Alfa Pages

[16v_sportwagon]

I see the spammers are back again

Can we please turn off guest posting, before it gets any worse?
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Cheers

Matthew

GLASS Lancashire Group
Bury Automobile Club

[tvatavuk]

If you think disabling send new post for guest account will solve spam, then think again.
Less then a 2 months ago we had script bot that logged in as regular user and sent large amount of posts with spam link in signature.

Regards
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Tino Vatavuk
Little black dress which replaced Alfa Romeo 33 S 16v Permanent 4 GMo

[16v_sportwagon]

No it probably won't eliminate the problem, but might help against the less determined spammers, and I don't see any benefit from allowing guest posts. The forum can still be set to allow unregistered readers to view it.

I can't remember back to the registration process, but is the confirmation image and email activation used? Both of which can help against script attacks.
_________________
Cheers

Matthew

GLASS Lancashire Group
Bury Automobile Club

[tvatavuk]

1. Here are all guest posts
http://www.alfa-pages.co.uk/search.php?search_author=Anonymous&showresults=topics
Disabling a guest posts we will lose all those users that whish to ask/answer just one question. Not once I didn’t answer to someone’s post on other forums just because I needed to go with whole manage jet another identity process. I have already to much pins, passwords, IDs online as it is. I also hate when I have to leave my e-mail anywhere.

2. It's now easy to spot less determined spammer and no one here will even think of clicking on spam link.
Script bots are becoming very clever, they generate posts using one word or whole sentences used in topic/thread, which at moment make little or no sense at all but are still hard to distinguish from non native English language speaker.
Imagine how high percent of clicked links will be if you read post which makes some sense to you and link that ie explains something from post. What’s next then disabling html content, to protect us from that.

3. Managing all that new users will also require more administrative time.
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Tino Vatavuk
Little black dress which replaced Alfa Romeo 33 S 16v Permanent 4 GMo

[Vecchio Alfisti]

Hi all

While it is extremely irritating to have the spam I appreciate what Tino is saying and I recommend that we all exercise our own discretion and ignore the spammers. It is not brain surgery or rocket science. They occur on every forum that I have been registered on and even the most draconian rules have not stopped them. In the general the "cure" has been worse than the disease.

I think that the contribution of "Guest " posters has far exceeded the nuisance value of the very few spammers we have on this site. Beware of the Knee jerk reaction and its consequences. In the US it is usually called "collateral damage"
John
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Alfa 33 1.7 QF I think maybe now I m not so sure

[zp (not logged in)]

hi,

i think posting as guest is extremely useful (haha)
but i'm member of other forums you get a special "alert" button on each post, near the "edit" button ; i believe it's a standard PHPBB feature.
perhaps this option could allow users to quickly notify admins about spam posts?

regards,
zp

[tvatavuk]

hi,
now you mentioned it I think I also have seen it, but I'm not admin nor I have knowlage in php.
If it's standard my guess is Admin could take care of it when he finds time for it if we ask him politely.

Regards
_________________
Tino Vatavuk
Little black dress which replaced Alfa Romeo 33 S 16v Permanent 4 GMo

[Admin]

Hi

I like the idea of being able to post as a guest. Too much of a disincentive to post for the occasional poster otherwise.

Not seen the phpBB mod to flag up posts. Any pointers to it? Might well be possible to install. Only one I have seen is a friend board where he has a karma system, and all posts can be rated. Massive amount of work for that.

All the best

Keith