i guess most of them are bots

How can I make this site better? Let me know what you'd like to see!

Moderators: MattKingUSA, khz

Post Reply
User avatar
chaocrator
Established Member
Posts: 313
Joined: Fri Jun 26, 2015 8:11 pm
Location: Kyiv, Ukraine
Been thanked: 1 time
Contact:

i guess most of them are bots

Post by chaocrator »

just FYI. 2018-03-26
bots.jpg
bots.jpg (143.46 KiB) Viewed 11205 times
User avatar
Michael Willis
Established Member
Posts: 1450
Joined: Mon Oct 03, 2016 3:27 pm
Location: Rocky Mountains, North America
Has thanked: 68 times
Been thanked: 162 times
Contact:

Re: i guess most of them are bots

Post by Michael Willis »

Ha, I was just about to post the same thing, I already took the screenshot and then saw your message. Those look mighty suspicious.
User avatar
Markus
Established Member
Posts: 81
Joined: Tue Jul 21, 2015 9:29 am

Re: i guess most of them are bots

Post by Markus »

It is spam, but more the clandestine one.

memberlist.php?first_char=g&start=50

There you can see a couple of user accounts, created in a narrow time frame, all with four digits at the end of the user name, demonstrating what it is all about: presenting a domain to be pushed in search engines. No human being cares about these accounts but bots still crawl the URL. They will never add a posting anywhere, their exclusive job is the link to the homepage on the users profile.

EDIT: Probably there's a setting which restricts adding a homepage URL to a profile without having a single post? Doesn't prevent from useless user accounts in the database but destroys their "business model" at least.
linux-lover
Established Member
Posts: 24
Joined: Fri Jun 27, 2014 11:39 am

Re: i guess most of them are bots

Post by linux-lover »

@42low deleting after a year or more is a bad idea,why simple i rarely login, but read everyday :)
ssj71
Established Member
Posts: 1294
Joined: Tue Sep 25, 2012 6:36 pm
Has thanked: 1 time

Re: i guess most of them are bots

Post by ssj71 »

just send a message to them "your account will be deleted if you don't login within 30 days"

I just got one of those from dropbox. :)
_ssj71

music: https://soundcloud.com/ssj71
My plugins are Infamous! http://ssj71.github.io/infamousPlugins
I just want to get back to making music!
linux-lover
Established Member
Posts: 24
Joined: Fri Jun 27, 2014 11:39 am

Re: i guess most of them are bots

Post by linux-lover »

@42low Agree ,but i have not much to say,and mostly it is being grumpy :) And most my work is making parodies on songs.
@ssj71 Yes that would work.
User avatar
raboof
Established Member
Posts: 1855
Joined: Tue Apr 08, 2008 11:58 am
Location: Deventer, NL
Has thanked: 50 times
Been thanked: 74 times
Contact:

Re: i guess most of them are bots

Post by raboof »

42low wrote:This wil make the sql database smaller, so faster
I really doubt this will make much of a difference.
42low wrote:Many forums can delete by options. I know for sure that phpbb has these kind of options in the admin. :wink:

If so you could choose for options like "0 posts" combined with "more than a year (or longer) not logged in" and "logged in less than 2 times" or so.
These kind of combined options mostly cleans up a lot off useless rubbish without effecting real members. Extended personal experience.
Unfortunately when the query returns too many results, the feature does nothing :(

Deleted about 2000 inactive accounts, calling it a day, this is no way to spend a Sunday.
User avatar
khz
Established Member
Posts: 1648
Joined: Thu Apr 17, 2008 6:29 am
Location: German
Has thanked: 42 times
Been thanked: 92 times

Re: i guess most of them are bots

Post by khz »

I have been here in the forum since 2008, but was not active from ~2013 - 2018 here in the forum due to personal circumstances (profession/life/...).
I would have found it a pity if I had been deleted.
. . . FZ - Does humor belongs in Music?
. . GNU/LINUX@AUDIO ~ /Wiki $ Howto.Info && GNU/Linux Debian installing >> Linux Audio Workstation LAW
  • I don't care about the freedom of speech because I have nothing to say.
User avatar
raboof
Established Member
Posts: 1855
Joined: Tue Apr 08, 2008 11:58 am
Location: Deventer, NL
Has thanked: 50 times
Been thanked: 74 times
Contact:

Re: i guess most of them are bots

Post by raboof »

khz wrote:I have been here in the forum since 2008, but was not active from ~2013 - 2018 here in the forum due to personal circumstances (profession/life/...).
I would have found it a pity if I had been deleted.
I haven't and don't plan to delete accounts that have at least 1 post in all of history.
User avatar
raboof
Established Member
Posts: 1855
Joined: Tue Apr 08, 2008 11:58 am
Location: Deventer, NL
Has thanked: 50 times
Been thanked: 74 times
Contact:

Re: i guess most of them are bots

Post by raboof »

42low wrote:
raboof wrote:
42low wrote:Many forums can delete by options. I know for sure that phpbb has these kind of options in the admin. :wink:
Unfortunately when the query returns too many results, the feature does nothing :(

Deleted about 2000 inactive accounts, calling it a day, this is no way to spend a Sunday.
You could choose to do it in parts. With 0 posts older than 2 or 3 years first, and then with 0 posts in 1 year? Depending on what you want to delete.
Yeah, that's what I did. Still a pain ;).
User avatar
khz
Established Member
Posts: 1648
Joined: Thu Apr 17, 2008 6:29 am
Location: German
Has thanked: 42 times
Been thanked: 92 times

Re: i guess most of them are bots

Post by khz »

raboof wrote:I haven't and don't plan to delete accounts that have at least 1 post in all of history.
Yes, that's how I read and understood it.
I wanted to say that there are sometimes personal circumstances, which is why you are not present in a forum for a longer time.
. . . FZ - Does humor belongs in Music?
. . GNU/LINUX@AUDIO ~ /Wiki $ Howto.Info && GNU/Linux Debian installing >> Linux Audio Workstation LAW
  • I don't care about the freedom of speech because I have nothing to say.
User avatar
raboof
Established Member
Posts: 1855
Joined: Tue Apr 08, 2008 11:58 am
Location: Deventer, NL
Has thanked: 50 times
Been thanked: 74 times
Contact:

Re: i guess most of them are bots

Post by raboof »

khz wrote:
raboof wrote:I haven't and don't plan to delete accounts that have at least 1 post in all of history.
Yes, that's how I read and understood it.
I wanted to say that there are sometimes personal circumstances, which is why you are not present in a forum for a longer time.
OK, since you were active before you were in no danger of your account being deleted ;)
cornicis
Established Member
Posts: 3
Joined: Tue Oct 02, 2018 2:15 pm

Re: i guess most of them are bots

Post by cornicis »

Why doesn't the board use a good captcha to deny registration to bots?
User avatar
raboof
Established Member
Posts: 1855
Joined: Tue Apr 08, 2008 11:58 am
Location: Deventer, NL
Has thanked: 50 times
Been thanked: 74 times
Contact:

Re: i guess most of them are bots

Post by raboof »

cornicis wrote:Why doesn't the board use a good captcha to deny registration to bots?
In short: because it's not trivial to do, opinions vary on what would be a 'good' captcha implementation, advances in AI techniques for solving captcha's make them less effective, and there are spammers using real humans to get past captcha's (either by tricking them or by paying them).
Post Reply