# Bot banning



## Fay V (Apr 22, 2011)

Is it standard procedure to IP ban the bots? I'm just wondering because he was the same one that keeps popping up every few days.

If yes:then carry on. I don't have suggestions beyond that. 

If no: maybe make it policy to IP ban bots


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## Lobar (Apr 22, 2011)

Or ban the range, if they're all different but close enough to one another.


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## Smelge (Apr 22, 2011)

Or put on a wordfilter that changes "mixmelot" and "chinabuye" to "shitmadeinasweatshop" and "lookatmeIsuckgoats".

That should fuck with his links.


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## LizardKing (Apr 22, 2011)

+1 for wordfilter abuse.


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## AshleyAshes (Apr 22, 2011)

Or maybe impliment a better user registration system that isn't so easily utalized by bots?  Just an idea.


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## Eevee (Apr 22, 2011)

Fay V said:


> Is it standard procedure to IP ban the bots?


Spambots and other ne'er-do-wells tend to operate over botnets.  You can't IP ban them in any useful manner.


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## ArielMT (Apr 24, 2011)

Forum admins can ban IPs and ranges, but mods and supermods can't.  I've made some of the answered requests when checking out spam patterns here.

Spammer registration is above normal because captcha isn't as effective a spammer block as it used to be, not that the principle was ever truly effective against spam to begin with.


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## CerbrusNL (Apr 29, 2011)

ArielMT said:


> Forum admins can ban IPs and ranges, but mods and supermods can't.  I've made some of the answered requests when checking out spam patterns here.
> 
> Spammer registration is above normal because captcha isn't as effective a spammer block as it used to be, not that the principle was ever truly effective against spam to begin with.


 Hmm, have we got a simple question added to the registration, yet? Like: "What's the last word in this sentence?", or "What color is a blue cube?"
These are trivially simple to answer, but bots can't easily be coded to know every single answer to every single question on every single forum out there. Assuming bots are designed to be used on multiple fora, that is. I doubt someone'd write a spambot just for FAF.

(I've read somewhere these questions are particularly efficient versus bots)


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## Smelge (Apr 29, 2011)

CerbrusNL said:


> Hmm, have we got a simple question added to the registration, yet? Like: "What's the last word in this sentence?", or "What color is a blue cube?"


 
Oh man, those questions always get me.

"Is it a trick question? Did I spell it right? OH GOD IT'S BANNED ME ALREADY"


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## SnowFox (Apr 29, 2011)

CerbrusNL said:


> Hmm, have we got a simple question added to the registration, yet? Like: "What's the last word in this sentence?", or "What color is a blue cube?"
> These are trivially simple to answer, but bots can't easily be coded to know every single answer to every single question on every single forum out there. Assuming bots are designed to be used on multiple fora, that is. I doubt someone'd write a spambot just for FAF.
> 
> (I've read somewhere these questions are particularly efficient versus bots)


 
But where do they get the questions from? if it's just a plugin with a database of questions and answers, surely it would be really easy for bots to bypass it unless the questions were being constantly changed.


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## Aden (Apr 29, 2011)

SnowFox said:


> But where do they get the questions from? if it's just a plugin with a database of questions and answers, surely it would be really easy for bots to bypass it unless the questions were being constantly changed.


 
It wouldn't be hard to write a few ourselves. They could just be added to our own personal question pool and pulled randomly.


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## SnowFox (Apr 29, 2011)

Aden said:


> It wouldn't be hard to write a few ourselves. They could just be added to our own personal question pool and pulled randomly.


 
FAF Registration: "Who is the biggest hipster weaboo?"

new person: "wat?"

FAF Registration: IP BANNED FUREVER


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## dinosaurdammit (Apr 29, 2011)

SnowFox said:


> FAF Registration: "Who is the biggest hipster weaboo?"
> 
> new person: "wat?"
> 
> FAF Registration: IP BANNED FUREVER



I approve. If you haven't lurked then this would be impossible and probably keeps the undesirable whiney furfags out and allows the people of some value onto here. I see no downside.


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## Aden (Apr 29, 2011)

SnowFox said:


> FAF Registration: "Who is the biggest hipster weaboo?"
> 
> new person: "wat?"
> 
> FAF Registration: IP BANNED FUREVER


 
FAF Registration: "Who is SnowFox?"
User: "Who?"
FAF Registration: "Thanks for registering! We've sent you a confirmation email."
:V


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## SnowFox (Apr 29, 2011)

dinosaurdammit said:


> I approve. If you haven't lurked then this would be impossible and probably keeps the undesirable whiney furfags out and allows the people of some value onto here. I see no downside.


 
Eh I suppose, but you can't really expect everyone to lurk. They might still be cool even if they don't.



Aden said:


> FAF Registration: "Who is SnowFox?"
> User: "Who?"
> FAF Registration: "Thanks for registering! We've sent you a confirmation email."
> :V


 
Hahaha, it's hurtful because it's true.

 :'C hate you...


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## LizardKing (Apr 29, 2011)

In addition to this, they should have a test like they do for letting people into the KoL chatrooms.

http://kol.coldfront.net/thekolwiki/index.php/The_Altar_of_Literacy



> "First, read the Policies of Loathing".
> 
> "Now, type the following sentence into the text box below. Capitalization and punctuation count!"
> 
> ...


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## Aden (Apr 29, 2011)

SnowFox said:


> :'C hate you...


 
8c


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## CerbrusNL (Apr 29, 2011)

Smelge said:


> Oh man, those questions always get me.
> 
> "Is it a trick question? Did I spell it right? OH GOD IT'S BANNED ME ALREADY"


 Add something like "The following question is not a trick question, but intended to filter out spambots" to the question. And regarding spelling, that should be fool proof if you made sure the word is actually in the question.


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## Aden (Apr 29, 2011)

CerbrusNL said:


> Add something like "The following question is not a trick question, but intended to filter out spambots" to the question. And regarding spelling, that should be fool proof if you made sure the word is actually in the question.


 
Just to be safe, give them three to five chances before locking out their IP for a week or something


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## Fay V (Apr 29, 2011)

LizardKing said:


> In addition to this, they should have a test like they do for letting people into the KoL chatrooms.
> 
> http://kol.coldfront.net/thekolwiki/index.php/The_Altar_of_Literacy


 
Worse comes to worse, we have grammatically correct bots.


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## LizardKing (Apr 29, 2011)

Fay V said:


> Worse comes to worse, we have grammatically correct bots.


 
http://www.xkcd.com/810/


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## CerbrusNL (Apr 29, 2011)

Aden said:


> Just to be safe, give them three to five chances before locking out their IP for a week or something


 I don; t even think a IP lock would be necessary.
Just don't let them register if they fill in the wrong answer.


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## ArielMT (Apr 30, 2011)

It wouldn't surprise me if spambot herders farm out captcha breaking to humans via hosting zombies those stupid enough to fall for spam try to buy from.


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## CerbrusNL (Apr 30, 2011)

johnhastings said:


> This guy and his trivia bot.. have really taken over the San Diego 1 chat room. How can we get him and his bot banned?


 Well, if that ain't irony -.-


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## Monster. (Apr 30, 2011)

CerbrusNL said:


> Well, if that ain't irony -.-


 


roja.romans said:


> Go back to that chat room and use the "Report Abuse" feature there.


Moar irony?


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## TreacleFox (Apr 30, 2011)

How do bots choose what and where to post? Sometimes you see them necro random threads. =\


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## Flatline (Apr 30, 2011)

They probably post based on specific words in the OP/Thread title.


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## Aden (Apr 30, 2011)

Miles Snowpaw said:


> They probably post based on specific words in the OP/Thread title.


 
That or things like number of thread views, dates, or even just completely random


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## CerbrusNL (Apr 30, 2011)

Recently, a bunch of Russian bots were posting in a language thread, where Russian was spoken.

I believe they scan the entire thread's content.


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## TreacleFox (Apr 30, 2011)

Aden said:


> That or things like number of thread views, dates, or even just completely random


 
What's stopping someone from just making hundreds of bots and getting them to make tons of posts and spam the forums? :C


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## Aden (Apr 30, 2011)

Meadow said:


> What's stopping someone from just making hundreds of bots and getting them to make tons of posts and spam the forums? :C


 
idunnolol


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## SnowFox (May 1, 2011)

Ok, is there any plan in the works about what to do with these spam bots?

I just signed into my email for the first time in a few months today and had my browser locked up by well over 100 add requests from random email addresses. My email must have been harvested from here because I don't use it anywhere else. I've stepped up my privacy setting from "registered users" to "your contacts" (whatever that is), though it's probably already too late.

Has anyone else had this? are we just going to continue with the losing battle of reporting & banning?


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## ArielMT (May 1, 2011)

Gaz said:


> Moar irony?


 
Yup.  Markov chains, most likely.  Done right, the generated text is uncanny, but done wrong, the generated text can be hilarious.



SnowFox said:


> Ok, is there any plan in the works about what to do with these spam bots?



I'd like to ban their ISPs from FAF.  



SnowFox said:


> I just signed into my email for the first time in a few months today and had my browser locked up by well over 100 add requests from random email addresses. My email must have been harvested from here because I don't use it anywhere else. I've stepped up my privacy setting from "registered users" to "your contacts" (whatever that is), though it's probably already too late.



I have a theory about that, but I decided it'd be better suggested in PM than openly.



SnowFox said:


> Has anyone else had this? are we just going to continue with the losing battle of reporting & banning?


 
Forum spam, like email spam, is inherently a matter of more reaction than proaction, but it's a losing battle only if we decide it's one not worth fighting.


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## Xegras (May 2, 2011)

rickyclarke15 said:


> This guy and his trivia bot.. have really taken over the San Diego 1 chat room. How can we get him and his bot banned





rickyclarke15 said:


> I am usually the host of the table that I play...If my partner leaves, how do I stop others from clicking the bot



Bahahaha I think they are defending there right to exist.


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## LizardKing (May 2, 2011)

xD


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## Ozriel (May 3, 2011)

I am hitting them as hard as I can, but they keep poping back up!
I tell ya, it's like a game of whack-a-mole!


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## Smelge (May 3, 2011)

I keep reporting these damn bots, and they're still signing up, and I'm still putting suggestions in the report.

If you want the bots to leave the site alone, remove their ability to post their links. The wordfilter with their site names will screw it up so they don't even get clicks to see what the site is. They'll give up. And they're always advertising the same two sites. It won't stop them registering and posting, but if it ruins their links, they will eventually give up when it's not producing any results.


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## LizardKing (May 3, 2011)

I've been putting that in my reports too :V


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## Smelge (May 3, 2011)

It's not like wordfilters is even a hard thing to set up. It's right there in the forum software. Just type in the word and something to change it to. For example, change the two website names to "Furaffinity" then sit back and make smiley faces or something because you've just done a minute of useful work. Hooray.


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## Armaetus (May 23, 2011)

CAPCHA & sentence answering.


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## LizardKing (May 23, 2011)

Glaice said:


> CAPCHA & sentence answering.


 
What about it? How does it relate to this thread? What are your suggestions? 

Can you at least add some kind of content and cohesive thoughts to your word vomit, so that perhaps you look less like the spambots? In before you quote my "xD" post.

It wouldn't be so bad were it not for the fact that _we already have a CAPTCHA_, so clearly doing 5 seconds of research is also too much effort.


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