• Hello everybody! We have tons of new awards for the new year that can be requested through our Awards System thanks to Antifa Lockhart! Some are limited-time awards so go claim them before they are gone forever...

    CLICK HERE FOR AWARDS

General ► What is with these telemarketers?



REGISTER TO REMOVE ADS

Soldier

Well-known member
Joined
May 14, 2017
Messages
1,718
Awards
10
Location
East Coast, USA
Hello,
You know, I hate telemarketers. I hate a lot of things, but that takes the cake in things that irritate me. Whether it being a recorded message about my car's warranty expiring (Before I even HAD a car and could drive, mind you) or some foreign guy asking for my social security. That last one was one where I actually called him out on what he is, and he swore at me upon realizing I wasn't going to give him the "yes" he desired. And it appears that not even this forum is safe from them, with so many bot accounts just worming their way in here and plastering latest posts on medical products and writing services that none of us need. Is there anything else we can do besides ignore them? Can't we do something? I feel like Belle in 358 days where she tries to rally the castle staff to solve the heartless problem, Who wants to be Lumiere? positions open! If you'd need someone to block them, I guess I could do it if no one else wants to.
 

Oracle Spockanort

written in the stars
Staff member
Joined
Jul 13, 2008
Messages
35,552
Awards
96
Age
32
Location
California
Website
twitter.com
Hello,
You know, I hate telemarketers. I hate a lot of things, but that takes the cake in things that irritate me. Whether it being a recorded message about my car's warranty expiring (Before I even HAD a car and could drive, mind you) or some foreign guy asking for my social security. That last one was one where I actually called him out on what he is, and he swore at me upon realizing I wasn't going to give him the "yes" he desired. And it appears that not even this forum is safe from them, with so many bot accounts just worming their way in here and plastering latest posts on medical products and writing services that none of us need. Is there anything else we can do besides ignore them? Can't we do something? I feel like Belle in 358 days where she tries to rally the castle staff to solve the heartless problem, Who wants to be Lumiere? positions open! If you'd need someone to block them, I guess I could do it if no one else wants to.
It’s hard because they are aggressive due to how old our archives are…Short of making the site an approved registration site, which might be a better choice anyways.
 

kirabook

Bronze Member
Joined
Jan 4, 2010
Messages
1,669
Awards
4
Location
RoL
As a web dev, spam bots are some of the worst things to combat ever. No matter what systems you put in place (other than manual approval), they're constantly finding new ways to post more spam. Once your site becomes a target, it's really hard to shake them off.
 

Soldier

Well-known member
Joined
May 14, 2017
Messages
1,718
Awards
10
Location
East Coast, USA
As a web dev, spam bots are some of the worst things to combat ever. No matter what systems you put in place (other than manual approval), they're constantly finding new ways to post more spam. Once your site becomes a target, it's really hard to shake them off.
I can see why, doesn't matter how many times you block their accounts, they'll just make more of them to push their agenda.
 

Oracle Spockanort

written in the stars
Staff member
Joined
Jul 13, 2008
Messages
35,552
Awards
96
Age
32
Location
California
Website
twitter.com
A solution we usually do is ban large swaths of IP addresses from specific regions or ban the entire region as a whole. Negatives to that tend to be that IP addresses refresh faster than we can keep up with especially with the use of VPNs, and banning an entire region might block out legitimate users.
 

Soldier

Well-known member
Joined
May 14, 2017
Messages
1,718
Awards
10
Location
East Coast, USA
Honestly tempted to apply for staff JUST to fight them. Even though I'd be running a fool's errand it wouldn't be the first time I would be up against impossible odds.
 

kirabook

Bronze Member
Joined
Jan 4, 2010
Messages
1,669
Awards
4
Location
RoL
I haven't played with Xenforo in a long time, but things that can help catch spam is ReCaptcha of some kind. Or, if you're able to put time restrictions on user registrations, posts.

For example, if they're account is less than a week old, all their threads (not posts) are put in an approval queue or something like that. Technically would not stop bots, but would keep them from posting while "THE MODS ARE ASLEEP".

One bot getting through and posting outbound links attracts more bots, so it might help reduce bots overtime.

IF Xenforo has that feature.

Cloudflare might help a little too? If you aren't already using it.

If the spambots are using a handful of email domains, blocking those can also help.

Whoever invented spam bots are the worst.
 

Elysium

Be Wiser Than the Serpent
Joined
Nov 4, 2012
Messages
3,772
Awards
37
I see the threads pretty often. I always want to report them for the mods to help the cleanup maybe go faster, but you have to open the thread to report it and, tbh, I'm afraid to get a virus from opening them, lol.
 

2 quid is good

Well-known member
Joined
Apr 27, 2018
Messages
1,088
Awards
17
Location
airbourne
A solution we usually do is ban large swaths of IP addresses from specific regions or ban the entire region as a whole. Negatives to that tend to be that IP addresses refresh faster than we can keep up with especially with the use of VPNs, and banning an entire region might block out legitimate users.
haha i think this is what happened to me when I was in Pakistan earlier this year, woke up to an IP ban and I got so worried
 

maryadavies

She Shoots for the Stars
Joined
Nov 11, 2014
Messages
1,748
Awards
35
Age
50
Location
Somewhere east of Atlanta, GA
Website
maryadavies.vze.com
They also show up in profile posts, sometimes that's all they do. Darn cockroaches.

And as most of you know, I've modded before so I know the never ending battle. I swear, they keep coming out of the woodwork like Heartless or something.
 

Soldier

Well-known member
Joined
May 14, 2017
Messages
1,718
Awards
10
Location
East Coast, USA
They also show up in profile posts, sometimes that's all they do. Darn cockroaches.

And as most of you know, I've modded before so I know the never ending battle. I swear, they keep coming out of the woodwork like Heartless or something.
I'd say that'd be appropriate for a site like this, but I know that this isn't just a KHInsider problem, tons of other sites are affected by this.
 

maryadavies

She Shoots for the Stars
Joined
Nov 11, 2014
Messages
1,748
Awards
35
Age
50
Location
Somewhere east of Atlanta, GA
Website
maryadavies.vze.com
Soldier: NO KIDDING. I was public with this a while back but..Up until RPGamer pulled their board, I was a member mod over there. You would NOT believe what I saw spammer wise a lot, I could burn your ears. Even saw a really really gross porno spam over there that made me want to wash my eyes out with bleach. UGH. (I didn't do it, I like my eyes.)

But yeah, makes me really sympethetic to the mods here, and yes I keep reporting stuff I see.
 

Recon

Art of War
Joined
Jul 22, 2009
Messages
5,496
Awards
18
Hello. This is Recon. I’m here to talk about your car’s extended warranty
 
Back
Top