as Tom noticed, banning email addresses really has am impact on the amount of spam. In addition to banning single email addresses, it’s also possible to ban whole email domains, which makes it even harder for spammers. To do this, don’t use an email address like xyz@domain.com but delete the address part. For example, “shoeonlineblog.com” clearly is an email domain used only by spammers. To block this domain (which I just did), go to email banning and enter "@shoeonlineblog.com" in the address field. When banning like that, no email addresses whatsoever from this domain will be allowed to register.
Of course, please use that only when it’s absolutely clear that the domain is a domain exclusively used by spammers.
@Stefan,
The spammers have already figured out a way around our spammer defenses. They have created new email address at gmail.com that have no spammer history and are able to get though our email address history detection function. I have banned by email and deleted around 8 spammers this evening. All they have to do is change one letter in their gmail email address and they are good to go.
Regards,
Tom C Developer
The new mod also checks the IP address against several blacklists. It’s possible that a spammer’s IP is not in the blacklist yet but usually it goes there pretty quickly. Of course, there is no 100% protection, but I think, we are doing pretty well so far. You can also report a user as spammer through the new tool. That way, the email, IP and user name are submitted to the blacklists. I’ll write a workflow on that soon.
If spammers keep getting through in noticeable force, I’ll install the double activation mod which requires every user’s registration to be confirmed by an admin too.
Keep in mind that even on successful registration, the first 2 posts are still moderated. I didn’t deactivate that feature yet. However, as the forum grows in popularity, we should deactivate the moderation of the first 2 posts, either without any replacement or with the double activation as replacement.
Hi Stefan,
Yes, I saw the delete and report as spammer option in the delete member section and that is what I did. Though I started with the ban email option, which as you say, we do not need to do now that there is the delete and report as spammer option.
Good work!
Regards,
Tom C