A way to block spammers? or at least slow them down!?

mountainchrisriver

Unfortunately the thread I started on this board concerning spamming was closed before I had a chance to reply and make a suggestion (I had been away!)... :rolleyes: Not sure why it was closed but thats another issue!

So here is a new thread to make a suggestion, not sure if its easy to do or not...

Why not put regularly spammed sites on a blocked list that ensures any weblinks come up as "!!!!!!!!!!!!" ie. without the actual site showing or indeed the link working. :j

Not sure if the same could be done with hotmail addresses generally as a lot of spammers also use these?

I know it still means there is spam posted on the forum but if the spammers are not actually able to advertise their site, they may stop (yeah right! ) more importantly folk will not be able to click through to these links...

So to those at MSE towers... is this a possible solution? :think:

Edinburghlass_2

Its already done for persistent spammers of the same website.

mountainchrisriver

Edinburghlass wrote: »

Its already done for persistent spammers of the same website.

Thanks Edilass, kind of knew that much, hence the question I was wondering if its just an easy list to add to, hence at the same time spammers are removed, the websites they are spamming could just be added to it automatically as part of the procedure for dealing with spam...

mountainchrisriver

I am not sure they could get around it if the actual sites were blocked... although I am no techie so am looking forward to a definitive answer from MSE towers once the weekly email has gone out...

Browntoa

I've asked for it to go on the list

competitionscafe

Is there a way to suggest a site to be added to the list? There was someone on here who spammed the forum with hundreds of links to their site and now links are appearing (often from new posters) linking to another similar website owned by the same person.

Neither their original site nor the newer one is blocked by the forum software at present.

Savvy_Sue

competitionscafe wrote: »

Is there a way to suggest a site to be added to the list? There was someone on here who spammed the forum with hundreds of links to their site and now links are appearing (often from new posters) linking to another similar website owned by the same person.

Neither their original site nor the newer one is blocked by the forum software at present.

I can't think of any reason why you shouldn't email [Removed by Forum Team] and suggest something is added to the Swear Filter. If you add a link to the post(s) in question, or the user profile if one poster is doing a lot of it, they can take a look and decide.

You can't just click on the red triangle for this, because that doesn't give you a way of saying WHY you're reporting.

Numpty_Monkey

the pay pal scam spammer is back again , is this the second or third time today?

frivolous_fay

Savvy_Sue wrote: »

You can't just click on the red triangle for this, because that doesn't give you a way of saying WHY you're reporting.

Hm, am I missing something? I explain the reason I'm reporting in the email that pops up. Does that not get read?

fermi

mountainchrisriver wrote: »

I was wondering if its just an easy list to add to, hence at the same time spammers are removed, the websites they are spamming could just be added to it automatically as part of the procedure for dealing with spam...

You have to add to the list manually for a basic install of this forum software.

I suppose there may be a hack to do it that can be applied, but otherwise it would require a bit of reprogramming.

I'm not sure how having a huge filterlist would impact on the sever/database a well?

[Deleted User]

Best way to block or deter these low-lifes, would be allow posting links only after a certain amount of posts and/or being member of this community at specified lenght of time. Ideally, I think no links should be allowed the first month regardless of the amount of posts submitted.