Spam Recently

[Andy]

Young Writers Online already prevents people from putting images and links in their posts until they have at least ten posts. For the most part this has worked very well. But recently spammers have begun using their profiles to advertise. Mainly, their signature and their user profile fields.

Starting now, new members will require at least ten posts before they can edit their signature.

I'm also taking some measures to block spammers from registering in the first place. Hopefully it will be enough.

[Tegzz]

I like your display picture.

/spam

[Zombified]

Nice.

I like this idea.

Great work, Andy.


BE SURE TO BUY MY NEWEST DVD ON HOW TO GET RICH FA$T!!

[Lykaios]

Ahhhhhhh ^^

It will be awesome not to be banning so many advertisers. So many . . . aaaaall the time, every day. >.<

You are awesome, Andy, truely awesome.

[Andy]

I have reason to believe that there's an actual person registering repeatedly and posting spam, and not just some automated bot.

So if this doesn't work, I'll try some alternatives.

[J.L.A.Montoya]

IP Ban?

[Andy]

I attempted an IP ban, but they seem to be using a proxy. The IP address changes for each spammer.

[J.L.A.Montoya]

I.C.B.M.?

What happens if you let them stay, but don't let them post? Will they spawn more, or will it just sit there? Assuming it's a bot.

[Andy]

Are you suggesting blocking by geographic location?

Because I'd rather not resort to that unless it's absolutely necessary.

[J.L.A.Montoya]

Yes, I am.

And oh, I wasn't aware that such a thing was such a drastic step. Or even possible.

Hey, you could always change their name/password. That'd be a laugh. If it's human.

[Majyk]

Ahhhhhhh ^^

It will be awesome not to be banning so many advertisers. So many . . . aaaaall the time, every day. >.<

You are awesome, Andy, truely awesome.

Seriously! This will be greatly appreciated, Andy!

[Andy]

Yes, I am.

And oh, I wasn't aware that such a thing was such a drastic step. Or even possible.

Hey, you could always change their name/password. That'd be a laugh. If it's human.
I can't assume that there won't be people in a region who legitimately want to join the site. Even if unlikely, it's still possible. IP address ARE region-specific, so if I wanted to I could ban an entire country. :) Unless they use proxies.

Changing the name & password won't really do much. They register, change their signature, then leave forever.

[Lykaios]

Is that the Costumes guy? There's like three with slight username variations been banned now. And advertisers with 14 and 23 at the end their username seem to be common.

[Andy]

Yeah, it's most definitely a human registering and posting spam, because the spam is still coming.

Signature spam has stopped, but they're trying other things like visitor messages. I've re-enabled email verification so they'll need a new email address every time they create a new account. Also banned portions of the IP addresses that were similar for a few of them.

[J.L.A.Montoya]

Nice. That e-mail verification should stop 'em/slow them down to a turtle's pace. I wonder if the businesses actually hired the spammers to spam?

[Andy]

Nice. That e-mail verification should stop 'em/slow them down to a turtle's pace. I wonder if the businesses actually hired the spammers to spam?
I honestly don't see the point of this type of spam anyway.

If a member doesn't post anything, then there won't be any links to their profile, not even in the members listing, so nobody would ever see the spam.

It could be that they're trying to accumulate links pointing to their websites to increase their Google rankings. But I went and changed all the homepage links in profiles to nofollow (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nofollow) links. So they won't affect their Google ranks anymore, so the spam is pointless for that reason as well.

[Andy]

From now on, new members with less than ten posts will not be able to post external links in visitor messages. This is the exact same anti-spam measure we've been using for new members' posts in the forums.

Internal links are fine. If they post a link to their story on YWO, it won't get blocked.

[Andy]

Looking via Google (http://www.google.com/search?q=%22The+Best+Online+Investment+Portal%22%20%22Accredited+University+Degree%22%20%22Free+Inte rnet+Income+Guide%22), it looks like YWO is not the only website whose forums are getting hit with the same spam. And all within the past few weeks.

[Thomas Freestone]

Nothing in the Constitution compels us to listen to or view any unwanted communication, whatever its merit… We therefore categorically reject the argument that a vendor has a right under the Constitution or otherwise to send unwanted material into the home of another.
ROWAN v. U.S. POST OFFICE, USC, 397 U.S. 728

[Kalculator]

Spam is annoying but cheap and easy way to target thousands or even millions of people.

Hmmm.....

Do you have a program that tells you where the spammer is posting from? If it's from the same city or state or region or something, maybe it might be one person? This one person might be using lots of computers?

DOWN WITH THE SPAMMERS!

[Majyk]

Do you have a program that tells you where the spammer is posting from? If it's from the same city or state or region or something, maybe it might be one person? This one person might be using lots of computers?

Staff members can see IP addresses, so sometimes we can tell. I banned two spammers the other day because they had the same IPs.



Funny that this thread is bumped right when we've been having lots of spammers again.

[Kalculator]

About the IP address thing, what if two people share a computer? Do they have to let you know or something?

[Bowie20049]

About the IP address thing, what if two people share a computer? Do they have to let you know or something?

Two words: Yes.

Wait, that's one word.

[SoggyPoptart]

Haha bowie .... *grumbles* Me hates Spamzers.

[lalodragon]

Well I think it worked. I joined Jan. 3 and I haven't seen any spam. :D

[Majyk]

Well I think it worked. I joined Jan. 3 and I haven't seen any spam. :D

You should thank your moderators for that. It worked for a while, but we were hit with a bunch of spammers over the last few weeks.

[FayGee]

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troll alert! Troll alert! Troll alert!

[Anastasia]

Andy. I am here for you. YOU GO ANDY!:doh: