Stop / Ban Autoposters

[ThumperTM]

^^ nice one Gavo

[Gavo]

I blocked themaposter at the moment, but as soon as freddy bypasses it i have another far better method ready in place and will add all themaposter and other autoposter users to that list.

Then i will add auto ban

[WarezFreaks]

The way I did (if you do not want to completely stop the AP people - believe it or not, some AP's are good )

Make a new usergroup in your acp for the AP
Move all the AP's in there (even the ones you suspect being an AP)
Restrict that user group from posting more then 50 topics per 24hours (or choose a number whatever you want)
Install the keykaptcha mod from here: This mods will ad a keycaptcha before posting for each group that you want, even the required post count till they do not need to fill in the keycaptcha anymore is present. Configure the hook to your needs.

I can assure you this works like a charm

A few other great hooks/mods that I use and are highly recommend are:

Days Registered to Post Links (Anti-Spam Measurement)
Number of Posts to Post Links (Anti Spam Measurement)
Prevent Multiple Registrations From the Same Ip
Anti Spam
KeyCAPTCHA - Innovative Anti-Spam Service. We Pay For Your Protection.
(JG32) Forum Spammer IP & Email Check via stopforumspam 1.1.0
Prevent Registrations From Proxy Servers

With these hooks/mods combined, you have pretty much covered most of the spammers and AP's

[Mr Happy]

@Gavo.
If you wanted you could make it do a check on the username first. eg if $username is inarray($allowed_usernames) continue with login. Then charge $5 a month for anyone with an autoposter who wants to continue posting (optional: charge $3 if they don't want their details released).

[Gavo]

Adding them to a usergroup and limiting posts per day seems the way to go

I just need to make a phpbb3 mod to limit post per day for a usergroup now


<edit> thinking about this, people will just make dup accounts and post the same things over again </edit>

[seraphim]

First i must say : Hat down for real webmasters!
Second:
Most of warez forums owners come here and cry how they need staff and they need uploaders. They even give you forum id's for autoposter. Once they have enough content they decide that they do not need bots anymore and they come here again crying how to stop bots from posting. Those so called webmasters are same "cashwhores" as those autoposters. They put billion pop up, pop under ads. Every link you click will generate 10 pages in background. Beside that they will beg you to donate trough emails and private messages cause for the Heavens sake shared hosting costs 4$ a month. They will offer you premium membership where you will have access to CRACKED file hosts accounts. There is much more things but i think this is enough.

If you have warez site and you are not into money, close site for registrations, activate invitations system. Don't allow google to crawl around. Disable board for the guests.

[Gavo]

When autoposters were 1st around i think they were great.


But when so many people use them for spamming its not good, people really do spend all day posting the same topics with differant UID and when there banned they just change IP or (what pisses me off most) they just use the Proxy feature in the autoposter apps.


So
1.The idea of autoposter apps was great.
2.In reality so many people abuse them its a hindrance.
3.Auto poster people dont visit the forum & download other peoples downloads (the basic idea of a warez forum)

[Daniel]

Use an unknown anti-spam version that is not offered in multi-poster / auto-posters.

[eXploit]

I know for a fact that Jay will help you block spammers using his poster. He has always said that if the webmasters are getting spammed, he will ban them from his app. I know there are a few different ones now, but it's a start.

[sceneguy]

also another idea to stop spam(general spam and autoposter in particular)is to make a simple rule.1 thread for event/movie/app/game etc. ALL versions of THAT item have to be posted ONLY in THAT thread.it makes it easier for the user also.this can only be done if the uploader ACTUALLY visits your site.if he does not follow the rule,ban,repeated offences,PERMABAN.

for eg,if you own a movie forum, a thread named ABC 2011 will be created by the first poster.all successive posts for ABC 2011 will be made under that thread.if its a contributing member who creates that thread,he can link to the other posts in that thread

DVDRIP
CAM etc

i have imposed this rule on my forum and to tell you,its working!