Since it seems that spambots are just looking for the first category that can be posted in, why not have a hidden category that is not visible on the board, only as a backend trap that only spambots will 'see' and post at?
I'm no programmer and don't know how smart the bots are, so is this a good idea as part of mybb or a widget?
My 2 cents
PinkStar
Spambots are placed in the registered usergroup. We can't do this, otherwise other registered members will see it too. It's a good idea, but it'd be difficult to target at spambots (they register like normal users, there is no way for the forum to tell if a user is legit or a spambot).
Thank you for the feedback Seabody.
My thinking was that the top category would be a regular categegory as far as the backend goes, Active but just not visible on the frontend for humans.
Since the bots just follow the html and don't see what's presented for regular users I thought this would be a simple cosmetic solution: Just hide the top category.
I know this will not stop spambots but if it worked it will stop them from interrupting the forum and as an admin I can delete and ban when I have the time.
Why not use group promotions and moderate every post done by a user with 8 or less posts? If it's an automated spam bot, it most likely won't post more than 8 times every 12 hours or even if it does the very first 8 posts would be hidden from public view and awaiting moderation. I normally do this with all the forums on my board except the general discussions forum and introductions however it's your choice where to apply this suggestion.
Thank you Arbaz,
I want my forum to be unmoderated and no dissrupt my members posting. I will only set it on moderation for new users if I absolutely have to.
I have limited the posts per 24hrs and also limited the postflooding, but that only helps per spammer. If they are several (on a previous forum I had up 50 per day) they can pretty much kill the forum.
So my little idea of a active category not displayed on the frontend is not a good idea?
Thank you,
PinkStar
You should add a more advanced captcha to block spam bots, and also implement spam detection (most will use proxies) if you notice a lot are from a specific country than moderate any memberships from that specific area.
I think the Registration Question is actually one of the best plugins out there to stop spam. Just choose questions that deal with what your forum is about. Maybe this could be core in the future?
My forum has been up for a while now, and so far only 2 bot spammers that replied to posts. So that's good news.
I thought captchas, regardless if it's a reg question or just numbers/letters, still had both question and answered in the script and that the bots are able to grab the right answer and bypass it.
And that's why I thought of a category that isn't visible to users for these bots to fall into.
Thanks for the feedback
PinkStar
A CAPTCHA will include an id or hash which the server-side will use to see if the provided response is valid. The expected response should not be available in the generated (X)HTML.
should be able to do it with CSS and a few template edits, if the bot is not smart enough to avoid "display: hidden;" values
edit global.css and add a new class like "forum5" with display set to hidden (where 5 is the FID of the trap), then edit the forum_depth_cat or whatever template it is that impacts the level of output you are wanting to work on (don't have access right now to check) and wrap it in a <div class="forum{$forum['fid']}">....</div>
I can't check right now, but this should work or only need minor tweaking to make it work.