Spam Increase

I don't know if there is an 'actual' thread for this already and I know most of you are aware of it, but it's gotten way way way out of control as of late and it's really horrifying what some of them post. Just want to know if there is anything ya'll are doing about it

or at least have a new thread to report them I guess.

I know at least 4 of us delete more than 15 a day , but they're just coming in like a plague for whatever reason . There's at least 8 or more new ones every time I login . Spammers have as much right to register as anyone else as we have no idea who they are until they register, so its a tough issue, but we're definitely brainstorming. The idea of permanently banning IPs was considered, but I think there was a concern that an inocent party with the same IP would be punished.

Some random ideas of mine...

1. A trial period for new registering members whereby their first few posts are not visible to the general population until its determined they aren't a spammer. If they are, then they are

just disabled, banner or deleted before anyone but the staff sees them at all.

Cons - of course I'm not really technical, so I have no idea how to bring that about and of course it is possible that a well meaning member could be accidentily ignored and forgotten. Also,

it would probably be a large burden on the staff, but who knows.

2. Moderators be granted banishment powers in the case of spamers.

3. Mod/staff preview be manditory for Site and Forum, Funny Stuff and Milestones forum threadmaking, whereby a thread is invisible initially, but requires mod approval to be made visible to the general

population.

Cons - the spamers would then just make the threads and posts elsewhere.

4. A minimum post count necessary to start a thread in general.

Cons - some spammers make several posts their first day, and also well meaning members with few posts who just want to start a couple threads would be punished in the process.

Thanks for trying JOE, i'll keep posting the links in the delete topics section, and reporting what i see, i FEEL for you guys, but some of the stuff is DOWN RIGHT DISGUSTING

IP bans.

And don't start with the invisible need approval threads. The spamming happens in all forums not just a select few (those are just more common)

But to, why not make a different registry system? This might be above your head Joe and go to the admin, but who is to say these aren't just programs that do this typical stuff. A lot of sites now make you prove that your human in some way shape or form. I know maybe it's in place now, but that could be a thought to stop it before it began. That's only saying if it's just a program, and if that step already isn't in place, it's been awhile since i registered

And I know this horse as been beaten to death but adding another mod or two wouldn't hurt either. But again, that's beating a dead horse and then if it happened who to pick and blah blah blah

Thank you Firstonthemoon!

But we do have a small captcha already at the register point

http://www.bellazon.com/main/index.php?showtopic=34032

http://www.bellazon.com/main/index.php?showtopic=34031

^ Thanks, frenchkiki ....Deleted

some spammers also use pm's

^ Yup

If you are spammed via pm please inform a moderator of the problem. And also try to make a screen cap of the pm. So that we can see the member name and other such clues.

http://www.bellazon.com/main/index.php?showtopic=34073

http://www.bellazon.com/main/index.php?showtopic=34074

http://www.bellazon.com/main/index.php?showtopic=34072

http://www.bellazon.com/main/index.php?showtopic=34074

http://www.bellazon.com/main/index.php?showtopic=34072

http://www.bellazon.com/main/index.php?showtopic=34087

All done, thanks . Maddog says that what we're experiencing is a general plague that hit a lot of others at the same time due to the hackers cracking a code in the system set up to filter or slow them. But now he's working on something to auto-ban those that are repeat offenders in other communities as well as greatly slow down their current efficiency so it isn't as bad as what it is now.

Also, as a side note, thank you all for your patience and a special thanks for those of you that have been reporting . I need to ask one thing though and I guess it may be reminiscent of being told not to talk to strangers , but...DO NOT, AND I REPEAT, DO NOT ENGAGE THEM. RESPONDING TO TROLLS ONLY ENCOURAGES THEM. It is best to just (while reporting) on the outside pretend as though you don't notice them or as though they don't exist.

Somehow I was easy prey to these f*ckheads, used to login one day and notice my introduction thread blinking at the top with 60 replies all from the same russian guy appearantly, the other introduction threads remained untouched, strangely enough.

New arrival of the day!!

http://www.bellazon.com/main/index.php?showtopic=34135

http://www.bellazon.com/main/index.php?showtopic=34131

http://www.bellazon.com/main/index.php?showtopic=34130

http://www.bellazon.com/main/index.php?showtopic=32036

And Ophelia's thread

http://www.bellazon.com/main/index.php?s=&...t&p=2412988

Mods can't ban people here? That is very odd. In all the other forums I'm a part of Mods = gods. Well I guess it makes sense since I wasn't banned for mod sass.

Let me suggest that the admins install recaptcha in the registration, (in case they haven't already, too lazy to check) it will stop bots from registering.

Yeah, he said he's going to add it and that will definitely stop the bots, though I've had the misfortune to have talked to some that are real people that just keep registering . But we'll definitely beat this thing together ...

http://www.bellazon.com/main/index.php?showtopic=34260

http://www.bellazon.com/main/index.php?s=&...t&p=2415823

http://www.bellazon.com/main/index.php?showtopic=34249