Spam getting particularly heavy

shortylickens

No Lifer
Jul 15, 2003
82,854
17,365
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Didnt we used to have a rule which prevented new users from starting threads until they had 20 posts or so?

Maybe we need that rule if we dont have it now.
 

Ken g6

Programming Moderator, Elite Member
Moderator
Dec 11, 1999
16,250
3,845
75
No, I don't think that makes sense. Users often come here initially to ask for hardware help. The way to do that is to post a new thread in a hardware forum.
 
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Red Squirrel

No Lifer
May 24, 2003
67,398
12,142
126
www.anyf.ca
Any forum I've run I've set it up so it's "stealth" approval required. The poster sees their own thread/post but nobody else does except mods. Mods can then click "approve" which approves all the user's posts and sets their account as normal, or they can click "deny and delete" which nukes their posts and the account. Works great.

I've also done auto ban that look for keywords like "viagra".
 

Ken g6

Programming Moderator, Elite Member
Moderator
Dec 11, 1999
16,250
3,845
75
I've also done auto ban that look for keywords like "viagra".
I'd still like an auto-ban (or auto-flag) that looks for text consisting of >10% non-ASCII characters. Should get most of the Korean spammers.
 

Red Squirrel

No Lifer
May 24, 2003
67,398
12,142
126
www.anyf.ca
I'd still like an auto-ban (or auto-flag) that looks for text consisting of >10% non-ASCII characters. Should get most of the Korean spammers.

Yeah that would probably work quite well. Look for keywords like http and stuff too. If I recall my system just looked for a bunch of keywords and added up the points. Could probably actually use spamassassin for that too and use bayes. Of course you only filter the first 10 or so posts. The odd ball spammer will pretend to participate to rack up post count but it's rare.