Spam Posts

[roadrunner]

There seems to have been a lot of "spam" posts just recently - people registering just to post one completely irrelevant message in this forum. How easy would it be to "beef up" the registration process a bit to stop this (or at least make it harder) - for example, having to answer a very simple question about orienteering that anyone who really wanted to contribute would know the answer to, but would stop random people from registering. Something like "what do the initials BOF stand for" would probably do the trick.

[AndyC]

"Which is harder Green or Orange" that sort of thing?

I can't remember for sure but I think there was an anti bot optical test in the sign up anyway?

[djc]

I'll second that request. I mostly read the forums through Google Reader which means I'm still see the spam even after it has been removed from the site. Due to some of the recent porn posts I now skip over the nopesport feed when reading in the office...

[EddieH]

djc writes: "Due to some of the recent porn posts I now skip over the nopesport feed when reading in the office..."

I take it you wait till you get home

[Scott]

I can't remember for sure but I think there was an anti bot optical test in the sign up anyway?

The captcha that comes built-in with phpBB is notoriously weak. I'd suggest upgrading to something more powerful - there's a reCAPTCHA mod for phpBB3 about which I've heard good things. Or just going with the question-about-orienteering idea.

[djc]

I take it you wait till you get home

What I do in the privacy of my own home is entirely up to me...
...and my wife!

[NFKleanne]

a series of questions, randomly chosen that even a relative newcomer would know would be good, so if a person tries to join if they have to go and find an answwer, they would then get a different question - there must be someway round it!

[rebbid]

Spamming is by computer programs or bots. So to be spam proof all you need is an open ended unanswerable question that only a human could attempt to answer, submitted to a moderator for marking.

Examples:

"What came first, the chicken or the egg?"

"How do you solve the Arab/Israeli conflict ?"

"What is the new event structure?"

[AndyC]

That last one can't be attempted by anyone surely?

[EddieH]

I'm not sure the first one can either

[AndyC]

I believe the correct answer is "The Dinosaur"

[Becks]

Somebody call the UN - Eddie and Andy C have got a solution for the conflict in the Middle East!

Why didn't you tell them earlier guys, could have saved everyone a lot of stress...

[AndyC]

I assumed Eddie had the answer to that one.....

[mappingmum]

Let's put two fingers up to these spammers by ignoring their posts and not viewing them. By viewing them we encourage them more.

When you see a topic in Russian (?) or other obscure title we now all know it's spam. Resist the temptation.

[Wayward-O]

Completely agree with mappingmum.

A couple of the most recent ones are in cyrillic (like the current one in Coaching) and, as I can't read Russian, I ignore them completely. Those in English are usually totally obvious by their title. No need to view at all.