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Smartzkid
03-22-2007, 02:42 AM
Adbots. We have all seen them around. They weren't too much of a problem, but now they seem to be everywhere, multiplying like...ehh...adbots? I understand that we can do nothing to prevent them, but I'm sure that we could hinder them. Please post your ideas on how to cut down on the adbot-attacks we've been recently having.

My idea is that we put a limit on how many links you can post. This limit would be related to your post count. Maybe so that when you start out, you can only post 3 links per post. After your 50th-100th post, this restriction would be lifted. Alternatively, instead of having the restriction removed all at once, maybe every 25 posts or so you'd be able to post one link more.

Other's Ideas:
-IP Ban all offenders until there's none left (multiple people)
-a simple question at the registration form: are you a human? The default answer of it is no, so you have to change it to yes (markus)
-add email validation (botmaster)

Ciesson
03-22-2007, 04:48 AM
maybe if its possible that all people with under 10 post have to post in a newbie forum and make 10 ledgit post b4 they can acces the rest of the site?

Hobbit
03-22-2007, 04:59 AM
well then they will just spam the heck out of the site...and addapt the adbots to spam 10 post and start link spamming...it would be easier just to delete post and ban like we're doing right now

Deni_mulic
03-22-2007, 08:20 AM
Could just ban the provider, They're prolly just getting banned, redialing then banned again

Markus
03-22-2007, 11:06 AM
I can only think about IP-Banning and captcha's for people with less then x post count (looks at a few captcha php scripts),

Sumilion
03-22-2007, 02:13 PM
If im not mistaking Fakawi IP-Banned the russian botter, so lets hope he doesnt come back, keep reporting otherwise :)

Geo
03-22-2007, 04:19 PM
maybe if its possible that all people with under 10 post have to post in a newbie forum and make 10 ledgit post b4 they can acces the rest of the site?

all they would do is spam the 10 posts so it will make more time for mods to delete the spam so i think to delete bots you should just make then do a survey about them selves this would stop the spammers also like runescape they have to put a legit name in like ''sam'' not like ''5iitkyo5kg''

Ciesson
03-22-2007, 04:45 PM
ip banning doesnt always work. if i just reset the adsl modem i get a new ip. so how does ip banning work then?
oh @england155 ive got and updated version of your sig lol

Sumilion
03-22-2007, 04:52 PM
(Please do correct me if im wrong) Your local ip might change but not the one from your provider.

Ciesson
03-22-2007, 05:04 PM
How do you mean by that?

n3ss3s
03-22-2007, 05:23 PM
I dont know am i just talking nonsense , but remember when this forum had the "Welcome new .... your post count is 0 blablabla"
I dont know is it there anymore, but wudnt it be possible to make a same related system except the post count would be a variable which would then cause sumting else


Int PostCount = GetUserPosts;

Sumting like that i dont know anything about forums coding but w/e.
As someone already said about the 10 posts then access to rest of forums , the forums would do with the example int PostCount
like


If (PostCount < 10) {
// sumting onLoad = access denied :D //
}
else {
//something what finds are the posts only weoihjf348urdenj or
// real words relating to the topic?
}


Possible? If postcount is too low = access denied
If its okay then find out whats the post holding?
If gibberish = access denied
If words related to topic = F33l FR33

Sumilion
03-22-2007, 06:06 PM
How do you mean by that?

Nvm, just trust me on it :)

Smartzkid
03-22-2007, 07:52 PM
Ehh...sumilion, thats correct for some providers, but not others (most dialup providers [almost everyone but aol] change your IP every time you dial up)

n3ss3s, yes, thats pretty much what you do when you restrict people from posting in a forum; except if they can't post in any forum, how are they supposed to get their post count up :p I think I understand what you're trying to say though...

Sumilion
03-22-2007, 10:05 PM
Ehh...sumilion, thats correct for some providers, but not others (most dialup's providers change your IP every time you dial up)


Ahhh i see, thnx for clearing it up :)

legendaryhero90
03-23-2007, 01:38 AM
do think it could be that jagex is catching on and is adbotting us to slow down our progress :eek: :eek: :eek:

Smartzkid
03-23-2007, 01:56 AM
:p I think that'd be a bit illegal...

Hobbit
03-23-2007, 04:01 AM
all they would do is spam the 10 posts so it will make more time for mods to delete the spam so i think to delete bots you should just make then do a survey about them selves this would stop the spammers also like runescape they have to put a legit name in like ''sam'' not like ''5iitkyo5kg''

that wont work cause the bots are making "legit" names...their names are all based on the links their spamming, like the once that was spamming equity insureance links was equityy they've all been realisitc names so far...so that wont do u any good

Smartzkid
03-23-2007, 04:06 AM
Maybe just take the whole russian/chinese/south american (sorry to all yah who live in these regions)/any other area where the bots are coming from, and make anyone who registers from there have to apply for membership and be approved by admin? Like on some forums where it confines you to like 2 boards until an administrator reviews your registration....

Hobbit
03-23-2007, 04:09 AM
no thats too much of a hastle for the admins...with all the new registered people we get everyday?...it would be unfair to them for that...i think instead of just banning the first few link spam accounts then after awhile ips ban i think it we should start stright away ip banning for the adbots...cause after awhile if they do have dynamic ip...they're bound to be completely banned sooner or later

Boreas
03-23-2007, 04:17 AM
do think it could be that jagex is catching on and is adbotting us to slow down our progress

Nah. I dunno about the other mods, but it only takes about 10 minutes of my day.

Smartzkid
03-23-2007, 04:18 AM
I wouldn't think that we get very many registrations from places like south america, russia, etc; maybe we do, I really have no clue, so making those people get verification to register shouln't be too much for the admins. But again, maybe it is; its really up to the admins...

Also, What if we got something set up that would make you get Mod/Admin approval for any post with....say 15+ links in it?

Or...instead of having to get Mod/Admin approval for such a post, have it automatically go into an 'Approval' Forum where people would vote: 'Yes this is spam', or 'Nope, its clean'. After 5-15 good votes (and under 5 bad votes), it'd be automatically moved to the forum in which you posted it. This kinda goes along with the whole 'Web 2.0' thing goin on...

c0de
03-24-2007, 12:47 AM
Adbots?

Secet
03-24-2007, 06:23 PM
Just don't let people register with email that ends with .info

trigoon
03-24-2007, 07:05 PM
Well since this is a vbulletin forum why not use some of the mods at vb.org they recently released made specifically for these problems by being able to instantly ban people that post certain links (since spammers usually post the same link in all posts) and by limiting the amount of links allowed in a post.

Hobbit
03-25-2007, 05:07 AM
well they've been different types of links everytime, thats the thing... it been from brittany spears sahving her head to a comparison between viagra and cialis...>.<

Deni_mulic
03-25-2007, 01:20 PM
Jagex would just shut us down for copyright infringement if they really cared, Doubt they're botting us

Boreas
03-25-2007, 01:22 PM
No they can't. What SCAR/SRL does is not illegal, it is merely against the rules of a game.

Markus
03-25-2007, 02:03 PM
I think that the captcha at the registration form is defeated, you should consider using another captcha...
At tip.it, they've added a simple question at the registration form: are you a human? Default the answer of it is no, so you'l have to change it to yes.

Smartzkid
03-25-2007, 06:37 PM
Haha, thats pretty funny: 'Hey, you a human?'

I like it.

botmaster
03-25-2007, 07:49 PM
Also, add multiple captchas. Like an image, a mathematical question that is random (like "What is 14 + 1?") and a random normal question like markus said.

Also, IP bann the existing bots with a wildcard after their IP. For example, say the bot's IP is 184.42.15.4 and they keep redialing. Usually, the ISP can only change the last number of their IP, so bann everyone who's IP is 184.42.15.* .

Hmm... and maybe use e-mail validation where a user has to send a captcha generated code to srl-forums?

Hobbit
03-26-2007, 03:59 AM
Jagex would just shut us down for copyright infringement if they really cared, Doubt they're botting us

give me one example of copyright that we have breached...we've stolen nothing copywrited by jagex

Ramage
03-26-2007, 04:21 AM
In some other forums I've been in, many of the spamming were done manually. That could be the case here too, just a simple copy/paste.

TOB
03-26-2007, 04:43 AM
Hey I have an idea, why don't we report the people that post like this; then the moderators can delete the post and ban the people.

Hobbit
03-26-2007, 07:53 AM
we have been

WT-Fakawi
03-26-2007, 09:29 AM
Latest Captcha is a series of photos of Cats and Dogs. Bots cant determine which-is-which. Brilliant!

GoF
03-26-2007, 01:32 PM
Well thats smart :p

Smartzkid
03-26-2007, 08:13 PM
Latest Captcha is a series of photos of Cats and Dogs. Bots cant determine which-is-which. Brilliant!

Wow...who came up with that? Quite crafty :D

WT-Fakawi
03-26-2007, 08:15 PM
legend has it was a nine year old :)

pdw40893
03-26-2007, 10:45 PM
I don't know if this has been mentioned or not... but why can't we just add a box with letters in them, in a jpg format of course, and then ask the user to input the letters/numbers? If it's correct, they get to post. I know a lot of sites that don't want automated sign-ups/posts use this method. It would be extremely useful, as for the bot will then have to use a dictionary method to bypass this, if it is automatic. Other wise, if it is manual posting, it's pretty much useless.

Of course, this might annoy the legit posters. But hey, small price to pay for keeping the forum clean, right?

Hobbit
03-26-2007, 10:57 PM
because if you really wanted to u could keep print-screening and refreshing and make them all into a characture set...then upload it in the bot and then it would be able to do it...then just put in a fail safe to refresh until it gets a set that it can determine all the chars and put it in...cause there are only a certain amount of combinations you can get with that...if you were really smart u could make a bot that calculated how many combintions there could be and keep pritn screen/refreshing till it has all and it checks so there are no doubles.....

TOB
03-26-2007, 11:09 PM
I don't know if this has been mentioned or not... but why can't we just add a box with letters in them, in a jpg format of course, and then ask the user to input the letters/numbers? If it's correct, they get to post. I know a lot of sites that don't want automated sign-ups/posts use this method. It would be extremely useful, as for the bot will then have to use a dictionary method to bypass this, if it is automatic. Other wise, if it is manual posting, it's pretty much useless.

Of course, this might annoy the legit posters. But hey, small price to pay for keeping the forum clean, right?


Those boxes are called captchas...

And to Hobbit, I know, sarcasm was implied.

pdw40893
03-26-2007, 11:10 PM
Oh... guess it wouldn't work. Oh well, it was merely a suggestion.

Hobbit
03-26-2007, 11:20 PM
i know i was just saying why fawaki's idea with the dog and cat one would work better

@TOB
ok, no biggie hard to tell on forums ;)

Smartzkid
03-27-2007, 12:38 AM
Shhhhh!

Haha, I doubt any botters read these forums anyway (ad botters, not rs botters, stupid! :p)

Maybe anyone under 25 posts gets a three letter picture that they need to enter?

trigoon
03-27-2007, 01:08 AM
Im not sure if this was already mentioned or not but perhaps have it so if you are a leecher or dont have a certain amount of posts, in order to make a post you have to enter a random set of numbers and letters (kind of like captcha). If you don't enter the sequence in correctly X number of times you are prevented from posting for an X amount of time?


Edit: Whoops just saw that Smartzkid posted the first part of my post before me :duh:

Hobbit
03-27-2007, 05:52 AM
like i said before...if they had no life at all they could make a chars set for it and program that into the bot and so it would be able to complete the captcha or if it cant reconise ir just get it to press the "i cant read this image" button to get another one

trigoon
03-27-2007, 11:46 AM
But then again if instead of a static captcha maybe have one that changes every few days on random to a different type so a program wouldnt work?

Smartzkid
03-27-2007, 12:20 PM
I think if we could make it a pain to advertise on these forums, the adbotters would just go to a new forum and leave ours alone

Hobbit
03-27-2007, 05:20 PM
But then again if instead of a static captcha maybe have one that changes every few days on random to a different type so a program wouldnt work?

like have been saying...the same concept applys....if they had absolutely no life what so ever and nothing better to do...eventually the captcha has to repeat sometime so they would jsut make a data base for all the captchas...this isn't likely to happen....but i've seen wierder things done..

Geo
03-28-2007, 01:09 PM
Latest Captcha is a series of photos of Cats and Dogs. Bots cant determine which-is-which. Brilliant!

excellant idea but would they use a debug for the pics like scar/srl does?

e.x. box random(debug image):confused:

Dankness
03-29-2007, 01:06 AM
As this is becoming a problem, i have added a new random question and email verfication for all new users.

Smartzkid
03-29-2007, 01:09 AM
As this is becoming a problem, i have added a new random question and email verfication for all new users.

You just made my day

:D Thanks!

PS: You can close this thread if you like

Hobbit
03-29-2007, 05:46 AM
w00t problem solved...for now...

n3ss3s
03-30-2007, 01:24 PM
that thingy i posted , could it be used? and if, then modify it to catch ip and save it. then it would send some info about the both like ip , whats the ad site advertising and is the site dangerous for users , to other forums . if forums systems would share their information then adbots would be catched more faster and more effectively. good idea or horse ζ®☆p?
about cats and dogs , i invented new captcha! it would show 5 shapes then after user has pressed ok it would change shape places and replace 1 shape!
Then the user would have to say what shape is missing.
The shapes would be simple as in rs box. Triangle,box,circle,pentagon and straight line!

Smartzkid
03-30-2007, 06:59 PM
Well...forums already capture people's IP addresses; but normally, adbotters use proxies when they post the ads (or they use programs designed to use proxies; you get the idea), that way, the forum doesn't get their real IP address, just that of the proxy

Hobbit
03-30-2007, 09:44 PM
yah for all we know it could be someone actually at srl doing it >.< but b/c of proxy we got no clue

n3ss3s
03-31-2007, 10:01 AM
Then... could a system be made that you cant login to this forum from a proxy?

And someone comment my über captcha!