Spam and Directory Submitters

Not long ago, I rejected a link from a directory submitter service / software at www.freedeeplinks.com, b/c I only accept deep links to article pages. That same day, I started getting a ridiculous amount of spam submissions.

I'm worried that whoever that was went in and added my directory to their submitter w/o reading the submission rules, or that someone else may have. The submissions are up by a lot, but over 90% are easily spam, and it's just beyond a waste of time seeing the same kinds of garbage. I know that's a fact of life with directories, but I can't imagine it should go from predominantly "good" submissions to suddenly spam central.

Is there a way to find out if your directory is being used by one of these services, and if so, what's generally the best way to tell them to stop if you find out that's the problem?

Thanks!

Jenn

 

Why don't you try enabling image validation with some added difficulty?

 

Because it was a ridiculous pain and not working half the time... I kept getting complaints that people had to enter the right thing 4 or 5 times to get something submitted, and it was turning away valid submitters. I'd rather just find out where they're coming from if it's being included in a service, and tell them to remove it.

 

Is it comming from multiple IP's, if it comes from only one maybe you can block their IP.

 

I just deleted all of them, so I'll be sure to check that later - I'm sure it won't take long to fill with garbage again. I don't see a way to do that in phpld2 though... am I just missing it? If not, does the upgrade at least have that ability, b/c I'm going to be switching over soon enough anyway?

 

I don't know if phpld2 has that ability, but you may be able to block IP's on your web host configuration page.

 

I got spam submission everyday. the Only way you can do is just delete again and again.

 

In phpld2 you can make use login system it may help to some extent

 

Upgrade to Phpld v3.07 use simplest image validation and Block Ip’s

 

I already said image validation isn't an option unfortunately. It was killing too many legitimate submissions b/c it didn't work right over half the time.

I did get a new set all at once. All of the IPs are different, so blocking isn't going to help stop it unfortunately. I just can't believe it's just a coincidence that all the spammers are manually coming out during the same short period, and then quiet for hours. It's just frustrating. I'll deal with it for now and just hire someone else to sort through the garbage if it gets too frustrating I guess.

Thanks.

 

Charge $0.50 for listing and deleted all the listings that don’t pay, will get more than 70% of SPAM out.

 

Not an option. It's "FreeDeepLinks.com" for a reason.

I'm really not concerned about spam in general. I know it comes with the territory. The problem is that it's coming in these very odd and very quick "waves" within like an hour's time, which is why I'm thinking software or service. But they're all different IPs, so I have no clue. If a service or software is submitting, I just want to tell them to stop. Manual ones aren't the issue... I just find it so hard to believe everyone's manually submitting their spam in the same short time frame.

 

$0.50 for me is free after paypal fess you get like $0.10 , a free resource will always be abused.

 

The problem is that it's being viewed too much as a typical Web directory, wherein it's actually set up to be a resource for readers / researchers. When I have the time to alter another template, I'll be upgrading and changing the domain name, so that might help. But it needs to stay completely free. The point is to get as many articles categorized as I can as quickly as I can... the first month and a half have been ok but a bit slower than I'd have liked. And charging even $.50 would stop people from submitting, since they're allowed an unlimited number of links. I've had one or two submit over 100 article pages for me already, and they wouldn't have done that at $.50/post.

 

Have you gotten with David or some of the guys over at phpLD for possible options? There's a PHP Link Directory Forum where you're likely to get a better targetted response. Maybe some of the features available in more current versions will be worth your time and expense, but they're the better ones to answer that for sure for you. Good luck!

 

Is there a pattern to the email addresses for the submissions?

 

I'll look when the next set comes through... I just deleted all of the ones in there.

wrmineo - thanks... I'm not so concerned with finding a way to ban them through the script or anything. I'm really just concerned with whether or not there's any way to find out if a service or submission software is using my directory for their customers. If I find that out, and they are, I'll deal with them. If not, I'll just eventually hire someone to deal with the spam headache for me if it's really all manual.

 

Ah, sorry

With some many proxies and such out there now, it makes it more difficult to deal with these situations.

 

Why don't you contact one of those spammers with their email address, asking them what service they are using? Just pretend to have interest in the submission service. They may let you in on the source they are using.
I did this once to figure out the automatic submission software that added my directory to their list. The other thing you could do is to try changing the name of submission page (submit.php) to something else (submit-article.php). I know this is also gonna be hassle if you'd have to do it once now and then..

 

Good idea romow. Thanks.