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Spam Protection with Bad Behavior

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Spam Protection with Bad Behavior
Hi,

I am thinking about purchasing Gossamer Links for a site project that I have in mind, but I do get tons of spam on my current site which is, thankfully, blocked with a combination of Bad Behavior (which usually gets most of the robots before they can access my site), and Akismet. My question is whether anyone, who has a highly frequented site, ever look at creating a plug-in for either of these two scripts. If not, does anyone have an idea of the cost of developing these plugins - particularly one for Bad Behavior. Thanks.

Rich
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Re: [richrf] Spam Protection with Bad Behavior In reply to
Hi Rick,

There some plugins which can do this like the captcha one.

Hope that helps!

Cheers,

Cheers,

Dat

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Re: [richrf] Spam Protection with Bad Behavior In reply to
I wrote an Akismet plugin a while back, but didn't get much feedback on it, so I'm not sure how well it actually works in stopping spam. The concept of bad behaviour looks interesting. When I get a chance I might look into writing a plugin for this as well (though I've been really busy lately, so this will probably won't be any time soon). Also, as tandat mentions, there are also other plugins available to help reduce spam.

Adrian

Last edited by:

brewt: Aug 29, 2007, 8:06 PM
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Re: [brewt] Spam Protection with Bad Behavior In reply to
Hi guys,

Thanks for the help.

Bad Behavior does a great job of stopping the bots. I get about 400 attempts a day, and it was a pain cleaning up before I turned on Bad Behavior. Still, some manual stuff gets through, but Akismet catches 99% of these. Spam is a pain, and I can't see going ahead with a major site without good protection.

Thanks again for your responses.

Rich
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Re: [richrf] Spam Protection with Bad Behavior In reply to
Hi,

The main way to stop spam, is - as everyone above has agreed, to setup a CAPTCHA system. This is one of the first ones that came out for LSQL/GLinks, but since then I believe rgbworld released one called "CAPTCHA" - which does pretty much the same thing :)

Our one can be found here: http://www.ultranerds.com/...ns/Add_RandImage_L4/

Generally, the only spam that will get through with this plugin installed, is by people who add their spam listings manually.

We also have another plugin, called BlockDomain - http://www.ultranerds.com/...ck_Domains_Pro_L133/

This lets you block an entire domain, before it even gets through to your validation page :) This helps a lot of sites (normally adult based ones =)), where galleries are submitted (i.e gallery.com/12234.html , gallery.com/teen/134.html, etc).

Hope that gives you a few ideas :)

Cheers

Andy (mod)
andy@ultranerds.co.uk
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Re: [Andy] Spam Protection with Bad Behavior In reply to
Hi Andy,

Thanks for the additional information.

I have discussed captchas on other forums and there appears to be consensus that robots can easily break these captcha systems, which is why the Wordpress developers ultimately opted for a different approach by implementing Bad Behavior and Akismet and other similar systems such as Spam Karma.

Is there something different about your captcha system that makes it more difficult to penetrate - or is it just that the robots haven't focused on your system yet? I believe that the PHPLD people had lots of difficulties with their captcha systems though there is a mod available to PHPLD owners, similar to Spam Karma, that seems to be working.

Blocking also seems to be a very short-term solution since IPs and domains appear to be easily changed via proxies, etc.

Thanks for any additional info that you can provide.

Rich

Last edited by:

richrf: Aug 30, 2007, 7:22 AM
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Re: [richrf] Spam Protection with Bad Behavior In reply to
Hi,

I have to admit, I don't think I've ever come across a robot that can break a CAPTCHA image - but I could be wrong=)

Regarding:

Quote:
Blocking also seems to be a very short-term solution since IPs and domains appear to be easily changed via proxies, etc.

I'm not sure you quite understand the idea behind this plugin. If someone is spamming you, with a certain domain (i.e they are a repeat offender), then you can just block their domain.

I also have a block IP plugin - but as you say, with people using proxies etc, thats not all that much use (unless you have novices trying to spam your site).

Unfortunately, there is no "real" solution to stopping spam. Its really on a per-site basis - i.e looking at who is spamming you, how they are spamming you - and trying to work out ways to filter them out, without disturbing your genuine users.

Cheers

Andy (mod)
andy@ultranerds.co.uk
Want to give me something back for my help? Please see my Amazon Wish List
GLinks ULTRA Package | GLinks ULTRA Package PRO
Links SQL Plugins | Website Design and SEO | UltraNerds | ULTRAGLobals Plugin | Pre-Made Template Sets | FREE GLinks Plugins!
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Re: [Andy] Spam Protection with Bad Behavior In reply to
Hi Andy,

Thanks again for the additional info.

If anyone else has anything additional to add on the subject of spam, I would very much appreciate it.

Thanks again.

Rich