Why so many bot posts?
 

Seems like we have a lot of spam/bot posts. Need to update the websites protections?

how dare you

***Yep, and I just hit the alert button on one that made 62 posts on different threads within the first 40 minutes after he registered this AM! That may be a record!!!

bot/spam
 

3006, I e-mailed the moderators about this last month, Nothing was done. I can't stand these #%it Heads that do this. They wast the forums time, Let's revamp the forum to get rid of this garbage .:mad1:

This is not the only hunting forum being hit hard by bots. I don't understand the people behind the bots? What do they hope to gain?

Really cheap advertising, I suppose, so even if they only get a small response, it must be worth it to them.

I don't know that, practically speaking, there's much a forum can do to get rid of it, except delete it after it appears.

TG, your post didn't come through in the mod email. Can you send me a link if it's still there? thanks.

As for the spam, it's a pain in the you know what. Mods spend a lot of time deleting it. How to prevent it is something on the admin level (they run the server, etc.). I know they'd like to prevent it but don't know that they can. Mods have also complained about all of the spam to admin but I don't know that they can prevent it with the software we have.

Cal

The spam is pretty hard to get rid of. No matter what site they target, you block them, and they change IP address and it starts all over again.

Cal---Someone took care of that 62 post jokester very quickly after I sent in that alert. I also don't see how you can prevent this Spam from being posted, but it would be nice if the first person that reads it hits the Alert button and notifies the Mods so they can deep six them ASAP. It's simple to look and see if there have been any views and the more there are before they get deleted means they will probably keep coming back under another IP as was mentioned. I go through the entire site the first time I come on in the morning and always hit the Alert button on a bunch of them because most of the time these yahoos post during the middle of the night.

I've noticed the same thing. It's almost like somebody is bored at night with nothing else to do. :biggrin:

Actually was 63 posts by the time I found it.

But the Poofer button worked.......

Dave...JW

Quick hint

These are all bots and atleast a couple are logged in right now
Aiden3726mfa4, Alexander0616ol, Alexander8493fb, Andrew9268lan8, Angleaav, Anjelica18nj

The anal plug and other bazaar links in the "about me" should be a dead give away :D

And more
James5050yuq1, John6160yuq1, Joshua8764onl4

And these
Nathan9639egi0, Noah8405xxw5 William0505jcw3, William9483cup0 Michael3433kmj3

And more than likely these also
Logan2085cjp4, Logan6047mdt1 David2211xol5, David2727okg7, Earledtj2148, Elfredahyn2260 Daniel5688grc1, Daniel7642fau7, Huey49so

Im a member of two other sites (saltfishing/spearfishing), probably because they are smaller then this site, but they seem to rarely get bots or spam posts on them, I can check with them and see what protections they use if you would like. Or get their contact information if preferred.

I think some of it has to do with the server. Some are better at keeping bots out.

View any of these bots i posted and see who has visited the page. Its on the right side.
Recent Visitors


Do you notice who has NOT visited them?

This is where the bot problem starts.

Its pretty amazing that all these still appear to be active accounts. The bizarre links in "about me" are still there. Its very possible to prevent that with vBulletin and modules until a new member has a certain number of posts. You can even prevent them from posting in all sub forums based on post count. Im on another vBulletin based forum that wont allow any posts in the main forum until you have 5 posts in the New Members area. You cant post a link or a have a sig until you reach 15 posts.

This greatly reduces the spam in the rest of the forum and makes it easier to weed out the spam bots. All the spam stays concentrated in one area.

ATM we actually have more bots logged in than members. Lastnite when i logged off it was more like 3 bots to one real member or worse.

I wonder if that artificially inflates the real member totals and hits the forum and HNI receives. That may be quite good if you are selling advertisement space or lets say...selling the website and/or the parent company. KKR just acquired Internet Brands who also owns vBulletin (Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd) and a ton of forums including this one.

***Very informative posts! Question for ya---Wouldn't bots be completely eliminated just by having to repeat a series of letters/numbers correctly to be accepted on the site when you register like I have seen on other sites? It would seem that would take care of them, but it also looks like there are a lot of "regular" people who are also registering/logging on and spamming the dickens out of this site!

I know of forums that use a similar registration requirement and it does stop a lot of them. They can be pretty annoying reading the letters sometimes for real members. I think my favorite ML forum has had very few bot posts or even bot registrations since the site admin implemented it. Ive only seen 2 in several months get far enough to make a post.

We dont use vBulletin though, we use a open source software and have no advertisers to keep happy.