Advertisement Logins

Telk · Post by **Telk** » Fri Jan 06, 2006 9:27 am

Lately there's been quite a few logins that look to be on the forum for the sole purpose of trying to advertise. Should these be reported? If so, where: email or would this thread work? I'm just suggesting a place where if a player sees a login that is probably used for advertising (they're pretty obvious) they can suggest it then the login might be looked into when there is free time to check if it is 'legitimate'.

Kelemvor · Post by **Kelemvor** » Fri Jan 06, 2006 9:46 am

Board names created by automated processes will usually be removed by the forum administrator when checked. These names will have no matching account or player in the game and so are fairly easily spotted.

If you feel that one has been missed, or if you encounter an attached web address which you feel is particularly inappropriate or offensive please post the details in this thread.

Do bear in mind that forum login names are not being checked and authorised as frequently as previously due to real life commitments for the admins concerned.

Paskry · Post by **Paskry** » Wed Jan 11, 2006 5:19 pm

So I was bored and I decided to go through the list and here is the ones I found:

600
624
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629
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631
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647

Paskry

Exer · Post by **Exer** » Wed Jan 11, 2006 11:10 pm

There is a easy solution to this and sent an email (PM) to Sharni with the instructions.

Not sure when or if they have the time to implement the fix.
Is there an other admin that I could send the info to?

Kelemvor · Post by **Kelemvor** » Thu Jan 12, 2006 10:55 pm

I believe that Tyr is also able to work on the boards, you might wish to PM him also.

Glim · Post by **Glim** » Fri Jan 20, 2006 7:41 am

Not sure if this is what Exer had in mind, but wouldnt those little security measures where you have to type the distorted word from the picture to verify you arent a bot work?

Exer · Post by **Exer** » Fri Jan 20, 2006 10:53 pm

Yes, upgrading phpBB past 2.0.10 will do the trick.

Telk · Post by **Telk** » Sat Jan 21, 2006 6:52 am

I'm not sure it would work on all of the logins though, as some appear to be individuals trying to get traffic to their site, of course they might be employing bots to do their dirty work.

Gwain · Post by **Gwain** » Sat Jan 21, 2006 11:44 pm

We could put a boiler plate like "If you are going to use this forum to advertise your site through webpages links, please don't.
or if it is extreme just remove the webpage link option(I hope not for this)

Algon · Post by **Algon** » Sun Jan 22, 2006 3:17 am

Not sure if you are able, but you could make it where you have a random code pop up during account creation to enter. That takes care of any bots that make accounts.

Algon · Post by **Algon** » Sun Jan 22, 2006 3:19 am

Not sure if you are able, but you could make it where you have a random code pop up during account creation to enter. That takes care of any bots that make accounts.

EDIT Sorry about the double post. Had a debug mode error and tried again but seems to have went though both times. And also saw that Glim said the same thing above

Exer · Post by **Exer** » Mon Jan 23, 2006 1:53 am

Upgrading phpBB will add the 'captcha' feature and stop bots for signing up.

Exer · Post by **Exer** » Mon Jan 30, 2006 8:39 pm

Seems I was slightly wrong!

phpbb version 2.0.11 onwards uses the captcha image verification system which requires a new member to enter a set of letters and numbers from a generated image before being able to sign up.

Switch it on in the Admin Control Panel under in the Configuration menu If and only if you have a significant membership comprising the visually-disabled, then there are mods available to slightly alter the signup process enough to fool most bots. This will kill automated signups stone dead. You will still have the problem of manual spam signups, but we're getting to that...