Ways to reduce spambots?

[XinXan]

It's possible but like you said time-consuming. I wouldn't be opposed to approving accounts or people's first post but I'm not entirely sure it's needed as bots get nuked pretty quick.

How would you be able to know if someone is making an account from the same computer if he can just change his IP, i mean manual approval wont help at all right? Maybe looking into the username to see if its example and example1 made in the last 5 minutes then of course you would know its the same person but other than that it would still be impossible

You don't need to know what computer it's come from; it's the content of their post.

But for that you would need to wait until he posts with all his accounts, what OP is asking for is a way to reduce the registrations because afterall having more than 1 account is not against the rules and if you post good content with all of them you wont get banned.

[Muhammed Zakir]

This has been discussed before. People that create those accounts are likely using very expensive software that's really good at captcha solving. There's a high chance that there are even humans solving those captchas through a service like anti-captcha. I'll have to agree that the current captcha is not the best, but other captcha's certainly wouldn't help mutch since they can still be solved by softare or some sort of semi-automation.

I found AreYouAHuman captcha is not easy to solve by a bot like other captchas, so adding it will be useful. I also tried using bots to solve Solvemedia captcha, the difficulty increased when I did but I guess it is still easier than AreYouAHuman. I know there are human captcha-solvers but all people won't spend money for this. It will certainly helps to reduce spambots.

We should look at why those accounts actually get created. Bitcointalk is a PR 6 website, this makes it realy good for websites that want to receive backlinks around the web. Those websites that get advertised here certainly aren't looking for targeted advertising but for better website ranking. I'd suggest dissalowing newbies to link to any sorf of website through their profiles. Maybe some restrictions when posting links too. Linking to your website through a PR6 forum is a priviledge, it's so easily abused at the moment.

People that create an account should be forced wait to get some activity before they can take advantage of bitcointalk's page rank for SEO. IMO this would reduce acount creation abuse for blackhat SEO purpuses dramatially.

This is a good suggestion.

So

• Change captcha.
• 'Website URL' should be disabled for newbies.

Can anybody comment on which captcha to use and whether there should be a limit for number of registrations per IP and browser fingerprint* per period? Also on how much time should that period be.

* If it is being saved.

[botany]

We should probably ask EyeOfSauron to take care of this. 

[ajw7989]

Limiting by IPs is a bad idea. Many people use VPN or servers. Using a captcha of sorts seems like a great idea and I would definitely support that though. Maybe also limit a section (such as marketplace) until you have x number of posts.

[redsn0w]

Limiting by IPs is a bad idea. Many people use VPN or servers. Using a captcha of sorts seems like a great idea and I would definitely support that though. Maybe also limit a section (such as marketplace) until you have x number of posts.

I think there is not a definitely way to reduce the spam, if there will be one ... the work of mod. will not be necessary anymore (or am I wrong?). Maybe the report function could be improved, to talk with the mod (who handles the report) for a fast & better resolution.

[JarvisTechnology]

Limiting the forum and only using invite only would be the only be to completely or nearly completely reduce the amount of bot accounts registering.

[Muhammed Zakir]

Limiting by IPs is a bad idea. Many people use VPN or servers. Using a captcha of sorts seems like a great idea and I would definitely support that though. Maybe also limit a section (such as marketplace) until you have x number of posts.

I know it can be easily bypassed but it will increase workload of users as they will have to use new IPs but still not hard. Limiting Newbie to certain boards is not I wanted.

Limiting the forum and only using invite only would be the only be to completely or nearly completely reduce the amount of bot accounts registering.

I don't agree with this.

[hilariousandco]

It's possible but like you said time-consuming. I wouldn't be opposed to approving accounts or people's first post but I'm not entirely sure it's needed as bots get nuked pretty quick.

How would you be able to know if someone is making an account from the same computer if he can just change his IP, i mean manual approval wont help at all right? Maybe looking into the username to see if its example and example1 made in the last 5 minutes then of course you would know its the same person but other than that it would still be impossible

You don't need to know what computer it's come from; it's the content of their post.

But for that you would need to wait until he posts with all his accounts, what OP is asking for is a way to reduce the registrations because afterall having more than 1 account is not against the rules and if you post good content with all of them you wont get banned.

You just nuke them as you see them, or if a users first post was required to be checked by a mod before it was submitted publicly you could nuke them then and it doesn't clutter up the forum in the meantime, but again, they're not that much of a disturbance when they normally get nuked within minutes.

[alani123]

You just nuke them as you see them, or if a users first post was required to be checked by a mod before it was submitted publicly you could nuke them then and it doesn't clutter up the forum in the meantime, but again, they're not that much of a disturbance when they normally get nuked within minutes.

Bot accounts haven't been that extensive lately have they? What would you do in the event that someone started creating accounts by the hundreds each day?

[Muhammed Zakir]

-snip-

So

• Change captcha.
• 'Website URL' should be disabled for newbies.

Can anybody comment on which captcha to use and whether there should be a limit for number of registrations per IP and browser fingerprint* per period? Also on how much time should that period be.

* If it is being saved.

I personally suggest AreYouAHuman captcha and one account per IP per 24 hours. Anybody?

[alani123]

-snip-

So

• Change captcha.
• 'Website URL' should be disabled for newbies.

Can anybody comment on which captcha to use and whether there should be a limit for number of registrations per IP and browser fingerprint* per period? Also on how much time should that period be.

* If it is being saved.

I personally suggest AreYouAHuman captcha and one account per IP per 24 hours. Anybody?

I think theymos's points of evil system already prevents newly created accounts from posting if they were signed up from a IP that had previously been banned (etc.). Accounts with points of evil would have to pay a tiny fee in order to be able to post, this way making them useless to bots. However, getting a new IP is too easy so I don't think more IP based restrictions would be particularly useful.

[hilariousandco]

You just nuke them as you see them, or if a users first post was required to be checked by a mod before it was submitted publicly you could nuke them then and it doesn't clutter up the forum in the meantime, but again, they're not that much of a disturbance when they normally get nuked within minutes.

Bot accounts haven't been that extensive lately have they? What would you do in the event that someone started creating accounts by the hundreds each day?

Well either of the options works, but just nuking them as they post seems to be working ok.