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How do we get on top of all the spam in Gossamer Links?

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How do we get on top of all the spam in Gossamer Links?
We are getting 50+ entries to our directory on a daily basis now. Is there a way to stop the spam to our directory?
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Re: [Tawnya] How do we get on top of all the spam in Gossamer Links? In reply to
I know the feeling.

I would recommend looking into some sort of Captcha option before any form is submitted.

Check out the list of Plug-ins from Andy.

Hope this helps.

Vishal
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Re: [VishalT] How do we get on top of all the spam in Gossamer Links? In reply to
Where do I find the plugins from Andy?

I'm thinking I will just delete our directory as it seems like it is more effort than its worth. I also have to wonder if Google doesn't see these directories as linking schemes now which could have an effect on page rank and SERPS. Too bad there wasn't a nofollow option to add to the links?
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Re: [Tawnya] How do we get on top of all the spam in Gossamer Links? In reply to
Hi Tawnya,

You have a couple options.

http://www.ultranerds.co.uk/...curityQuestion_L281/ - this lets you setup random questions, which they have to answer before they can submit. You can change these questions to whatever you want

If you want to show a CAPTCHA image as a 2nd line of defense: http://www.ultranerds.co.uk/...ns/Add_RandImage_L4/

The problem these days, is that the more advanced spammers have ways to read these (which is why they get much more complicated on big sites, as they are trying to find more and more ways to stop the spammers... but at the cost of usability for users!)

Hope that helps.

Cheers

Andy (mod)
andy@ultranerds.co.uk
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Re: [Tawnya] How do we get on top of all the spam in Gossamer Links? In reply to
Oh, and about:

Quote:
Too bad there wasn't a nofollow option to add to the links?

You can easily do that yourself :)

In link.html, just look for:

Code:
<h4>
<%if detailed_url and isValidated eq 'Yes'%><a href="<%detailed_url%>"><%elsif URL ne 'http://' and isValidated eq 'Yes'%><a href="<%config.db_cgi_url%>/jump.cgi?ID=<%ID%>"><%endif%><%if highlight%><%Links::Tools::highlight($Title, $query)%><%else%><%Title%><%endif%><%if isValidated eq 'Yes'%><%if detailed_url or URL ne 'http://'%></a><%endif%><%endif%>
<%if isNew%><span class="badge badge-success">new</span><%endif%>
<%if isChanged%><span class="badge badge-info">changed</span><%endif%>
<%if isPopular%><span class="badge badge-warning">popular</span><%endif%>
<%~if paymentsEnabled%>
<%if isUnpaid%><span class="badge">unpaid</span><%endif%>
<%if isExpired%><span class="badge badge-important">expired</span><%endif%>
<%if isFree%><span class="badge badge-info">free</span><%endif%>
<%~endif%>
</h4>

and change to:

Code:
<h4>
<%if detailed_url and isValidated eq 'Yes'%><a rel="nofollow" href="<%detailed_url%>"><%elsif URL ne 'http://' and isValidated eq 'Yes'%><a href="<%config.db_cgi_url%>/jump.cgi?ID=<%ID%>"><%endif%><%if highlight%><%Links::Tools::highlight($Title, $query)%><%else%><%Title%><%endif%><%if isValidated eq 'Yes'%><%if detailed_url or URL ne 'http://'%></a><%endif%><%endif%>
<%if isNew%><span class="badge badge-success">new</span><%endif%>
<%if isChanged%><span class="badge badge-info">changed</span><%endif%>
<%if isPopular%><span class="badge badge-warning">popular</span><%endif%>
<%~if paymentsEnabled%>
<%if isUnpaid%><span class="badge">unpaid</span><%endif%>
<%if isExpired%><span class="badge badge-important">expired</span><%endif%>
<%if isFree%><span class="badge badge-info">free</span><%endif%>
<%~endif%>
</h4>

If you are using detailed pages, you will wanna do a similar tweak in that template as well

Cheers

Andy (mod)
andy@ultranerds.co.uk
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Re: [Tawnya] How do we get on top of all the spam in Gossamer Links? In reply to
One of the things I did is create a IP address field in the database to catch the IP that is used at time of submission and then just ban those IP addresses from posting. I actually did this via Apache. Overnight the spam disappeared!

All the best,

Clint.
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Last edited by:

Clint: May 3, 2014, 6:19 PM
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Re: [Clint] How do we get on top of all the spam in Gossamer Links? In reply to
Yeah. Also, running through CloudFlare can help filter out some of the more prolific spammers. My blog spam went almost overnight

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
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