 | Join Date: Nov 2006 | Posts: 14 |
Controlling Spam(ers) in vBulletin
Hi all,
Just wondering about techniques other folks are using on their forums... mine isn't even live yet, but I have experience with a large Yahoo group, and not sure if I'm being overly paranoid and read too many horror stories, but I've set things up like this (see below) for now, as that's sort of how it was on the Yahoo group, and worked pretty well, but I also don't want to do too much to scare off users either, but spam will also drive them away, and I need to be concerned about adult content, etc, since a lot of schools use my site as a resource.
How it is now:
A user registers, does the email verify thing, then they are automatically thrown into the normal Registered Users group. I changed the Registered Users group, so that ALL posts made there are moderated. Once I see a post made by a Registered User, and verify that is is a valid post and not spam, I approve the post and move them into a new group, which is a clone of the Registered Users group, but with un-moderated posting privs. That way I believe I can catch the spam before it hits the forum publicly. It's a pretty specific topic-related group that will be connected to the website, so aside from the normal generic Spam, I can pretty much tell if they are going to be a spammer, at least that how it is on the yahoo forum. Plus, I need to control specific types of spam... the site (and new discussion) is about experimental, odd, unusual musical instruments, people/bands who make and play them, etc... so I don't mind people talking about that, or if they have a band, they can promote their new project, creation, CD, etc, but then I'll get the spammer who wants to post his 5000 CD catalog, or everything he's selling on eBay, or all the great gigs they are playing in No-place, Montana (no offense Montana), while my audience is worldwide and probably doesn't care about that.
Anyway, just wondering if I'm going too far, or if you think that might be a good approach. I inform the users that their First post is "reviewed" before it goes live, to help control spam, in many places, including the Welcome emails, the forum itself, on the redirect message after they first post, etc.
Just wondering about techniques other folks are using on their forums... mine isn't even live yet, but I have experience with a large Yahoo group, and not sure if I'm being overly paranoid and read too many horror stories, but I've set things up like this (see below) for now, as that's sort of how it was on the Yahoo group, and worked pretty well, but I also don't want to do too much to scare off users either, but spam will also drive them away, and I need to be concerned about adult content, etc, since a lot of schools use my site as a resource.
How it is now:
A user registers, does the email verify thing, then they are automatically thrown into the normal Registered Users group. I changed the Registered Users group, so that ALL posts made there are moderated. Once I see a post made by a Registered User, and verify that is is a valid post and not spam, I approve the post and move them into a new group, which is a clone of the Registered Users group, but with un-moderated posting privs. That way I believe I can catch the spam before it hits the forum publicly. It's a pretty specific topic-related group that will be connected to the website, so aside from the normal generic Spam, I can pretty much tell if they are going to be a spammer, at least that how it is on the yahoo forum. Plus, I need to control specific types of spam... the site (and new discussion) is about experimental, odd, unusual musical instruments, people/bands who make and play them, etc... so I don't mind people talking about that, or if they have a band, they can promote their new project, creation, CD, etc, but then I'll get the spammer who wants to post his 5000 CD catalog, or everything he's selling on eBay, or all the great gigs they are playing in No-place, Montana (no offense Montana), while my audience is worldwide and probably doesn't care about that.
Anyway, just wondering if I'm going too far, or if you think that might be a good approach. I inform the users that their First post is "reviewed" before it goes live, to help control spam, in many places, including the Welcome emails, the forum itself, on the redirect message after they first post, etc.
) 
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