According the ongoing spam!

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thecad
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According the ongoing spam!

Post by thecad » February 18th, 2014, 7:57 am

First of all we're sorry for the spam wave we're experiencing.

I just wanted to let you guys know that we did take did increase the security, and that it indeed worked.
The spam that's going on at the moment are accounts that were created, but stayed hidden in the member list.
Since we added the security update we've not seen 1 spam bot register.

Right now we're working at deleting the spam topic and accounts. When we're done with that the spam will be gone.

---'TheCad'---
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Re: According the ongoing spam!

Post by HKO2006 » February 18th, 2014, 9:14 am

Yeah! A spam free NU. :D
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Zurd
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Re: According the ongoing spam!

Post by Zurd » February 18th, 2014, 1:03 pm

but but ... I really wanted a louis vutton handbag and more news of jimmy choo! :)
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Re: According the ongoing spam!

Post by Fernandez » February 18th, 2014, 9:28 pm

thecad wrote:First of all we're sorry for the spam wave we're experiencing.

I just wanted to let you guys know that we did take did increase the security, and that it indeed worked.
The spam that's going on at the moment are accounts that were created, but stayed hidden in the member list.
Since we added the security update we've not seen 1 spam bot register.

Right now we're working at deleting the spam topic and accounts. When we're done with that the spam will be gone.

---'TheCad'---
I think the registration questions are a good idea, but I think some of them could be too hard. For example, right now, if I log out and go to the area where you create an account, I get a question like "Who is the co-founder of Valve Corporation?" or something like that. If I was a completely new user who hasn't created an account yet, I would have no idea what the answer is.

Another registration question I saw was something like "Who produced the song Everytime We Touch?" There's multiple songs with that title. How would people know which artist to choose?

One type of registration question that has worked with other forums I visit is that the answer is in the question. These types are very easy for humans to figure out, but hard for bots to answer.

Examples:

Q: Mary had a little lamb. What kind of animal did Mary have?
A: Lamb

Q: Hickory dickory dock. The mouse ran up the clock. What did the mouse run up?
A: Clock
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Re: According the ongoing spam!

Post by MagicScream » February 19th, 2014, 3:06 am

Fernandez wrote:
thecad wrote:First of all we're sorry for the spam wave we're experiencing.

I just wanted to let you guys know that we did take did increase the security, and that it indeed worked.
The spam that's going on at the moment are accounts that were created, but stayed hidden in the member list.
Since we added the security update we've not seen 1 spam bot register.

Right now we're working at deleting the spam topic and accounts. When we're done with that the spam will be gone.

---'TheCad'---
I think the registration questions are a good idea, but I think some of them could be too hard. For example, right now, if I log out and go to the area where you create an account, I get a question like "Who is the co-founder of Valve Corporation?" or something like that. If I was a completely new user who hasn't created an account yet, I would have no idea what the answer is.

Another registration question I saw was something like "Who produced the song Everytime We Touch?" There's multiple songs with that title. How would people know which artist to choose?

One type of registration question that has worked with other forums I visit is that the answer is in the question. These types are very easy for humans to figure out, but hard for bots to answer.

Examples:

Q: Mary had a little lamb. What kind of animal did Mary have?
A: Lamb

Q: Hickory dickory dock. The mouse ran up the clock. What did the mouse run up?
A: Clock
I think the reason why the questions might be somewhat difficult is because these days, bots can be so sophisticated. They can get through CAPTCHA's and "type the word" security like it's nothing. I've seen forums use simple math problems as security, yet they still have a spam problem. Easy common knowledge questions (i.e. What color is an apple? or What is the capital of France?) are probably not much better.

If a question doesn't require a user to go deep into the web, a spambot could probably crack it.
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Re: According the ongoing spam!

Post by I Am Arthur Clark » February 19th, 2014, 3:15 am

Fernandez wrote:"Who is the co-founder of Valve Corporation?"
Mike Harrington
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Re: According the ongoing spam!

Post by Raver » February 19th, 2014, 11:38 am

Fernandez wrote:
thecad wrote:First of all we're sorry for the spam wave we're experiencing.

I just wanted to let you guys know that we did take did increase the security, and that it indeed worked.
The spam that's going on at the moment are accounts that were created, but stayed hidden in the member list.
Since we added the security update we've not seen 1 spam bot register.

Right now we're working at deleting the spam topic and accounts. When we're done with that the spam will be gone.

---'TheCad'---
I think the registration questions are a good idea, but I think some of them could be too hard. For example, right now, if I log out and go to the area where you create an account, I get a question like "Who is the co-founder of Valve Corporation?" or something like that. If I was a completely new user who hasn't created an account yet, I would have no idea what the answer is.

Another registration question I saw was something like "Who produced the song Everytime We Touch?" There's multiple songs with that title. How would people know which artist to choose?

One type of registration question that has worked with other forums I visit is that the answer is in the question. These types are very easy for humans to figure out, but hard for bots to answer.

Examples:

Q: Mary had a little lamb. What kind of animal did Mary have?
A: Lamb

Q: Hickory dickory dock. The mouse ran up the clock. What did the mouse run up?
A: Clock
I thought the same at the beginning, but then I realized the bots are really smart nowadays. I think they might even find out our answers in the future. I don't know how the forum engine works, but I believe it doesn't have a attempt limit, so they can just write a lot of things (the most common answers for example). Maybe in these math questions they don't really do the math, they just type a lot of numbers and one of them is right. If I'm right, it wouldn't be much to think that they would type the words I used in the question, so your idea wouldn't work anyways (if I'm right of course). But anyways, kestrel and I made these questions and were able to answer all of them by using google in less than 20s, so I'm pretty sure the new members can deal with that. If they don't want to spend some seconds, I don't want these lazy shit here. (jk i do ç_ç)
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Re: According the ongoing spam!

Post by Zurd » February 19th, 2014, 6:49 pm

It is definitely possible to write a bot that will brute-force the question by answering every possible solution. It is, however, not practical, because the bot need to hit "Submit" everytime, download a new webpage, try a new solution and the cycle repeat. When it download the new page, there's a delay. What I mean is that it cannot try 1,000 guesses in 2 seconds.

So having simple questions that are not found on other websites will be enough and will help new members create an account. There shouldn't be a question where the user need to google it.

Plus the fact where thecad said that some accounts we're already created but hidden are now deleted will help a lot.

I think I said it before but I'll say it again, spam are not always from a bot, it can be from a real human, either they are paid from it or force to do it. So whatever you implement can be broken. But that's why we have moderators :)
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Re: According the ongoing spam!

Post by Tennessee Titans » March 12th, 2014, 8:11 pm

Sometimes, at the bottom of the screen, there are names such as Bing [Bot] and Google [Bot]. Are those the bots responsible for the spam?
The Tennessee Titans are a professional American football team based in Nashville, Tennessee, United States. They are members of the South Division of the American Football Conference (AFC) in the National Football League (NFL).

http://www.titansonline.com/
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Re: According the ongoing spam!

Post by Raver » March 13th, 2014, 2:51 am

Tennessee Titans wrote:Sometimes, at the bottom of the screen, there are names such as Bing [Bot] and Google [Bot]. Are those the bots responsible for the spam?
No, the spambots have usernames like wsenem0hv, wsenem5gn, wsenem9nx, etc.

These are just tools that are updating the database of these sites, so you can find this forum when searching for nightcore and other things related.
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Re: According the ongoing spam!

Post by Namahage » March 25th, 2014, 12:53 am

I know this thread is pretty old now, but I've got some questions regarding the spambots.

Is it possible for NU to report the people behind the bots (and any future spam/spambots) to the police? Can't the people creating and using the spambots go to jail for their actions?
The media acting as the eyes of the society ought to practice its role with the highest journalistic ethics possible; feeding the society with information of unquestionable source to perpetuate the credibility and the moral obligation bestowed to it.
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Re: According the ongoing spam!

Post by Raver » March 25th, 2014, 12:55 am

Namahage wrote:I know this thread is pretty old now, but I've got some questions regarding the spambots.

Is it possible for NU to report the people behind the bots (and any future spam/spambots) to the police? Can't the people creating and using the spambots go to jail for their actions?
No.
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Re: According the ongoing spam!

Post by Namahage » March 25th, 2014, 1:00 am

Raver wrote:
Namahage wrote:I know this thread is pretty old now, but I've got some questions regarding the spambots.

Is it possible for NU to report the people behind the bots (and any future spam/spambots) to the police? Can't the people creating and using the spambots go to jail for their actions?
No.
Ah, okay. I was asking because I've seen other forums saying that moderators can report people like spammers to their ISP and things like that.

Thanks for the answer.
The media acting as the eyes of the society ought to practice its role with the highest journalistic ethics possible; feeding the society with information of unquestionable source to perpetuate the credibility and the moral obligation bestowed to it.
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Re: According the ongoing spam!

Post by HKO2006 » April 23rd, 2014, 10:28 pm

Just found out typo.
Wich character in South Park dies all the time throughout the series?
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Re: According the ongoing spam!

Post by HKO2006 » April 26th, 2014, 9:49 pm

Or that wich is meant to avoid bots auto searching the correct answer?
Welcome to Nightcore Universe! Enjoy your stay as much as you enjoy the original Nightcore songs!
Useful threads/links
What is Nightcore 101
Nightcore Channel Database
Nightcore Know Your Meme
How to make Nightcore (NIGHTCORE TUTORIAL) UPDATED
Speeding up seems to be a little magic making things a little bit more appealing.

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Re: According the ongoing spam!

Post by HKO2006 » September 24th, 2014, 1:18 am

this may help, phpBB anti spam Plugins, but we don't have that many spam now yay!
https://www.phpbb.com/customise/db/modi ... ti-spam-9/
Welcome to Nightcore Universe! Enjoy your stay as much as you enjoy the original Nightcore songs!
Useful threads/links
What is Nightcore 101
Nightcore Channel Database
Nightcore Know Your Meme
How to make Nightcore (NIGHTCORE TUTORIAL) UPDATED
Speeding up seems to be a little magic making things a little bit more appealing.

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Re: According the ongoing spam!

Post by HKO2006 » March 26th, 2016, 8:56 am

Resurrection

@ Zurd - 01:42
Let it be known that from now on, new user cannot post or do anything, we need to approve them first, this should be the end of spam
@ Zurd - 05:37
i just activated a user "lovenightcore", i bet he is a spammer tho

So Zurd need to activate users now, before they can post

@ emilemil1 - 11:53
people are going to be confused when they join but can’t post, then prolly leave

@ HKO2006 - 17:11
another layer filtering out casuals

Good
hopefully no more spam
Zurd get less workload (activating < deleting posts)

Bad
Zurd need to be on more frequently or the new users will have to wait
New users may feel frustrated for not being able to post after registering, may stop waiting and not come back
Welcome to Nightcore Universe! Enjoy your stay as much as you enjoy the original Nightcore songs!
Useful threads/links
What is Nightcore 101
Nightcore Channel Database
Nightcore Know Your Meme
How to make Nightcore (NIGHTCORE TUTORIAL) UPDATED
Speeding up seems to be a little magic making things a little bit more appealing.

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HKO2006
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Re: According the ongoing spam!

Post by HKO2006 » March 26th, 2016, 8:58 am

See also

https://www.google.com/search?q=phpbb+anti+spam

https://www.phpbb.com/search/?q=spam

phpBB • Preventing Spam in phpBB3
https://www.phpbb.com/community/viewtopic.php?t=2122696

phpBB • The alternative phpBB3 Anti SPAM Guide - Advanced Block MOD
https://www.phpbb.com/customise/db/mod/ ... od/faq/548

what phpBB version we are using?
Welcome to Nightcore Universe! Enjoy your stay as much as you enjoy the original Nightcore songs!
Useful threads/links
What is Nightcore 101
Nightcore Channel Database
Nightcore Know Your Meme
How to make Nightcore (NIGHTCORE TUTORIAL) UPDATED
Speeding up seems to be a little magic making things a little bit more appealing.

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Zurd
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Re: According the ongoing spam!

Post by Zurd » March 26th, 2016, 1:40 pm

From now on, when people register, they see this message:
"Your account has been created. However, this board requires account activation by the administrator group. An e-mail has been sent to them and you will be informed when your account has been activated."

They also received this email:
"Your account is currently inactive and will need to be approved by an administrator before you can log in. Another email will be sent when this has occurred."

When I activate the account, they receive this:
"Your account on "Nightcore Universe" has been activated by an administrator, you may login now."

Bottom line, people are not going to be confused when they join.
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Zurd
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Re: According the ongoing spam!

Post by Zurd » March 26th, 2016, 1:46 pm

In one of HKO links, they say all CAPTCHA in phpbb have been broken and the best one to use is the Q&A, so I have activated this one.

As for the phpBB version, it's over 3.0.6
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Re: According the ongoing spam!

Post by Zurd » March 26th, 2016, 1:47 pm

I'd like to ban any account using emails from @yandex.com and @mail.ru, lots of spammers use these. Anyone has any objections to this?
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Re: According the ongoing spam!

Post by HKO2006 » March 26th, 2016, 8:06 pm

Zurd wrote:When I activate the account, they receive this:
"Your account on "Nightcore Universe" has been activated by an administrator, you may login now."
And http://nightcoreuniverse.net/ under it too if there isn't any yet.
Zurd wrote:In one of HKO links, they say all CAPTCHA in phpbb have been broken and the best one to use is the Q&A, so I have activated this one.

As for the phpBB version, it's over 3.0.6
The actual posts are quite old so may be outdated.
Never thought more complex CAPTCHA like drag and matching were compromised too.
Zurd wrote:I'd like to ban any account using emails from @yandex.com and @mail.ru, lots of spammers use these. Anyone has any objections to this?
I believe this would only affect few actual users so fine by me. Just this may only help temporarily.
Welcome to Nightcore Universe! Enjoy your stay as much as you enjoy the original Nightcore songs!
Useful threads/links
What is Nightcore 101
Nightcore Channel Database
Nightcore Know Your Meme
How to make Nightcore (NIGHTCORE TUTORIAL) UPDATED
Speeding up seems to be a little magic making things a little bit more appealing.

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Re: According the ongoing spam!

Post by Fernandez » March 29th, 2016, 6:54 pm

HKO2006 wrote: Bad
Zurd need to be on more frequently or the new users will have to wait
New users may feel frustrated for not being able to post after registering, may stop waiting and not come back
I think this new system works well. I too agree that the one main drawback is that Zurd will have to be on more frequently, but in this day and age, you're never too far from an internet connection of some sort. So even if he is out of town, I'm sure he can find a way to connect to the internet.
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Re: According the ongoing spam!

Post by Zurd » March 29th, 2016, 8:34 pm

Fernandez wrote:
HKO2006 wrote: Bad
Zurd need to be on more frequently or the new users will have to wait
New users may feel frustrated for not being able to post after registering, may stop waiting and not come back
I think this new system works well. I too agree that the one main drawback is that Zurd will have to be on more frequently, but in this day and age, you're never too far from an internet connection of some sort. So even if he is out of town, I'm sure he can find a way to connect to the internet.
Vita should have the same access soon, so he can also activate or ban users, that way if one of us is out, the other can do it!
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