Can moderators purge spam and block spam posters?

[Mile-O]

It could be a good reason.

I think that there seems to be some sort of spam campaigns against vBulletin boards at the moment. I'm a member of a variety of forums and I've noticed the same names appearing over and over. My Talk History site, which is not subscribed to BoardTracker, has been subject to lonely ladies everywhere too, in addition to all manner of pharmaceuticals, etc.

 

[Ron_dK]

It could be a good reason.

I think that there seems to be some sort of spam campaigns against vBulletin boards at the moment. I'm a member of a variety of forums and I've noticed the same names appearing over and over.

I noted that as well, but found that some of the forums I'm a member of are
considering removal of the boardtrack thing. Plus the fact that they actively detect spam and remove that sh#@t from their forums immediate.

 

[Rich]

And what's a Google Spider ?

 

[Mile-O]

Google Spider is just some zombie computer that Google has that travels the internet cacheing web pages and assessing their relevance so that when you do a Google search, the right(ish) content comes to the top. Spider, because it crawls the web.

 

[MrsGorilla]

It could be a good reason.

I think that there seems to be some sort of spam campaigns against vBulletin boards at the moment. I'm a member of a variety of forums and I've noticed the same names appearing over and over. My Talk History site, which is not subscribed to BoardTracker, has been subject to lonely ladies everywhere too, in addition to all manner of pharmaceuticals, etc.

Just a question, but if BoardTracker scans forums to make an index of forum content, why would it need to look at user profiles? I saw on the "Who's Online" section at one point that it was looking at someone's user profile.

 

[Mile-O]

Probably because it's a bot. And bots follow links regardless.

 

[blueboy2001]

The admin could try turning on image verification at the registration stage - this will stop most bots from registering.

 

[Mile-O]

I had no idea it wasn't on but our ever present admin is the only one that can do that. But, in all honesty, given that I'm a member of a number of forums where the thing is switched on, it would appear that spammers have found ways to get around such a protection system. The latest trick to prevent bots signing up now is to ask a question onscreen and provide an input box with a submit button - this, at least, requires cognition.

 

[Vassago]

It is currently set to on. The people who register the bot for Boardtracker actually register the name manually, then add the site to their auto process.

I don't really find them harmful because they aren't actually doing any damage. The only concern I had is the bandwidth, which I questioned Jon about, but of course, no reply there.

 

[Bodisathva]

when you see a new member appear with the name "sexfreeporn"...that can't be a good thing

 

[Rich]

..that can't be a good thing

depends how you look at it

 

[Mile-O]

I asked Jon to make me an admin so I could better manage the spam and start adding all their domains to the Domain Blocking section. He changed me to an admin but buggered it up somewhere along the lines and I now have less permissions as an admin than I did as a moderator. Of course, since he did that I've heard nothing.

 

[Uncle Gizmo]

depends how you look at it

Depends if your wife catches you looking at it!

 

[Rich]

Depends if your wife catches you looking at it!

Well that's easily handled, send her out to see to the kids, do the shopping, cook the tea etc. etc.