Spammers from Orbit

[Dukayn]

We actually already have email verification in place.

Oh. Well, in that case here's a picture of a kitten being chewed on by George W. Bush.



EDIT:
Username:wajalotanu
Location:Congo
Age:24
Occupation:ÿþA
Interests:Working In A Food Pantry <<<

[Mantisking]

Is there a way of culling the user database to wipe out all those with one or fewer posts?

[potsticker]

Is there a way of culling the user database to wipe out all those with one or fewer posts?

You'd end up culling legitimate lurkers as well.

[Ced23Ric]

Is there a way of culling the user database to wipe out all those with one or fewer posts?

I hope to any listening overbeing that there's a mass-delete tool in the admin backend of phpBB. If not, may bespoke being be with us.

[Mantisking]

Is there a way of culling the user database to wipe out all those with one or fewer posts?

You'd end up culling legitimate lurkers as well.

Put up a message for them to post twice so we know they're not spambots. Wait a while, then cull every account with less than two posts.

[Ced23Ric]

Put up a message for them to post twice so we know they're not spambots. Wait a while, then cull every account with less than two posts.

Many people lurk in weekly intervalls, sometimes never posting at all. So ... that's a bit inaccurate. The things is, it's no that hard to do a case-by-case culling. It's just a tad bit tedious. We'd need someone with time and admin access to do it, though.

[schoon]

I agree that we can't just start whacking inactive accounts.

I lurk on a number of forums myself, and I'd be pretty miffed if someone deleted or banned my account.

I think the best tion is to kill the spam accounts as they go active. The alternative would be to look at the profiles, and hack out the ones that have nonsense answers, but that's quite labor intensive!

[Ced23Ric]

Well, honestly, we should get rid of their accounts, not just ban them. Banning is useless, they still show up in the members list and people can see their **** of spam and porn links. That needs to be adressed, tedious or not.

[Dukayn]

Whatever you've done in the past week or so it's seemed to have worked quite well. No spam for days now

[Ced23Ric]

Now we need to delete their accounts.

[potsticker]

Whatever you've done in the past week or so it's seemed to have worked quite well. No spam for days now

Agreed, it's been really nice.

[schoon]

I added a "human" Q&A safeguard. Yes, it does seem to be working.

I'll start looking into inactive accounts and removing them if they are obviously fake. If there's any question, I'll leave it. I'd hate to ruin the day of a real fan of the game!

[Mantisking]

I'll start looking into inactive accounts and removing them if they are obviously fake. If there's any question, I'll leave it. I'd hate to ruin the day of a real fan of the game!

Are you comparing the names to the Ban list and deleting those?

[schoon]

Are you comparing the names to the Ban list and deleting those?

Had not done that, but it's a great place to start!

[ferrelferret]

There be new spammers.

~ferret~

[Mantisking]

There be new spammers.

Use the Report function in the future, please.

[Soren]

The little bastards are back. Looks like just the Off-Topic forum for now.

[Mantisking]

I've activated the activation e-mail function again. Hopefully it'll slow down the influx of spammers.

[Mantisking]

I've changed the registration process a little. Let's see if that helps.

[Mercutio]

Whatever you did seems to have made it worse, somehow. I stopped reporting spammers after the six or seventh post.