Craig Posted April 24, 2011 Report Share Posted April 24, 2011 All,Two new applications have been put in place on the forum over the past few days to help fight against the latest wave of spam techniques. These two new applications are an addition to the built in standard anti-spam software that Invision provide as part of the forum software.Up until recently, the standard forum anti-spam software has been enough to stop bots and deter spammers. The software has been set to require new registrations read and reply to a challenge question which only one answer is accept, along with reCaptcha which generates a random code the user has to enter (and changes on every page reload).The above has typically worked, however the recent wave of spamming appears to be using people who actively have time to read challenge questions and answer them correctly. In addition to this, malicious bots are scanning the website repeatedly and consuming a large quantity of bandwidth thus causing the couple of outages experienced this week.So, in order of defence, here are the three applications the forum is now using to fight against spam:ZBBlockInvision Anti-SpamStop Forum SpamZBBlockThis application has a list of IP addresses which are known to be of a malicious nature. If any of these IP's visit Windows Forum, they will see an 'Access Denied' page and will be unable to view anything on the site.Invision Anti-SpamAs detailed above, new users are required to enter a response to a challenge question to which there is only one answer, along with a response to the reCaptcha output which changes on page reload.Stop Forum SpamThis application works alongside the forum registration system. Once a registration is submitted successfully after the above Invision Anti-Spam process, the details are cross-referenced via a live connection to the Stop Forum Spam database (details consist of username, email address and IP). If matches are found, the forum software will immediately ban the account thus stopping the new registered user from accessing the forum.Hopefully the newly introduced methods will help in combating the recent wave of spamming techniques, and allow members of Windows Forum to enjoy the site once again.Craig Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alan2273 Posted May 3, 2011 Report Share Posted May 3, 2011 It looks like the new spam protection is a bit overzealous, I tried to log in this afternoon and got a page with red flashing letters telling me to desist.This evening every thing seems back to normal. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Craig Posted May 3, 2011 Author Report Share Posted May 3, 2011 Hi Alan,Was access automatically resumed, or was it gained following information contained within the emails I sent you? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alan2273 Posted May 3, 2011 Report Share Posted May 3, 2011 It came back on normally then went again, getting access denied, Cease Desist, in nice big red letters :lol: Thanks for your quick reply, clicking the first link seems to have solved the problem.Then I went on my laptop and got the same message, so i clicked your first link again and now no more Cease and Desist. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Digerati Posted June 23, 2011 Report Share Posted June 23, 2011 I might suggest you remove the red ! Fight Against Spam banner for members who are logged in. While it is eye-catching, that's the problem. Once, for important messages, big red banners are good. But by leaving it there, it trains us who have already read it to ignore big red banners. That's not good. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bludgard Posted June 23, 2011 Report Share Posted June 23, 2011 The anti-spam measures taken do seem to be very effective. I have not seen the first article of advertisement since these measures were installed.It very well could be that I do not visit as regularly and have missed the dreaded canned goods. However, I suspect I would have seen the leftovers where it had been removed from the table.Good job, Craig... and anyone else that may have had a hand in this. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Digerati Posted June 23, 2011 Report Share Posted June 23, 2011 The anti-spam measures taken do seem to be very effective.Good job, Craig... and anyone else that may have had a hand in this.Sure didn't mean to imply otherwise. I hope that is not how it was taken. I have not been very active here, but I have visited often since joining and do subscribe to forum new thread notifications. I have noticed a significant drop. I don't know how bad it got here but judging by some sites I visit, it can get to be a real challenge for staff to keep on top of it. Obviously, something good is being done here. But the facts are, only staff, some regulars, and angry ducks care about spam in forums. "Normal" users are rarely going to see any spam simply because staff (with the invaluable help of the regulars reporting violations) do stay on top of it. My comments refer only to the red banner which suggests, Danger - Read This Now! being constantly displayed when there is no real danger. Even at the top of post preview pages. I am not saying spam cannot be dangerous, but by far, spam in forum posts is mostly just an annoyance for a very few concerned people. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bludgard Posted June 23, 2011 Report Share Posted June 23, 2011 Digerati, I was not in any way alluding to your post of the anti-spam banner. As your post brought the thread back to being visible as far as new content, I just started reminiscing about how the spam was a huge deal here for a while and how it has fallen off to the point of nonexistence. I seem to remember you had some input on the topic as well. http://forums.windowsforum.org/index.php?showtopic=48349&view=findpost&p=323417&hl=spam&fromsearch=1As for spam being a negligible issue, I have witnessed here more than 20 threads interrupted at once, instantly. I used to troll the forum looking to offer advice and would get lost trying to find the thread that had been buried beneath tons of previously archived threads: Buried beneath spam. Although the content was not damaging (that I know of), I, for one, found it quite distracting and felt that there may be a better place for this type of advertisement other than a computer related help forum. To me this is invasive and rude. Although this is a public forum (and all have the right to free speech), even in America if one exercises this right to an extreme, the hammer drops. And what a heavy hammer it is.Thanks for sticking around, Digerati. I enjoy reading your posts and hope to read many more. Sincerely,Jody Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Digerati Posted June 24, 2011 Report Share Posted June 24, 2011 Thanks for the kinds words Jody. No doubt, 20 threads at once would be disruptive. And I agree completely with your assessment of this type advertisement is invasive and rude - especially since they know it violates site rules and that they will get banned and their posts deleted. I suspect the goal with spamming forums is they hope the Googles and Bings out there will "crawl" through and rank their posts high before the posts are purged. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Craig Posted June 24, 2011 Author Report Share Posted June 24, 2011 I had meant to remove the banner earlier, but I had totally forgot. All sorted now :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Digerati Posted June 24, 2011 Report Share Posted June 24, 2011 I think it looks cleaner now. Thanks. But know this, if you ever want to get an urgent message out, I think that's your avenue. It got my attention. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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