bots trying to ruin my forums and people being redirected fr

[s8int]

wth is this the end of cs many people say they r getting redirected and in my forums bots have posted like 10000 posts in the guests section where they dont have to sign in.any thoughts?

[TimeX]

I have had this issue myself with guest accounts being used by bots. Since it makes a lot of work having to delete so many posts, the best solution I found is to make the guest account require CAPTCHA image to ensure the poster is not a bot, or to disable the guest account completely.

[kraze]

Adding on to what TimeX has said you can also make it so guest are not allowed to post all. Another good response to something like this would be to enable email verification and make it so you must approve all in coming registrations.

Since it sounds like you have many spam post already you should be able to go in to your ACP and delete the user along with all their post. Assuming you are using PHPBB

I found some links that may of use to you:
http://www.apromotionguide.com/stopping_phpbb_spam.html
http://www.thesamet.com/blog/2006/12/21 ... bb-forums/

If you need anymore help please let us know. I will be more then happy to assist.

[Spifft]

What I do with my community forums is this:

ONLY Registered members can post/view the board.
Registration requires a register code (depending on your forum software there are plugins for this that make it easy)


Bots can bypass most CAPTCHA and moderation tools on the most popular forum softwares. Things like moderating your registrations even have no effect on some bots.

Invest in Vbulletin if you have the funds, and get the plugin for a registration code.

Mine is spammed in the game server and is named after the most popular map on our server.

[kraze]

Only registered users can post is a must and I agree that you should do that. For not allowing guest to view the forum is not good in my opinion. For me if I got to a website and click on the forums and it says I need to register to see the forums I will leave almost instantly unless I know I have business or something I need to do their.

Adding on to the above user make it so you must approve all registrations. Usually a bot or not they will use some really odd looking email which is almost a dead give away that it's a spammer/bot.

If you notice that you keep getting spammers or bots trying to use say ru.mail.com as their email address black list that email by doing *@ru.mail.com. Anyone trying to register with that address will be given an error. Usually with bots and people who are paid to spam forums if the process is to hard they will give up and move on.

[Spifft]

I had it where I had to approve the registers, but some completely got past that and just registered and posted anyways.

But yes the option for guest to view can be important for some forums.

[kraze]

Yes I would suggest trying all of the suggestions we provided to you here and see what works for you.

[IcEWoLF]

Aka vBulletin. I am using vBulletin with few plugins....in the last 5 months I probably got 3 bots in total that got by.....You got to look for additional plugins to enhance your forums.

[TacTicToe]

You have to initiate some form of spam protection, like the captcha or something at sign up. Do not allow guests to posts, that's just asking for trouble. You should allow guests to read your public forums. Nothing wrong with having member forums and then even clan member private forums.

Just remove the ability for guests to post, and ass some level of spam protection to the sign up, and you should be god to go. I have run forums for years, with this very basic setup, and have never had a bot issue.