Housekeeping

Post by **heruca** » Tue May 09, 2006 2:27 pm

I'm attempting to get rid of all bot-created user accounts, and have PMed all accounts that I suspect of not being legit. If you got such a message and don't respond to it within a few days, or at least post something on these forums, your account will be deleted.

Weezoh · Post by **Weezoh** » Tue May 09, 2006 3:03 pm

some ideas on how to prevent bot abuse here

http://www.phpbb.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=257755

there's a suggestion to change the variable 'Accept' to something else in about 3 locations which will prevent them from registering. for the past few months i've gotten no bots through on our band's forums. now if I could just get our members to register

Post by **heruca** » Tue May 09, 2006 3:17 pm

OK, I've implemented that suggestion. I hope I didn't accidentally break anything, and that new users can still create accounts OK.

Post by **heruca** » Mon May 15, 2006 7:13 am

Grrr! It seems that I did indeed break something. No new users can register until I fix it.

Post by **heruca** » Mon May 15, 2006 7:45 am

Should be fixed now.

Please let me know if you see anything wrong with the forum. If I don't hear anything, I'll assume everything is back to normal.

Post by **heruca** » Tue May 16, 2006 5:56 pm

You may notice that the number of registered forum users just dropped slightly. This is because I've deleted several user accounts that were apparently bot registrations.

Xyld · Post by **Xyld** » Mon Jun 05, 2006 2:42 pm

Hi.. Brand new here.. I love the site, but do have a comment about the registration process:

It took my husband 2 tries to register because it said the confirmation code was incorrect.

It took me so many times the first time, that it told me I couldn't register. I rebooted my modem so as to give it another try and it still took me 3 more times. Same problem as hubby, confirmation code incorrect and also signature too long.

Is there a time issue with the confirmation code? It was just very frustrating.

Now, on the other hand, as a site admin myself, the security measures are always highest priority. So understand the need for the codes, etc.

Post by **heruca** » Mon Jun 05, 2006 5:53 pm

Welcome, Xyld.

I'll soon be upgrading the forum's software, and when I do, I'll see if there's a better way to handle the security code thing, and perhaps allow the signature to be previewed to check the length. Sorry it gave you and your husband a hard time. I wasn't aware that it was problematic.

I do probably need to keep some security in place to prevent being overwhelmed by bot postings, however.

Post by **Omnidon** » Mon Jun 05, 2006 9:37 pm

Ah I misunderstood what she posted the first time.

I think they did update the authorization code functionality, it's been working fine on my forums.

Post by **heruca** » Mon Jun 05, 2006 10:05 pm

Yes, but I've not yet updated to the latest version of phpBB2.

Post by **heruca** » Mon Jul 10, 2006 12:23 pm

I've just deleted about 12 forum user accounts believed to be bot-generated. All deleted users were given a warning a while back that this would happen by today if they did not post or reply to my PM.

There's also a new forum policy in place to help curb this problem in the future:
http://www.battlegroundsgames.com/phpBB ... .php?t=173

Post by **heruca** » Mon Jan 15, 2007 5:59 am

I've just deleted around 50 user accounts believed to be bot-generated. All the deleted accounts had 0 posts and ended in ".ru" or ".info".

Post by **heruca** » Fri Feb 23, 2007 2:57 pm

I'm thinking of deleting all forum user accounts that list an email address ending in ".info". (is that even valid for a legitimate email address?) They seem to all be bot-generated accounts, since all have 0 posts to their names.

If anyone objects to this, speak up.

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