Forum Updates and Changes Announcements

[Scepcop]

This thread is for announcements of forum updates, changes and improvements.

[Scepcop]

I just installed a hack that opens links posted in the forum in a new window. That way, you don't have to always right click and select "Open as new" to open in a new window. You can just left click the link, so that you don't leave the site accidentally. It's stupid that the default was set to open links in the same window and make you leave the site if you followed them.

I also set rel="nofollow" on the links here, so that any undiscovered spam links here will not affect our ranking or incur penalties from Google.

[NinjaPuppy]

[Scepcop]

[NinjaPuppy]

For anyone interested, on Oct. 31 we got slammed with a spambot program that registered about 20 IDs in less than 10 minutes and it probably would have kept on registering IDs at this rate for hours. I banned the offensive little bugger and it came back in about an hour under another form and full set of information. I'll try to keep it down to a dull roar but it will have to be done manually as I can't figure out the main source for these attacks.

Unless I ban all of China, Pakistan, Sweden, Germany and every UK based email addy, the spam is gonna keep on comin' back until I figure out how to block the suckers without keeping legit people from joining.

[Scepcop]

[Arouet]

You can set it so that the first post needs moderator approval. That should weed out most spammers, you just don't approve the post.

[Scepcop]

[NinjaPuppy]

[Scepcop]

But how have the bots been able to register any ID's at all without answering the humanizer question? I don't see how that's possible.

Are these bots posting anything? Or just inserting links in their profile in the website field?

[NinjaPuppy]

[Arouet]

[Scepcop]

[Arouet]

No, she's saying that the spammers have real people to come back and complete the registration by answering the humanizer question.

I don't know that the website field in profiles is a problem - these guys want to put their links in the posts.

[NinjaPuppy]

I've been having an SQL error, so I've been MIA. It seems to be fixed now.