bot prevention

Even Craigslist has a box where you have to type in some random numbers and letters, I don't think a bot can do that yet,

At least some of the spam we get is actually people registering. I don't think there's any way to get around that. I actually got one after he registered but before he posted anything. There have been cases of a banned spammer coming back with a slightly changed spelling of the user name. Then I ask admin to ban the IP address. Spammers tend to stay on their spam thread for a long time - hours in some cases. I suspect (but not sure) that people who reply to spam (or click on the embedded link) get their address captured by the spammer for further spam emails.

As I explained to someone else; When I get on in the morning, I hit the "New Post" button which brings up threads with any new postings. I've already deleted reported spam as I get emails of those. Now I scan the last one to post on each thread for potential spammers. If someone has replied to the spam post, I'll miss it. Since I don't (can't) read EVERY post, some stuff that should get deleted is missed all together.

Bots automate 99% of the process when registering on forums. Everything except the 'captcha' and 'special question' can be automated. Bots generally will pause at the captcha and the user will manually fill it in, then the bot continues. Usually everything but the captcha is automated.

We also, in addition to the captcha, ask a 'special question' during registration, "What's worth more, copper or aluminum?". Not a difficult question, but this causes 99% of automated registration attempts to fail because the bots aren't prepared for this extra field to fill in. Can't really prevent bots any further than that other than requiring approval of new accounts by a moderator/admin.

There used to be alot more spam coming through until we added the additional special question, but either way running a public website it's inevitable that we'll have to delete and combat spam here and there.

Don't forget about the /!\ report post feature if you spot spam before myself, Andrew or a moderator zaps it.

Hey Admin, that is one sweet a-word avatar.

Originally Posted by admin

Bots automate 99% of the process when registering on forums. Everything except the 'captcha' and 'special question' can be automated. Bots generally will pause at the captcha and the user will manually fill it in, then the bot continues. Usually everything but the captcha is automated.

We also, in addition to the captcha, ask a 'special question' during registration, "What's worth more, copper or aluminum?". Not a difficult question, but this causes 99% of automated registration attempts to fail because the bots aren't prepared for this extra field to fill in. Can't really prevent bots any further than that other than requiring approval of new accounts by a moderator/admin.

There used to be alot more spam coming through until we added the additional special question, but either way running a public website it's inevitable that we'll have to delete and combat spam here and there.

Don't forget about the /!\ report post feature if you spot spam before myself, Andrew or a moderator zaps it.

Actually, it is the special question that truly works. Captcha doesn't work no more, now a days, but questions work all the time.

bot prevention =

#1 pull the plug and cut cord,
#2 pull any motors that can be seen.
#3 look for motherboards
#4 start to remove smaller motors
#5 start pulling things you can resell to other bot makers
#6 put the rest in the scrap iron bin

And thats what you do to a bot =)

sorry...i had to.