New Forum, Lots of Spam

Hi,


I run a website and recently added a forum component and intend to get a community going but meanwhile spammers are signing up daily posting huge threads of porn/spam.


Any way to prevent this other then manually deleting all of this?


Also will this behavior go away as the forum becomes active or will it continue?


Thanks

 

What forum software are you using? There are usually 'options' on the software (admincp) to prevent automated registrations/spam bots that post this stuff and there are also usually plugins available for extra spam killing eg CAPTCHA. I say usually because Im used to vbulletin which you can make virtually spam proof if you set it up properly. Those bots always get through somehow but, by setting your site up as above, you can keep most of them away from your forums.

 

I am using Agora, I also am using a CAPTCHA people are manually spamming I believe. It also as increased a lot since I got PR


Thanks ill looking into further plugins

 

Simple way look at your logs, check the ips block all from that subnet.
helps the most otherwise go on their main website where you got your forum from there they mostly got plugins with known spammers.

 

Word verifications will make the stop, promise.

 

Another option if your forum software allows it is to moderate new members. It takes a little work but it will cut down on the spammers. Also it's very easy to tell who are spammers by how they fill in the registration fields. Misspellings, non relevant answers are always filled in. Very easy to spot.

 

Does Agora have an Akismet addon?

And yes..good moderators are key. What type of spam is it?

And if it's for PR then alter links to be nofollow. They will catch on if it's manual spam and leave you alone. You can even use a hidelinks plugin to really kill their joy.

 

Yeah, vB is really easy to spam-proof. I use the built-in reCaptcha Human Verification, and use the NoSpam (Question and Answer) modification and I haven't had a single spam bot.
A client of mine just started up a forum and it was getting 20+ spam registrations and postings per day; I implemented my method on his site and the spam has stopped cold turkey.

I'm not familiar with Agora so I don't know what options are available to you, but use some form of image verification (preferably reCaptcha. Regular Captcha is now easily trumped by the spam bots) and if possible, a question & answer. E.g. What color is grass? - Green.

 

go for word verification and make sure you got some Agree terms box to check on.

 

find a plugin the requires something human like a math problem or selecting a picture.

 

yes exactly what I use too and havent had spam since installing.