What one thing lets elgg down? Spammers... Mainly Chinese!

For the first few months I was getting spammed then I installed site access, and used the site password feature when registering great spam stopped, then a few weeks down the line one spammer so I changed the password great few more weeks then a new spammer, changed password next day new spammer(S) so I thought maybe there 'reading the password' from the text above that says enter xxxx so I changed it to please enter the numbers you see in order excluding the * (exp. **8****9****9*4**3) great 2 days no spammers then 5 in one day!!!!!!!!!!!

This ruins elgg completely....

I run a PHPBB forum with 3500 members We get a spam account once every few months and thats a basic standard installation!!!

I Sincerly hope 1.8 puts an end to spam and deals with it much more than 1.x

Regards,

One seriously P***** off Elgg site owner.

  • OK @ DhrupDeScoop    I installed 'tracker' and it found my ip# as soon as I logged back in so I think it is working.  I'll keep a list of the emails and associated ip#s and forward them to you now and then.  

  • Sorry @ DhrupDeScoop   I have the same problem as others who posted on the 'tracker' plugin page...every ip# returned is my own and not the member's ip#.
    I am recording the username and email though...9 this morning from while I was asleep.

  • So Dhrup can you explain why I am not getting spammed on my site? Is it that the login/reg is off the main page, that I have extra registration fields (I have had spammers on other sites with same setup willing to fill out extra reg fields) or is Vazcos new anti spam doing the trick? Watch now I get spammed for asking!

  • @CK - I will look into the IP# plugin issue sometime...

    Meanwhile - if you can send me a PM to discuss how you can grab your apache logs for me to study - that might do for now.

    @TB - I cannot explain ;-) Maybe those spammers have not 'found' your site yet or they do not think that your is 'worth it' ;-P If you want to research into the spam/lack-of-spam issue -you might want to hire a professional to perform such studies...

  • elgg maybe GPL but it should be robust against such things what with the number 1 problem on the internet being spammers! hell the last time I saw spam controls like elggs was a script from 1995!

    Fundamentals, every script etc like elgg and phpbb should have the important parts sorted first not like hmmmm our elgg systems going to get spammed to hell when someone uses it we'll let them wait for a developer to create a 'plugin' that's why I like phpbb because they've thought very much into this from the ground up!

    and  @anirupdutta it wouldn't work for me they post loads of crap about breast pumps etc and actually only have 2 or 3 links inbetween!

  • @dj support :Maybe you should observe some of the blog posts or pages posted by the spammers.999/1000 times they contain a huge number of links.Nothing is perfect.But for me a probability of failure been around 0.001 is pretty good rather than blocking a good feature.

  • why reinvent the wheel?
    spam is not a elgg specific problem

    to have a easy start, it could be a good idea to ivestigate what other open source developer did to manage the spam problem, to have a template

    i think we need a spam-gui plugin to manage the spam with a webservice between elgg-sites to exchange black/white list, rules and patterns

    and we need a woman to do^ the work ;-)

     

  • @MS...

    I - le malin ...
    I * réinventer la roue que les autres me suivent

    LOLZ;-)

     

     

  • @ dhrup-man

    hi, hi . . .  ;-))
    traveling through solid minds
    opens new roads to kairo
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ozjXTagz75Q

  • @anirupdutta I do I only have a small site with me as the admin and 185 members, they used to post big lots of links but no more I'm waiting for one to get a screenshot for you, I'm thinking now though that they have are either modifying there bot just for my site or real people are signing up en-masse because the profile 'required fill' boxes are with 50% of them actually the information that should be there i.e. what camera do you have? : Canon .............