Somebody get rid of nsk

[pinbrook]

Lets just suck it and see, to the best of my knowledge Chris has applied a couple of patches that moderate new members under certain circumstances.

Lets remember that up until last weekend when there were multiple postings on the recent threads which trashed the "New Posts" feature the spamming was quite sporadic and not to much of a nuisance. If Chris has got on top of the new spam methodology then we should be fine for a while.

Good Job Chris (and speedy too)

[RuralWeb]

yep cds work seems to have sent the blighters packing.

[jont]

Although totally overkill this could be automated and secured using standard private key encryption... which for the amount of spam the forum gets is really not worth the hassle.

The latest changes seem to have done wonders though.

[Duncan Rounding]

I'm not sure that with all the all to common forum vulnerabilities (thats forums in general and not these forums specifically) that Actinic would feel it viable to use customers product keys which would then be stored in the MySql database and also need to be checked in some way to ensure they are valid which would require some form of custom coding which i would imagine would not come cheap and potentialy could open up all sorts of security issues with Actinic Keys.

If they were to go this route then the purchase key check would need to a manual affair before approving access to the general forums. I think there would be too much risk (and work) involved to automate this.

[Cheapprices4u]

just been catching up on this

first upgrade to latest version your out of date, and most updates are for a good reason
you as a software house should appreciate that

second the only true way of catching spam accontsis manual moderation or ISP based email address, no hotmali etc

third how about previlages after so many post counts, access to different forums

ive moderated on some of the bigger cd/dvd and warez forums over the years

the only true way is manual moderation, access limited to sections dependant on post count or subs

lastly a simple mod to implement
Forbid Users from Posting Links or Images if They Have Fewer than 15 Posts
http://www.vbulletin.org/forum/showthread.php?t=178611

a similar system is done over at ukbusinessforums

[Ginnys Attic]

I'm not sure that with all the all to common forum vulnerabilities (thats forums in general and not these forums specifically) that Actinic would feel it viable to use customers product keys which would then be stored in the MySql database and also need to be checked in some way to ensure they are valid which would require some form of custom coding which i would imagine would not come cheap and potentialy could open up all sorts of security issues with Actinic Keys.

[Artisan]

Good luck with the mod and the IP blocking, Chris, thanks.

Personally, I think Duncan's hit the nail - have a single 'semi-open' pre-sales forum, with all the rest only postable-to by users who have supplied an Actinic key.

That way, nobody's asked to part with any money (which implies that they're buying more support), and the spammers would be very lucky indeed to accidentally come up with a real key.

Malcolm

[cdicken]

Spam posting is essentially a dumb automated thing. You plug in some forum URLs, some usernames and passwords and let a crappy little vb script do the rest. If they can't reach this forum, there are plenty of forums without any kind of protection. They don't care.

[guccij]

OK - as of last night we have blocked all Chinese IP addresses

Excellent, thanks. How long before the little critters find some other way around it though

I'm wondering how this IP thing works, actually. For example, I'm in Switzerland, with a Swiss IP address.

But if I access the office back in London using PC Anywhere, and come on this forum through that PC, which IP address would show up?

[pinbrook]

Much appreciated Chris

[cdicken]

OK - as of last night we have blocked all Chinese IP addresses and also auto-moderate new posts that are from new customers and contain links. No spam on the forum this morning - so it seems to be working.

[cdicken]

OK - there's a mod installed now that should catch a lot of it. Here's hoping...

[Mark H]

Glad to hear it Jan, there's obviously quite a time difference from the UK (unless you're just staying up late)

[Jan]

Jan, from wherever you are

I'm on planet Jan of course ... just like normal :-)

Regards,

[RuralWeb]

I thought that the forum belonged to the community not actinic towers all actinic will do by maintaining total control is to drive people away or force them to set up a true community forum with moderation by the community.