Fuckton of Spambots

h.p. taskmaster · **Posted:** Thu Mar 10, 2016 6:09 pm

Apologies for all the Russian, all the kitchens, all the whathaveyou. Obviously don't click on any of it. The users and original spam posts have been deleted. I'm sorry to all. If I knew how to stop that shit, I would.

Maybe there's different forum software I can use? I don't know. If anyone has suggestions, I'm open.

slevin · **Joined:** Sat Dec 04, 2010 3:25 pm **Posts:** 562

I'm considering just banning the entire Russian and Ukrainian IP space.

Josh · **Joined:** Sat Dec 04, 2010 7:48 pm **Posts:** 292

Are they bots? Can you add a Captcha thingy?

slevin · **Joined:** Sat Dec 04, 2010 3:25 pm **Posts:** 562

The captchas, at least the built-in phpBB one, was pretty bad, and underperformed the Q&A challenges. Perhaps updating the Q&A challenges would help a bit.

I know Google has that new reCaptcha, but I'm doubtful at its efficacy.

The other thing is, we do prevent a surprising amount of problems. In the last 12 hours, we had over 400 registration attempts, but very few successful bot registrations. It's just that even a few bots that get through counts as a problem.

cyberspaceship · **Posted:** Sat Mar 12, 2016 5:03 pm

Is it possible just to block the registration page from bots and certain spiders via htaccess?

h.p. taskmaster · **Posted:** Sun Mar 13, 2016 7:04 am

Quote:

I know Google has that new reCaptcha, but I'm doubtful at its efficacy.

I've only seen/heard good things about reCaptcha. Why the doubts? We might honestly just want to go nuclear and get as much as humanly possible. At this point I've seen so many posts about it I'm starting to think about redoing my kitchen.

slevin · **Joined:** Sat Dec 04, 2010 3:25 pm **Posts:** 562

I think my kitchen could use some love over yours.

I don't know if there is anything official yet for the new Captcha 2.0 for phpBB; I'm hesistant to roll my own solution or start copy pasting from some random repo. However, I did take the step of now forcing manual approvals before users are registered until we get this resolved. That should cut down on this almost entirely, although it makes your and my lives more difficult, and it's now a longer process for a new user to start posting on the site.

whoshotthefrog · **Joined:** Sat Dec 04, 2010 6:17 pm **Posts:** 2779

It's comic relief.

h.p. taskmaster · **Posted:** Mon Mar 14, 2016 3:39 pm

slevin wrote:

I think my kitchen could use some love over yours.

I don't know if there is anything official yet for the new Captcha 2.0 for phpBB; I'm hesistant to roll my own solution or start copy pasting from some random repo. However, I did take the step of now forcing manual approvals before users are registered until we get this resolved. That should cut down on this almost entirely, although it makes your and my lives more difficult, and it's now a longer process for a new user to start posting on the site.

Gotta get those granite countertops, man. Resale value!

I guess that's why I've been getting emails to approve users for the last couple days... Hmm... should probably not just delete those outright, then. Fascinating.

slevin · **Joined:** Sat Dec 04, 2010 3:25 pm **Posts:** 562

RalphSnart · **Posted:** Tue Mar 15, 2016 7:14 pm

Don't give them an inch. We did this to ourselves...

We have grown weak...

demon gal · **Posted:** Thu Mar 17, 2016 8:34 am

I blame MadJohnShaft and his stupid kitchen.

Submarine · **Posted:** Thu Mar 17, 2016 2:01 pm

I never told anyone on the forums but I guess its time to come clean - I am a Nigerian Prince and I have an oil venture that I'd like to discuss with you. And who is Kyuss?

h.p. taskmaster · **Posted:** Fri Mar 18, 2016 2:47 pm

I'm a wealthy foreign diplomat stuck without access to my many offshore accounts trying to get home.

Also, Spiritual Beggars rock.

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Fuckton of Spambots

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