Suggestions for anti-spambot Q&A

All suggestions about TPFC should be posted here. Discussions about changes to TPFC will also be carried out here.
Message
Author
User avatar
Andrew Lee
Posts: 3048
Joined: Sat Feb 04, 2006 9:19 am
Contact:

Re: Suggestions for anti-spambot Q&A

#16 Post by Andrew Lee »

JohnTHaller wrote: Thu Jan 04, 2018 9:33 am The only things that seem to work today are distributed blacklists and content analysis. You won't keep spambots out now because they farm out captchas to real humans. Keep a basic captcha like Google's ReCaptcha for account signups just to keep out the lowest automated ones, but don't worry beyond that.
Thanks John. All duly noted.

FONZACUS
Posts: 3
Joined: Sat Feb 03, 2018 11:03 pm

Re: Suggestions for anti-spambot Q&A

#17 Post by FONZACUS »

sorry for the noobish slightly related comment.

antibots (google recaptchas anyone?) are getting far more annoying recently. just registering on this site made me go through 2 mark all squares that are sign/vehicles a few times, and select all cars at least 20 times on 1 square. having regularly use a portable vpn from time to time, ive never been hit with a recaptcha, which strikes me as odd.

User avatar
qj3328
Posts: 2
Joined: Thu Oct 24, 2019 10:42 am

Re: Suggestions for anti-spambot Q&A

#18 Post by qj3328 »

Here's my account creation feedback. Most new sign-ups will not tolerate what I just dealt with. Going to NEW USERS PLEASE READ! is showing "Latest anti-spam Q&A" by Andrew Lee, followed by a reply by kenkang and another set of answers. Well, clearly, this is clear as mud, and I was going to have try all four answers to the respective questions. I did. Three times over, as I recall - circa 12 different answers over time. Finally an answer was accepted. Though like many I despise them with a passion, I'd rather do hydrants or traffic lights because I know there is hope at the end of that tunnel. I was going to quit, give up and go home after two full text answer iterations but, for some unknown reason, I persisted.

User avatar
Midas
Posts: 6706
Joined: Mon Dec 07, 2009 7:09 am
Location: Sol3

Re: Suggestions for anti-spambot Q&A

#19 Post by Midas »

@qj3328: I feel your pain. But I think your effort will be duly rewarded by amazing low levels of SPAM. Welcome to our forums. :)

User avatar
webfork
Posts: 10818
Joined: Wed Apr 11, 2007 8:06 pm
Location: US, Texas
Contact:

Re: Suggestions for anti-spambot Q&A

#20 Post by webfork »

qj3328 wrote: Thu Oct 24, 2019 11:25 am Here's my account creation feedback
Thanks, I'll take another look at our account creation. After periods where I'd spend hours a week on whack-a-spammer, we've had a nice period of relative quiet, but it's certainly possible we've made it too cumbersome.

User avatar
webfork
Posts: 10818
Joined: Wed Apr 11, 2007 8:06 pm
Location: US, Texas
Contact:

Re: Suggestions for anti-spambot Q&A

#21 Post by webfork »

webfork wrote: Fri Oct 25, 2019 5:41 am Thanks, I'll take another look at our account creation.
Update here: I retested the account creation process and didn't have any issues but I've brought the topic up with the admin to see if something isn't configured correctly.

bitcoin
Posts: 285
Joined: Sun Dec 31, 2017 6:32 pm

Re: Suggestions for anti-spambot Q&A

#22 Post by bitcoin »

qj3328 wrote: Thu Oct 24, 2019 11:25 am Here's my account creation feedback. Most new sign-ups will not tolerate what I just dealt with.
i agree with this - how many potential sign-ups are we losing?

also, welcome to the board qj3328

thepiney
Posts: 161
Joined: Wed Aug 31, 2011 11:57 am

Re: Suggestions for anti-spambot Q&A

#23 Post by thepiney »

How many of those "potential sign-ups" would be spambots or such though?

Would you prefer to "tolerate" nonsense replies to threads or ads or whatever?

Moderators volunteer their time/effort to this site so why should they have to spend more time on whacking spammers?

I have no problem with a registration process that takes a few minutes and saves far more time for the mods.

User avatar
webfork
Posts: 10818
Joined: Wed Apr 11, 2007 8:06 pm
Location: US, Texas
Contact:

Re: Suggestions for anti-spambot Q&A

#24 Post by webfork »

thepiney wrote: Mon Oct 28, 2019 3:08 am Moderators volunteer their time/effort to this site so why should they have to spend more time on whacking spammers?

I have no problem with a registration process that takes a few minutes and saves far more time for the mods.
Thanks for the support but really it's part of the job of being a moderator, and some spammers will always get through. I don't think we'll ever get to zero. I can say in my early days as moderator we spent a LOT of time smashing spammers and I definitely don't want to back to that. It's a balance.
Last edited by webfork on Tue Oct 29, 2019 6:18 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Reason: (fixed bad wording)

User avatar
qj3328
Posts: 2
Joined: Thu Oct 24, 2019 10:42 am

Re: Suggestions for anti-spambot Q&A

#25 Post by qj3328 »

Thanks to Midas, webfork, bitcoin and thepiney for responses to my comments on the sign-up adventure. I wish I could have been more specific about the circles I went through because it seemed that correct answers were being rejected repeatedly. No matter, as admin on a couple of forums I fully appreciate whack-a-spammer efforts, and thank you for that.

User avatar
webfork
Posts: 10818
Joined: Wed Apr 11, 2007 8:06 pm
Location: US, Texas
Contact:

Re: Suggestions for anti-spambot Q&A

#26 Post by webfork »

qj3328 wrote: Wed Oct 30, 2019 8:06 pm I wish I could have been more specific about the circles I went through because it seemed that correct answers were being rejected repeatedly. No matter, as admin on a couple of forums I fully appreciate whack-a-spammer efforts, and thank you for that.
Not to worry -- our site admin has been very good over the years about coming up with new and better ways of doing things. It's one of the things that's kept me going on this project. So whatever we have right now for an anti-spam system, it might be very different in 6 months.

Thanks again for the input.

User avatar
Andrew Lee
Posts: 3048
Joined: Sat Feb 04, 2006 9:19 am
Contact:

Re: Suggestions for anti-spambot Q&A

#27 Post by Andrew Lee »

Just to improve things a bit, I have made the "New User" topic one single post only, with the Q&A section right on top, and a little explanation of why the answers are random. That topic has now been locked, so it will forever contain only one post, which should be less intimidating to new comers reading it.

I have moved the other replies to a separate topic where we can continue our discussion of how to refine the anti-bot algorithm in the future.

User avatar
Midas
Posts: 6706
Joined: Mon Dec 07, 2009 7:09 am
Location: Sol3

Re: Suggestions for anti-spambot Q&A

#28 Post by Midas »

Good move. Let's see if newcomers find it less daunting that way... 8)

User avatar
webfork
Posts: 10818
Joined: Wed Apr 11, 2007 8:06 pm
Location: US, Texas
Contact:

Re: Suggestions for anti-spambot Q&A

#29 Post by webfork »

Midas wrote: Fri Nov 08, 2019 4:00 am Good move. Let's see if newcomers find it less daunting that way... 8)
Agreed, thanks

Post Reply