I don't know what's going on, but it looks like spambots are having a free, unmoderated run at the Chex Trek forums. The General Discussion forum has been laden with spambot posts, advertisements, and -- God forbid -- porn. It's a real mess. Is this a regular thing, where spambots appear, and have a run like that? I've already emailed StoneyDumples about this, and I'm awaiting a reply.

I for one, know this more than anyone. I am a regulr at CT forums (I'm known as redchaos there) and practically every day I see the same exact post:

"Has seen on the internet a good site. Personally to me has liked. All that is necesarry for soul and in one place. Convinient search".

*Then a bunch of porn and viagra links.*

I've had it! Isn't there any way to get them to stop posting? I can't stand to see all the good threads get buried in spam!

Eww. That's just awful. :wacko:

You're telling me! Once I tried to go to the art topic, but accidentally clicked on one of those porn topics! Worse yet, it didn't just have links, it had pictures! It was THE MOST REPULSIVE THING I HAVE EVER SEEN IN MY LIFE! :wacko: I swear I felt like barfing. Somebody's gotta do somthing about that stuff, and FAST!

It happened to me, too. The blasted bot (the posts are characteristic of spambots) used IMG tags to embed the pictures into the post. Repulsive it was. Stuff like that has no place on the internet, or anywhere else for that matter.

Apparently, it beats getting Zorch'd.

getting zorched is better than falling prey to the insidious will of teh spambot

Yes, it is normal for spambots to hit a forum like that. Many forums that have been left to sit or who's staff isn't as dedicated will get nailed like that.

An easy way to defeat them is to implement verification protocols. This will take out many, but not all, of them.

Quick, tell StoneyDumples the verification protocol thing!

On a website, there was a thing that said, check this if you are a spambot.

Two Yahoo Groups I am part of are like that. They are dead and unused. The only posters are spambots.

I thought our email confirmation policy would have stopped spammers an spambots. Why is it not working?

Like I said, it stops MOST. Some very well-written ones CAN actually verify their addresses. These are few and far between however, so our current countermeasures can be considered effective.

The problem is when we get an actual Human spammer.

It looks like the administration there cleaned up the situation for the time being.

It does seem like we got a spambot here that got past the email verification. I think the username was "turkiyespot" or something. The member didn't post, or really do anything, for over a month after registration, and then "decided" to post a spam post. I also suspect another member here that registered fairly recently without any activity. However, there's no way to prove it's a spambot until it's too late.

Those are usually registration bots. That might not be the correct term, but it describes their function rather well. More advanced board software uses numeric confirmation [where an image with random numbers and/or letters is displayed and the user must input them. The image is designed to defeat bots with the ability to read text from images.]

Every once in awhile those will belong to a spammer who follows up on it, but they usually target more active forums than ours. The ones that DO follow up around here probably just look at member size.

well, there is an option to make all accounts have to be apporved by an admin before they can post...

It won't help. How can we tell someone is a spambot based upon registration info?

Take a look at this member account. Now, what are the odds that this is a spambot?

um... pm or email 'em, so at least we can see if they're a real person?

and manny, it could just be a cq fan who really likes debt consolidation, lol

Well, you could have an approval process. All members, upon registering, are only allowed to post in one area of the forum, entitled "approval requests", in which they personally request from the admin to become a member. That way, they would have to be rel people in order to be allowed to post elsewhere. And even if they spammed the approval request area, it would at least be confined to one area, instead of being able to run rampant.

That reminds me of a webcomic...

Unless you're offended by reading mock spam, this particular issue is a-ok for everyone. The REST of the site, however, is 16+ IMHO. Mature peoples only. So don't go clicking any buttons on there. That's an ORDER.

LOL, spam

And@Manny: in situations like that it's obvious. But alot of times they use viable names or random words and number-letter combos.

lol...

http://www.chextrek.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=188

The CIA was behind it? :lol:

Heh, in 8th grade bio, my teacher had us brainstorm how to quickly bail out of a porn site. I learned s many ways to close a window that day.

Topic guys. I would like to the list of how to quickly bail out of a site though. Any site actually, who said it had to be a porn site? Is this what your teacher thought of? How dirty minded.

@xbolt- Cereal Intelligence Organization?
@rrppo- sounds lke you had a VERY productive 8th grade

Sarcasm or innuendo? Neither apply, sadly...

...lol...?

Lol would be correct.

And Lore: Sorry, I started clicking. Really funny sight, actually.

Spammers must die! ;)