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uCoz Community » Communication » uCoz Discussions » An End To The Registration Bots (An idea to stop bot and human spammers alike.)
An End To The Registration Bots
Elexy
Posts: 93
Reputation: 2

Message # 1 | 5:04 AM
After all my years with Ucoz I have loved the service, but one thing I seriously hate (which doesn't has to do with Ucoz to begin with) are all these bot/human spammers. They change their IPs so you can't ban them using IP blocking, you delete their account or profile and they just register again. Placing them in a certain group which requires to place them manually into a "Checked" setting is pointless because from one day to another you can have like 100+ bots that registered already. I mean, when I go to bed and sleep then wake up in the next morning, I find like 15+ new members who are obviously bots registered to my site and I have to manually delete their accounts from the site.

The problem is that if you place them in an unchecked account on your website, they are still happy with that because in their information they place links to their advertisements which is mainly on their signature or on the "your website link" option. You can't just take off the signature feature off a site or people's website links, those things make a website have more communication, it is a feature every website needs along with other things where they post their links to their crap at. So just creating forum post is not a problem, the problem is having them registered to the site. On top of that you go to a profile and you check who registered new to the site and you find like 50+ registered members with the advertisement on their signature so they are still getting exposure either way, so yes they are still winning.

But there is a solution to this, there is something that Ucoz can do to stop these bots from registering to our websites and I have seen this feature only used on the Tag Board (or chat room of the site if you will). And that is letting the owner of the website block certain keywords from the site. Here is an example;

A person comes to your site who is obviously a bot and on every account they create they have different emails and different IPs, however they have the same address which for example is;
"www.whatever.com"

What we as the owners can do is block "www.whatever.com" from being written anywhere on the site. This means that every time the address "www.whatever.com" is typed down, the system gives an error where it shows that the posted text is forbidden on the site. In turn, this person/bot that is typing this "www.whatever.com" will never finish their post or registration for that matter because they just keep posting the same text.

And it can't stop there, we can have a system for our websites where you can also ban simple words like ".ru" or ".biz" where no matter how the person types the word > www.whatever".biz" < BAM, they typed in ".biz" which is forbidden on the site, so they stay stuck on that moment not being able to move forward with their registration or post on our website.

This is a suggestion I am making and one I would like to be seen worked on as soon as possible because I know this for sure will stop many spammers on our sites. I will tell you that it is very frustrating for me who owns many sites to come on my sites and have to sit down and ban/block/delete 100+ new registered users instead of filling my website with much needed content.

Paradox and Sunny and the rest of you, pass this information up to your tech or coders or programers, whatever it is that you all call them and have them look into this... I want this so bad to just stop all these damn bots/people it is not even funny.
dry

Proud Ucoz Member Since 2013
Warning: Do not trust Zayaan Ibrahim with projects, he will scam you by overpricing!
♥ http://rawtrex.com/ ♥
Post edited by Elexy - Tuesday, 2014-11-11, 3:14 AM
Sunny
Posts: 9296
Reputation: 456

Message # 2 | 4:45 PM
Elexy, we are aware of the problem and are constantly working on anti-spam measures. Meanwhile I can suggest the following: if you have local users on your website, adding an additional required field to the registration form (e.g. avatar) helps in most cases.
I'm not active on the forum anymore. Please contact other forum staff.
Elexy
Posts: 93
Reputation: 2

Message # 3 | 10:03 PM
Quote Sunny ()
(e.g. avatar)

That is a good idea, but remember that my suggestion is also another powerful tool against them and one we do not have.

Proud Ucoz Member Since 2013
Warning: Do not trust Zayaan Ibrahim with projects, he will scam you by overpricing!
♥ http://rawtrex.com/ ♥
Cyberdasm
Posts: 639
Reputation: 7

Message # 4 | 0:56 AM
Elexy, actually that feature is available in ucoz and i actually use it to stop spammers posting in my site comments section and guestbook.
1F4BF3B
Eriko
Pokémon Master
Posts: 962
Reputation: 34

Message # 5 | 1:03 AM
dense0293, From what I read above, Elexy is aware of what you're saying. She's saying that it should be implemented on the whole website and not just for certain modules (e.g.: GB and Tagboard).
Elexy
Posts: 93
Reputation: 2

Message # 6 | 3:02 AM
I love you Eriko, that is exactly what I am saying. I want these things to stop registereing to my website, period. This feature will even stop them from finishing registration forms. We need this system added as a feature that is oriented on the whole website, not just certain areas so we can keep it clean of these bots. Imagine placing just;
.biz

As a forbidden phrase and automatically stop 1000+ bot registering to your website because with the forbidden text there, they can't finish the registration form. No more will you, me or anyone have to sit down for freaking hours deleting/banning/IP blocking people's profiles. Doesn't matter how smart the bot is, this is something that can easily counter them very well.
cool

Proud Ucoz Member Since 2013
Warning: Do not trust Zayaan Ibrahim with projects, he will scam you by overpricing!
♥ http://rawtrex.com/ ♥
Post edited by Elexy - Tuesday, 2014-11-11, 3:08 AM
Ed05
Posts: 556
Reputation: 7

Message # 7 | 4:11 AM
Elexy, just put avatar as must be filed field and problem solved,omg.. angry
!
Paradox
Old Guard
Posts: 3284
Reputation: 145

Message # 8 | 5:18 AM
Ed05, keep in mind there are bots out there who will still find a way around that field limitation. Not every single solution will apply to the whole. In this case that solution at the moment applies to the majority, however, the individuals who are targeting Elexy's website may in fact be able to find a way around it.

Either that or from a functionality perspective Elexy may be unable to require said field without seriously impacting the audience requirements for her website. smile

Aside from that just parroting Sunny's statement earlier - this is something our team are working on and if we have a breakthrough our users will be the first to know. cool

Jack of all trades in development, design, strategy.
Working as a Support Engineer.
Been here for 13 years and counting.
Elexy
Posts: 93
Reputation: 2

Message # 9 | 12:27 PM
Ed05, there are bots that do add an avatar, so no that doesn't solve anything... OMG...
dry

Paradox, it would be best to have every possible option within our hands. This is one option we do not have globally on the site. Either way I am sure that it can stop many registrations because for what I have seen in my years with my sites, all the websites end up with the same prefixes, and even if broken up or modifed, they are words/phrases that normal language will never combine together for any reason other then trying to to post said advertisements.

Proud Ucoz Member Since 2013
Warning: Do not trust Zayaan Ibrahim with projects, he will scam you by overpricing!
♥ http://rawtrex.com/ ♥
Post edited by Elexy - Tuesday, 2014-11-11, 12:34 PM
uCoz Community » Communication » uCoz Discussions » An End To The Registration Bots (An idea to stop bot and human spammers alike.)
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