Promotion strategy to reduce spam

[kansei]

I know we talked about implementing this months ago but I was going mad with schoolwork at the time.

The strategy goes like this:
- When a user registers, they are placed in the "n00bs" usergroup. n00bs are not allowed to use private messaging.
- When post count reaches 5, they are automatically promoted to the "Members" usergroup. This automatic process runs hourly.

Within the first 5 posts, someone (or akismet) should notice the spam and put a stop to it. This gets around the akismet loophole of not checking private messages. So sadly, no more PMs about converting to buddhism. If you guys want I can subscribe you to a buddhism mailing list to simulate the PM spam.

The implementation isn't as clean just due to how vbulletin works. You can't change the usergroup that users are dumped into by default, they will always go to Group ID 2 ("Registered Users"). I made a new usergroup "Members", copying forum permissions and all options from "Registered Users". I then renamed "Registered Users" to "n00bs" and set the limit on stored private messages to 0 (blocking them from using the PM feature).

I manually ran the scheduled task to move everyone. There are currently 880 n00bs, 344 Members, and 83 supporting members. Why would so many people register on a forum and not post o_O

A cool side effect of this is that now we have the ability to restrict forum permissions to new members, not that there's any reason to. I was just thinking maybe if there was some offensive subforum we could hide it or something. Another cool side effect is that it'll say "n00b" as their user title hehe.
Problems:
- all users receive a PM when they first register on the forum. They won't get it. We'll have to move to a welcome e-mail after e-mail confirmation instead.
- there's probably other problems. I expect that a lot of things will rely on Group ID 2, I'll look around and fix things as they come. I half expected the Members List to break immediately but it seems like it hasn't. It probably will once an hourly scheduled task runs.

[mgerth]

Sweet!

[pro5x2]

Sounds good to me.

I do have one other question, and this is more in regards to 247 spamming. They are getting RAILED with porn spam. is it possible to limit to after the first 5 posts they can post pics?

[kansei]

I do have one other question, and this is more in regards to 247 spamming. They are getting RAILED with porn spam. is it possible to limit to after the first 5 posts they can post pics?

absolutely. I can quickly (it's quite easy) enable that as a preventative measure.. though it will suck for new members when we demand PICS (or ban) ha. hmmmm

[pro5x2]

Yeah, we'll just have to remember they gotta post 5 times first. Just throwing out the idea though

[iLisa]

post 5 times anywhere? or do they have to count (like posting somewhere not in the off-topic)

[njaremka]

see attached... is this supposed to happen? "Chico" seems to have lost all his member privileges

[kansei]

see attached... is this supposed to happen? "Chico" seems to have lost all his member privileges

I'm on it...

he's a "member" (post count is over 500)... rebuilding permissions...

[pro5x2]

growing pains is all. So far, i havn't found any issues

[kansei]

you wouldn't. it seems all members of "members" don't have access to the forum index or the forum "home" but usercp and everything else is ok. working on it right now.

[CTt3P5]

Sounds good to me.

I do have one other question, and this is more in regards to 247 spamming. They are getting RAILED with porn spam. is it possible to limit to after the first 5 posts they can post pics?

That is a great idea, thankfully the few times I have run across the porn on 24/7, my kids haven't been in the room!

[SATimko]

So Chris, if someone is a n00b, and is a real person, and we demand pics...you can just go in and change their post count still, right?

[kansei]

fixed. Stupid vba cmps (the modular home page) by default denies all permissions to any new usergroup --and doesn't implement the vbulletin API properly to integrate into the normal usergroup permissions page, they made their own. POS aftermarket software lol

and no, I won't change post counts :P

but a user can be manually promoted yes. This isn't a measure to separate "n00bs" from everyone else, just a spam prevention measure. Once we know someone is real we can promote them manually, but the point of this was to reduce labour not create it so --that may not happen.

[chico]

woot!


Thanks Nik & Chris :-)

[kansei]

lol did you think you were banned?

[chico]

nah, i was sure it was some issue. :snky:


haha :P

[pro5x2]

CHICO IS A SPAMMER!!! BAAHHHH!!!!! j/k

Still, no issues found yet Chris. I'm checkin everything

[MazdaTom]

How come I haven't got any Buddism spam?

[kansei]

How come I haven't got any Buddism spam?

I think it only happened once and to about 25 members. I didn't get any of the Buddhism love either :(

as spams go it was a really nice one from what I've seen.

[chico]

CHICO IS A SPAMMER!!! BAAHHHH!!!!! j/k

Still, no issues found yet Chris. I'm checkin everything

hush you!



:snky:

[Judman13]

Luckly I havent gotten any spam...YAY

[autoxes]

Our boy Kansei, he is wicked smaht

[emor8t]

Chris,

Maybe we could limit some other things to non-newbs like adding friends, etc. Just a thought.

Also, as far as limiting forums, Standard op on a lot of boards is haveint OT and marketplace forums blocked to the newbs as well. Probably something to consider. Might also be wise to have a forum you have to manually allow people to enter, PITA sounds like, usefulness? probably not very unless you wanted to create threads for people to add to linkedin, exchange BB pins/emails/ phone numbers, social networks, etc. without getting those spammed silly as well.

[Judman13]

hah as soon as Pat leaves town Chris takes over the forums!!!!

Nice job forum Nazi!!!! lol j/k

[kansei]

Chris,

Maybe we could limit some other things to non-newbs like adding friends, etc. Just a thought.

Also, as far as limiting forums, Standard op on a lot of boards is haveint OT and marketplace forums blocked to the newbs as well. Probably something to consider. Might also be wise to have a forum you have to manually allow people to enter, PITA sounds like, usefulness? probably not very unless you wanted to create threads for people to add to linkedin, exchange BB pins/emails/ phone numbers, social networks, etc. without getting those spammed silly as well.

Hmm. Well OT has always been blocked from anyone who isn't a registered user, but I definitely see how that would be a better setup. I'll consult with the crew and see what they want to do.

hah as soon as Pat leaves town Chris takes over the forums!!!!

Nice job forum Nazi!!!! lol j/k

hehe just convenient timing. His reminder to focus and I to stay vigilant against spammers reminded me that I planned on doing this as soon as I graduated.

[JC-MP5]

I like this idea. :D

[Jackelope]

I've seen no problems so far ;)

[iLisa]

ive not had problems either. :)

[kansei]

oooo there's two spammers registered right now... do I let them test the system or not... decisions decisions

[njaremka]

give 'em like 2 hours :D

[kansei]

yeah.. this is really just testing akismet which is well known and quite good, as I already know the strategy works to prevent them from sending PMs. the only flaw would be if they could get FIVE spam posts past the akismet filters, and then knew they could send PMs at that point.

[RockinVs]

Any luck fishing for spam?

[kansei]

looks like someone banned them already.. not sure what the point of having a really complicated system for automatically banning them is if people are just going to do it manually. I try to reduce the amount of labour needed but oh well

[njaremka]

i got your
http://www.likelihoodofconfusion.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/11/spam.jpg
RIGHT HERE!!!!
:D

[kansei]

there are very few things that should never be scanned high res, and that is definitely one of them.

[njaremka]

he-he, hows this for ya, then?

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d5/Spam_with_cans.jpeg

[kansei]

lol this thread is about reducing spam not making it huge.

I had never seen spam out of the can, that's kinda gross looking.

[CTt3P5]

x2 That spam is gross looking...thank goodness we are banning it.

[autoxes]

x2 That spam is gross looking...thank goodness we are banning it.


lmfao

[FlipMz3Drvr]

is there a way for n00bs to be restricted to "spam" the forum just so that can't increase their post count?

[autoxes]

Why does post count really matter? Aside from granting additional priviliges that is.

[JC-MP5]

Why does post count really matter? Aside from granting additional priviliges that is.

Post count is your e-mojo. lol

[kansei]

is there a way for n00bs to be restricted to "spam" the forum just so that can't increase their post count?

why bother? It's not like we're talking about requiring 100 posts, it's just five. How would we set it up to restrict them from posting? All they have to do is get in touch with an admin that isn't busy and we can move them to the normal user group. This is only to reduce spam (see title of thread) not to in any way restrict new members of our community.

Why does post count really matter? Aside from granting additional priviliges that is.

+1

[FlipMz3Drvr]

why bother? It's not like we're talking about requiring 100 posts, it's just five. How would we set it up to restrict them from posting? All they have to do is get in touch with an admin that isn't busy and we can move them to the normal user group. This is only to reduce spam (see title of thread) not to in any way restrict new members of our community.



+1

What I meant was if they just need 5 posts, can we restrict n00bs from posting "spam" one or two word posts or comments. Their posts have to be a legitimate post.

[Judman13]

Well most spammers arn't going to take the time to post five times not even worth it for them. And if they do make 5 bogus post then we can see it before they start spamming Buddhist messages

[neox.286]

I think this is most definately sufficient in stopping spammers...they aren't trying to spam to the point where damnit they will spam everyone they can, they just want to register and pass their filth around and that's it...if it's work they will pass

creating further protective measures I think might be taking this to the overkill level lol

remember guys:
http://www.itsoverninethousand.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/11/internetseriousbusiness.jpg

[kansei]

What I meant was if they just need 5 posts, can we restrict n00bs from posting "spam" one or two word posts or comments. Their posts have to be a legitimate post.

Um.. no, I don't think anyone is going to volunteer to be the nanny to make sure new members only make "legitimate" posts.. think of the logistics, they suck.

Well most spammers arn't going to take the time to post five times not even worth it for them. And if they do make 5 bogus post then we can see it before they start spamming Buddhist messages

95% of the time (more than that actually according to the data Akismet posts) the automated system in place will flag spam posts so that members don't see them. So.. yeah people won't even get to post count 1.