turns out they are a spambot, back on the blacklist.

Could potentially tweak the custom questions a little and see if it works.

On a side note, if the same links keep getting spammed, just blacklist the URLs so they can't be posted.

[Jubal]

We tend to get more "real" users from S and E Europe than most forums, though, so I'd still be nervous about it.

I've done a question tweak, and I'll get on and blacklist the URLs tomorrow. Bedtime now, methinks.

Thanks for all the help, Mars