Bot Invasion Solution

[Arlekin]

http://www.captcha.net/

https://www.google.com/recaptcha/whyrecaptcha

[soudou]

I recommend the following phpBB forum spam solutions. I used to have to moderate a phpBB forum daily to remove spam posts now I haven't touched it in months and there's still no spam.

The beauty is they don't affect all the legit users on the forum (no need for everyone to fill in captchas everytime they post) and it's all automated so should hopefully mean little to no work for mods/admins (after installation). It may even mean legit Russian members can be unbanned from posting (I think currently they are IP region banned and have to use proxies).

Sortables Captcha Plugin - http://www.derky.nl/
Unique drag and drop captcha question (when registering a new account). You can customise the question to be related to Gaki e.g.
Q: "Who are the five members of Gaki?
Possible Answers:
Matsumoto Hitoshi, Fujiwara Hiroshi, Hamada Masatoshi, Suga Kenji, Endo Shozo, Heipo, Jimmy Onishi, Tsukitei Housei, Higashino Koji, Tanaka Naoki

They would just need to drag the correct names to the Answer column.

This stops auto-bot spammers as they don't tend to have drag & drop capabilities. It also stops opportunistic human spammers, since they are unlikely to even know what Gaki is and so will go to an easier target forum.

phpBB Spam Hammer - http://dangerousprototypes.com/docs/Php ... _new_users
Disables links for newly registered users, most opportunistic spammers will not wait around for the restriction to go away and will move to an easier target forum that lets them post advertising links immediately. You can set it to restrict based on number of posts (e.g. first 5) or age of account (e.g. first day or 2).

You can set it to allow certain links e.g. video sites like youtube and other trusted sites a new legit user might share links to Gaki content from. But other links like casino and product stuff will be disallowed. I believe it also shows an error/warning if they try to post untrusted offsite links, either by default or something you can set. So the spammer won't just post their link-disabled spam anyway, they'll see their links will be removed so they typically will leave.

[VideogameDC]

This should be actually taken in consideration with the mods of the site, it's annoying that there are many spam bots here when there are other forums to spam

[soudou]

Bumpzors, don't try to hide this thread spammers!

[atreyu_tiger]

Well, this site used to have an activation code, on the front page in huge & bold red... but people were keep on asking why couldn't they register, or where on Earth that code was . And also one can easily tell that many of the recent members are in fact bots.

Up until now there were just few 'unwanted posts' every now and then, but these weeks are terrible. We surely want to get the best solution possible. Some of us "colored people" are certainly aware. Meanwhile, thank you for your PMs, reports and keep on the suggestions to make this a better place.

Take care and enjoy your Easter holidays (if you have them)

[soudou]

Thanks atreyu_tiger, we know you guys are doing your best

Well, this site used to have an activation code, on the front page in huge & bold red... but people were keep on asking why couldn't they register, or where on Earth that code was And also one can easily tell that many of the recent members are in fact bots.

If they click to go to Register I guess it does move them away from the frontpage. The Sortables Captcha Plugin becomes a natural part of the registration process though so it'll all be there after they click Register.
Then for any that get past that the phpBB Spam Hammer mod should hopefully watch for typical spambot / spammer activities and help to prevent them.

phpBB has an AutoMOD feature to make it easier to add such mods too, I know the admins are likely busy right now though, no worries, but feel free to private message me if anyone needs help with it.

Take care and enjoy your Easter holidays (if you have them)

You too!

[Erhan]

I installed the sortables captcha and deleted some of the latest bot registrations. Let's see how this works out!

BTW: The other modification is already "abandoned".

[soudou]

I installed the sortables captcha and deleted some of the latest bot registrations. Let's see how this works out!

BTW: The other modification is already "abandoned".

Thanks Erhan. Hope the sortables addon helps!

By the way "Abandoned" just means it's no longer being updated (the author is still active elsewhere though). But with the sheer amount of features it has, it just works as is, even with the latest phpBB version.
Some addons don't really need updating much if they're not broke. Sortables addon hasn't been updated in over a year and if the author moved on elsewhere it'd be marked "Abandoned" but it'd still work great.

But hopefully you won't need it if Sortables does the job, worth a shot if not though.

[Erhan]

It didn't help. I will find something.

[Erhan]

Okay let's see how they react to the next step.

Additionally I unbanned everything. Just need to find the the function again that bans by country.

Let the war begin

[soudou]

Thanks Erhan for continuing with this. I think the Sortables Captcha stemmed the flow a bit, but yeah you likely need something for those who slip through. I understand your concern regarding the "Abandoned" thing though. Here are a couple addons still actively updated with similar features to the "Abandoned" phpBB Spam Hammer:
Automoderation and spam protect - https://www.phpbb.com/community/viewtopic.php?t=2183830

There's also "Disallow links before x posts" but sadly unlike Spam Hammer it doesn't prevent spam posts being made, just makes sure the urls within the posts aren't auto-inserted and aren't clickable - https://www.phpbb.com/customise/db/mod/ ... e_x_posts/

Glad the country ban will be lifted!

[sizenkai]

bans by country.

No. Please don't.. I have zero knowledge about forum code, but we have many moderators-san and /!\-chan, right?

Also, I like this

[VideogameDC]

Hey! sizenkai's idea sounds good!
Why aren't we funding this?

[soudou]

bans by country.

No. Please don't.. I have zero knowledge about forum code, but we have many moderators-san and /!\-chan, right?

Erhan means they're going to try and lift the current country bans that are currently active and try some of these forum addons instead. Russia for example is banned from the forum.

Hey! sizenkai's idea sounds good! Why aren't we funding this?

Do you mean sizenkai's screenshot? That's the Sortables Captcha Erhan has already implemented it. If you logout and try to Register, you will see it.

It seems to have stemmed the flow of mass bot registrations. But for those who slip past I think something that monitors activity of new registrations is necessary. Though it's no longer updated (aka "Abandoned") phpBB Spam Hammer still works in my experience, simply because of how it deals with spam links in new posts. But for currently "Active" addons there might be a couple that are similar. Like this Automoderation and spam protect and Disallow links before x posts.

[Erhan]

No new bot registrations so I guess everything looks good for now The sortables thing didn't help at all but I think it's a good way to show that you know something about GNT or that your can use google

The only thing that is left now is to delete already availabe spam accounts.

Edit: Had to fix one thing with the registration.