https://smaugmuds.afkmods.com/index.php?a=rssfeed&t=4749 The largest Smaug community resource site. - en SmaugMuds 60 https://smaugmuds.afkmods.com/topic/forum-spammage-4749/&p=23250#p23250 All the same, it's become quite obvious this software can't cut it anymore. It might be time to begin looking at other options that are still being properly maintained. There's been nearly 400 new registrations just in the last couple of days since I purged them all. There's no way to keep up with that on antiquated forum software. https://smaugmuds.afkmods.com/topic/forum-spammage-4749/&p=23250#p23250 Sun, 29 Sep 2013 22:21:15 CDT General Discussions nobody@example.com (Samson) https://smaugmuds.afkmods.com/topic/forum-spammage-4749/&p=23248#p23248 Smaugmuds getting blacklisted wasn't anything to do with spam on the site itself. It actually had to do with someone breaching my server via an underprotected user account that unfortunately had sudo access. Which allowed the individual to set up an email spam bot that was specifically targetting Comcast users, which is what caused Comcast Technical Services to put a service wide block on any traffic coming off my server. https://smaugmuds.afkmods.com/topic/forum-spammage-4749/&p=23248#p23248 Sun, 29 Sep 2013 15:57:25 CDT General Discussions nobody@example.com (InfiniteAxis) https://smaugmuds.afkmods.com/topic/forum-spammage-4749/&p=23239#p23239 What? I don't know.....ahhhhhh https://smaugmuds.afkmods.com/topic/forum-spammage-4749/&p=23239#p23239 Thu, 26 Sep 2013 16:06:15 CDT General Discussions nobody@example.com (mystickdreamer) https://smaugmuds.afkmods.com/topic/forum-spammage-4749/&p=23238#p23238 [quote=Quixadhal]What's the airspeed velocity of an unladen sparrow? <br /> [/quote] What do you mean? An African or European swallow? https://smaugmuds.afkmods.com/topic/forum-spammage-4749/&p=23238#p23238 Thu, 26 Sep 2013 15:55:27 CDT General Discussions nobody@example.com (ayuri) https://smaugmuds.afkmods.com/topic/forum-spammage-4749/&p=23237#p23237 What's the airspeed velocity of an unladen sparrow? https://smaugmuds.afkmods.com/topic/forum-spammage-4749/&p=23237#p23237 Thu, 26 Sep 2013 15:45:16 CDT General Discussions nobody@example.com (Quixadhal) https://smaugmuds.afkmods.com/topic/forum-spammage-4749/&p=23235#p23235 I highly suggest a custom field QA on registration; it stops 99% of bots for a period of time. Something like: "What color is a blue sky?" "How many letters is in 'MUD'?" [EDIT] Seems there is one? Change it up once in a while. https://smaugmuds.afkmods.com/topic/forum-spammage-4749/&p=23235#p23235 Thu, 26 Sep 2013 15:21:26 CDT General Discussions nobody@example.com (Zeno) https://smaugmuds.afkmods.com/topic/forum-spammage-4749/&p=23234#p23234 Thanks for the reply Samson. Just when I came here and logged in to pester the people my work's webfilter went ballistic. I was just concerned that bad joo joo would be going down. Thanks again, ayuri https://smaugmuds.afkmods.com/topic/forum-spammage-4749/&p=23234#p23234 Thu, 26 Sep 2013 15:04:00 CDT General Discussions nobody@example.com (ayuri) https://smaugmuds.afkmods.com/topic/forum-spammage-4749/&p=23233#p23233 As far as the concern about search traffic picking up all the bogus URLs, that's not an issue. Guest accounts don't see anyone on the members list with 0 posts. Spammers have to overcome the far more effective post spam detection to get to the point of their link spam mattering. For the curious, QSFP has [url=http://akismet.com/]Akismet[/url] protection in it. Highly effective at blocking spam for blogs and forum posts, but nowhere near as effective at blocking bogus registrations or profi https://smaugmuds.afkmods.com/topic/forum-spammage-4749/&p=23233#p23233 Thu, 26 Sep 2013 14:49:04 CDT General Discussions nobody@example.com (Samson) https://smaugmuds.afkmods.com/topic/forum-spammage-4749/&p=23231#p23231 at least they are working at all. https://smaugmuds.afkmods.com/topic/forum-spammage-4749/&p=23231#p23231 Thu, 26 Sep 2013 14:43:39 CDT General Discussions nobody@example.com (mystickdreamer) https://smaugmuds.afkmods.com/topic/forum-spammage-4749/&p=23230#p23230 Numerous attempts have been made to stop them, but sadly this software just isn't up to the task anymore. Neither Kayle nor myself has the time to look into trying to address it either, short of mass deletions of member IDs with no posts. That only lasts for so long too. That gnarly topic with thousands of empty pages? Well, that was certainly different, but indicates that the spam prevention was working or there would have been thousands of actual posts to go with it. Needless to say I delet https://smaugmuds.afkmods.com/topic/forum-spammage-4749/&p=23230#p23230 Thu, 26 Sep 2013 14:33:41 CDT General Discussions nobody@example.com (Samson)