vB.org hit by spammers!
 

Today i notice too many spam posts @vB.org.:mad:

Lynne said she thinks there was an update to xRumer recently, and that's why there's been more spam lately.

Thanks for the info.:)

Yes, I notice this lately and have been reporting each post but I will just stop. I'm sure the staff will figure it out. :)

There was an update to xrumer a few weeks ago, forums all over are getting hit with spam, not just vBulletin.
With that said, I haven't seen much on vb.org but I wouldn't doubt there is some.
Maybe the site has enough staff to kill the post before most see them.

Not mine - the mod in my signature stops them cold.

Lol, i dont use that mod and i've only banned 40 usernames in 3 years :)

Few of my sites have been getting hit hard, even with spam plugins installed.

I never had any actually make it far enough to get a ban, even before that Mod. But hey, you and I seem to be a little more zealous about stopping spam than vB dot org appears to be.

You might be right about that. But I think one should distinguish between spam and a spam "problem". On this site it's limited to a few forums that non-licensed members are allowed to post in, so I don't think it interferes with operation of the site, and it gets removed in a matter of hours. Also, there *are* measures being taken to limit it, but it takes time and it's not announced to the public (or even to me since it's an admin issue).

No, it doesnt. It may limit them, but thats all.

It stops them completely and redirects them off the site, and places the IP used in MU. I'm down to catching only 20 or so a day now with it.

--------------- Added [DATE]1354293038[/DATE] at [TIME]1354293038[/TIME] ---------------

ALL spam is a spam problem. I don't distinguish. It's about standards.

Edit: There's not much point in us going back and forth about this - if you think this site doesn't do enough to stop spam, that's your opinion. Mine is that it's only a problem for the people who are looking to make it one.

Not wise. Those settings must be loaded and parsed on every page load of your forum. With a handful of entries it's no big deal, but leave that on long enough and hundreds of IPs will turn into thousands, and then tens of thousands... Eventually you will exhaust your PHP memory limit or MySQL packet limit- but well before then you'll see noticeable slowdown of your site.

The vBulletin Ban IP box, or any mod settings is not designed to hold thousands of entries.

The best solution would be to regularly output a text file of IP addresses and have some way to block them on the server level- before vBulletin or even htaccess is accessed.

I purge it once a week and submit to Project Honey Pot.

--------------- Added [DATE]1354297399[/DATE] at [TIME]1354297399[/TIME] ---------------

Who's looking to make a problem, a problem? It IS a problem. It's been the bane of message boards since day one and the defeatist attitude of "no matter what you do there will still be spam" is a big part of the reason why. I'm just too militant about it I suppose.

Spam in general is a problem. But to "solve' the problem it isn't necessary to eliminate 100% of all spam, it's only necessary to reduce it to the point where it doesn't interfere with purpose of the site. If you want to insist that it must be 100% eliminated, that's your business, but I disagree.

Again, to accept that there will always be spam isn't defeatist, it's just practical. There's a trade-off between allowng spammers and making it easy for "legitimate" users to use the site. I think there are a lot of people who would rather deal with some spam by removing it when it happens rather than deter even one legitimate user from registering.

Definitely a no-no and it's never happened on my site.

Annoying legitimate users is part of the trade-off for many anyway, no? Lots of boards use post count and/or time since registered restrictions, to inhibit spammers. They use CAPTCHA and/or random questions, etc. These annoy legitimate users. Therefore for my own personal goal, the bar is set higher. Make 100% of ALL spam impossible on my site. That's the standard.... The goal being shot at. Is it Don Quixote and the windmill? Well, currently there are three botnet administrators in federal prison who I personally helped put there. I wonder what they would say about it?

Everyone sets their personal standards for their own sites regarding spam and I have no problem with that. I personally believe vB dot org's standards need to be higher. I just saw three new spam threads, right before I read your reply here. I wonder how many of those could be stopped with the registration time check? I wonder what the resistance is for trying it, since it cannot interfere with legitimate humans and doesn't conflict with native vB human verification or any anti-spam mod out there?

I'm just saying, vB dot org should try harder than it appears they are.

Sorry, but that's not true. I can see a list of new posts and of spammers who were banned today, and there hasn't been three in the past few hours, much less three new threads.


Again, based on your idea that it has to be 100% eliminated, not on any real problem being caused by it.

Hey Man, I SAW them. They were in this very forum and they are indeed gone now. You're calling me a liar?

--------------- Added [DATE]1354299450[/DATE] at [TIME]1354299450[/TIME] ---------------

Where did I say it HAS to be? I didn't, I said it was the GOAL.

No, sorry, I was wrong - there were three by the same spammer, which is why I only saw the one spammer banned recently.

The point is (again) that the amount of spam this site is getting is not a problem to the operation of the site. Maybe it doesn't meet your standards, but that doesn't make it a problem. It's obvious that you keep bringing this up because of the mod you're pushing. You didn't come up with the idea for that mod nor did you code it, so what *is* your reason for pushing it on this site? Do you just want bragging rights for having "solved" the spam "problem" here?

Wrong again. One, I didn't bring it up, didn't start this thread and two, we see threads just like this quite often, complaining about spam. So clearly it IS a problem to many of the membership here, not just me.

See?

I'm not "pushing" anything, just sharing a very good solution that should become widely enough used to see if it prompts a response from the botnet administrators and the coders of the bot programs. Will it? Let's find out!

Why not make it so all new members who post are put under moderation and only mods/admins see the posts this way none of us see their posts but if a new member is an owner of a vb license then he is put into the correct group

Dude, you edited my post instead of quoting it and replying...

https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showpost....4&postcount=24

Please fix.

Yep, sorry about that, hit the wrong button. I just deleted it because there was no way I could restore it.

Would have taken all of five seconds.

Only if I'd had access to the edit history, which I don't. But this is a waste of time anyway. I deleted my post before that one, so you get the last word.

Not surprising, they're usually always ignored. I haven't noticed site feedback being all that welcome here to start with.

--------------- Added [DATE]1354301740[/DATE] at [TIME]1354301740[/TIME] ---------------

Yes, feedback from the customers is always a waste of time.

No, it's the arguing that's a waste of time. It's my fault, as I mentioned before (perhaps in the deleted post) I have no authority of this matter so there wasn't much point in my addressing it in the first place.

First you accuse me of having self-serving motives here, which clearly and demonstrably, there aren't any. Then you essentially called me a liar, but you were mistaken, admitted it and apologized. Then, you accidentally edited one of my posts when you were trying to quote it (a easy fix, all that was needed was for you to remove your response and fix the quote tags.)

The entire time you were being dismissive, and not at all helpful. That's the root of the problem.

--------------- Added [DATE]1354302102[/DATE] at [TIME]1354302102[/TIME] ---------------

Then why not try being helpful instead of dismissive, and leave it at that?

--------------- Added [DATE]1354302360[/DATE] at [TIME]1354302360[/TIME] ---------------

^^^ He's not annoyed though anymore, just resigned. The cure.

I didn't accuse you, I asked.


I'm pretty sure I deleted parts of your response or else I would have done that. It was an honest mistake so I don't see how it's relevant to this discussion. I can always restore my post if you'd like to retype your response.


I told you that the people who handle these things are aware of the issues. I guess it's "dismissive" if they don't immediately implement whatever you suggest? In any case, I have my own opinion and I disagree that spam here is a problem.

In a accusatory, dismissive fashion. Ascribing motives that didn't and don't exist.You didn't, but that's perfectly okay like it is.Once again, accusatory tone, dismissive and ascribing a motive that doesn't exist. That's not what matters though, it's the customer's perception. And clearly, reading the thread, it's not just me who is annoyed with the spam.

--------------- Added [DATE]1354302795[/DATE] at [TIME]1354302795[/TIME] ---------------

Nonsense, I have merely been stating the facts of what's happened here. There's no attack. I've been quite respectful and polite.

If anyone's been attacked, it's me.

OK, I apologize if you feel you've been attacked. It really was just curiosity.

I have been respectful and polite kh... I like you and all the staff here. I didn't mean to seem disrespectful or unpleasant. I never gave you hell - I gave you the truth and you thought it was hell! :)

But I get the impression, however inaccurate it may be, that clearly you underestimate the annoyance of the spam problem here, and value your own time more than mine and that of the membership. It just seems there's a attitude here to be dismissive of complaints and suggestions about the site. That's my perception, but many others share it.

Max-when your site starts getting the traffic vBulletin.org does you will likely find you have changed your goal of stopping 100% of spam as it is unachievable.

Your site can only have a 100% success rate because relatively few people target it.

What works for you is good for you but it is not the end all answer to stop all spam.

You can't stop human spammers without stopping legitimate human traffic.

Goals don't change because they are difficult or impossible. If that were true, we would have never made the moon landings. On the contrary, the bar should actually be raised due to difficulty, not lowered.

I get targeted daily, like most everyone else. 100s of attempts a day. There's NEW boards out there, NO posts yet, getting spammed. Happens all the time.I agree and never made any such assertion. Or even thought it, or even suggested it.

I try to help others and don't mind admitting I'm not all that good at it. But I try.

No, it does not stop them completely, stop making wild claims.

You just contradict yourself.
If you're "down to 20" then they havent stopped. :rolleyes:

As to the rest, you have no idea what we do or do not do about spammers here, and to be blunt, its none of your business, all you need to know is they get deleted, and we try other options as required.

Since this thread is 75% arguments, closed.