Adbots.

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)

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?

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

Could just ban the provider, They're prolly just getting banned, redialing then banned again

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),

If im not mistaking Fakawi IP-Banned the russian botter, so lets hope he doesnt come back, keep reporting otherwise :)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Ciesson

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?

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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''

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

(Please do correct me if im wrong) Your local ip might change but not the one from your provider.

How do you mean by that?

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

Code:

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Int PostCount = GetUserPosts;

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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

Code:

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

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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

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Ciesson

How do you mean by that?

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Nvm, just trust me on it :)

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...

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Smartzkid

Ehh...sumilion, thats correct for some providers, but not others (most dialup's providers change your IP every time you dial up)

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Ahhh i see, thnx for clearing it up :)

do think it could be that jagex is catching on and is adbotting us to slow down our progress :eek: :eek: :eek:

:p I think that'd be a bit illegal...

Quote:

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Originally Posted by england155

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''

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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

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....

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

Quote:

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do think it could be that jagex is catching on and is adbotting us to slow down our progress

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

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...

Adbots?

Just don't let people register with email that ends with .info

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.

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...>.<

Jagex would just shut us down for copyright infringement if they really cared, Doubt they're botting us

No they can't. What SCAR/SRL does is not illegal, it is merely against the rules of a game.

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.

Haha, thats pretty funny: 'Hey, you a human?'

I like it.

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?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Deni_mulic

Jagex would just shut us down for copyright infringement if they really cared, Doubt they're botting us

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

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.

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.

we have been

Latest Captcha is a series of photos of Cats and Dogs. Bots cant determine which-is-which. Brilliant!

Well thats smart :p

Quote:

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Originally Posted by WT-Fakawi

Latest Captcha is a series of photos of Cats and Dogs. Bots cant determine which-is-which. Brilliant!

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

legend has it was a nine year old :)

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?

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.....