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So we've all seen the spam posts for herbal supplements, kitchen remodeling etc. Hopefully never for too long since we mods kill a dozen or more of them every day.

From what I understand they're not really hoping the good people of Dakka will buy stuff from them, it's more so that Google will see links from an established site to these sites and improve their rankings - SEO, Search Engine Optimization.

And obviously the firms outsource to companies that send in the bots to register accounts and then put up the spam posts.

And a lot of times firms might not even know this is being done in their name, they just pay someone who says he'll boost their google rankings.

Is that about right?

So my question is does anyone know if there's any way to deter these SEO marketers? I mean their links rarely stay up more than a half hour so they can't possibly be benefiting the customer. At some point shouldn't they just target another site?

Or since it's bots, who are presumably spamming every site on Earth they just don't know or care?

If I were you, change the letter or two of the buzzwords you got up there... (ie, h3b@l and k!thc3n).

You're right, there are bots out there that scans for certain key words/phrases... and then, these companies *sells* to unscrumptuous advertisers who, in turn, unleash the ad bots to the sites.

Hence why you see that 'human captcha' services used on many websites.

I've vastly over-simplified it, but that's the gist.

Maybe lego can 'splain better in Nuts & Bolts?

It's been a long time since I became a member, how tough is it to get an account on here? Perhaps the bots are easily bypassing whatever registration hoops you have.

I doubt it's a guy doing this by hand to make these accounts

You spoke of them, and they hath been summoned!

 MrMoustaffa wrote:
It's been a long time since I became a member, how tough is it to get an account on here?

Fill out five or six fields and check your email for a confirmation mail. That's about it.

With all the DCMs helping fund this site, I've always wondered why Yak hasn't adopted some sort of anti-bot measure.

From what I understand the mangagement does not want to put too many barriers to registration.

The main limit is new users are restricted to a small number of posts/day which keeps bots from putting up too much spam per account.

Spam bots obviously work or they wouldn't exist. It is a tragedy that they work though.

I can see why advertising organ enlargement pills on sites visited by guys who compensate with expensive cars and expensive suits may work.

Guys who proudly proclaim they play toy soldiers clearly don't need them as they're already happy to handicap their chances and still be succesful.

I reckon it's just a high traffic site and they want the Google hits. Guys who like Spess Mehreeens are more likely to sign up to actual surgery to turn into Post-humans than worry about a few herbs in a capsule. I mean honestly, do any of us have salad with our double pepperoni meat feast pizza? What's some Basil going to do?

 Wulfmar wrote:
I mean honestly, do any of us have salad with our double pepperoni meat feast pizza? What's some Basil going to do?

I'll have you know that I personally once ate almost half a salad before moving on to the mozzarella sticks.

 Kid_Kyoto wrote:
From what I understand the management does not want to put too many barriers to registration.

I understand, but is an anti-bot text box really a barrier to registration? Really?

I'm sure y'all remember How the Bots were destroyed

This was on January 9th, 2016, when Korean Bots invaded Dakka.

A number of other sites i'm on do have annoying, fiddly or complex verification processes

and they all get a bunch of spambots too because the writers find it profitable to program bots that defeat the protections

(there are only a certain number of forum platforms (especially free or cheap ones)

so either you get some propriety forum software (probably not worth programming a work around for one forum so they may not bother) but that cost money (or time if you've got a tame programmer)

or you have a human authenticate each application who will miss some spammers and not let in some genuine applicants (before drowning in more work than they can handle in their free time from a real job)

so I think Dakka has it about right, MODs with the ability to dump spammer accounts, an easy way to report spam posts and a user base who will actually bother reporting them

o

Unless you had a thing say with 6 simple images in primary colours and say click all red tiles?

Somthing to confuse a bot

 KaptinBadrukk wrote:
I'm sure y'all remember How the Bots were destroyed

This was on January 9th, 2016, when Korean Bots invaded Dakka.

And it was glorious.


But apart from that time, I only rarely see spammers on here. So I think that Dakka already is quite good the way it is.

 Iron_Captain wrote:

 KaptinBadrukk wrote:
I'm sure y'all remember How the Bots were destroyed

This was on January 9th, 2016, when Korean Bots invaded Dakka.

And it was glorious.


But apart from that time, I only rarely see spammers on here. So I think that Dakka already is quite good the way it is.

Agreed.

 KaptinBadrukk wrote:

 Iron_Captain wrote:

 KaptinBadrukk wrote:
I'm sure y'all remember How the Bots were destroyed

This was on January 9th, 2016, when Korean Bots invaded Dakka.

And it was glorious.


But apart from that time, I only rarely see spammers on here. So I think that Dakka already is quite good the way it is.

Agreed.

Yup, I'm only on a few parts of Dakka and I only see the bots on occasion and typically the MODS have taken care of it by then.

I have heard that there are some sites which use those Captcha images (the ones with nearly illegible wiggly text, or photos of house numbers), but the real purpose is to train bots to recognise them.

Also, depending on the security of the forum, some spammers don't register; they just directly inject user and post data into the database tables.

A problem with captcha codes is that for some reason China blocks some of the services that provide them, resulting in an image load error and a box asking for the code.

 Iron_Captain wrote:

 KaptinBadrukk wrote:
I'm sure y'all remember How the Bots were destroyed

This was on January 9th, 2016, when Korean Bots invaded Dakka.

And it was glorious.


But apart from that time, I only rarely see spammers on here. So I think that Dakka already is quite good the way it is.

Well just to offer a peak behind the scenes you don't see much spam because mods are deleting it 24 hours a day and banning 5~10 spam accounts a day.

The latest wave of bots has been advertising haemorrhoid treatments.

I can tell you we're taking that sitting down.

 Kilkrazy wrote:
The latest wave of bots has been advertising haemorrhoid treatments.

I can tell you we're taking that sitting down.

Let's hope the spammers all get butthurt

As a reminder to everyone, don't feed the spammers!

Just hit the yellow triangle and help is on its way.

If you're replying you boost their signal and there's always a chance I'll click on you for a 10000 year ban instead of them.

So that is how Lego is financing his miniature imperium by being sponsored by hemorrhoid companies

 the Signless wrote:

 Wulfmar wrote:
I mean honestly, do any of us have salad with our double pepperoni meat feast pizza? What's some Basil going to do?

I'll have you know that I personally once ate almost half a salad before moving on to the mozzarella sticks.

Mmmmmm, salad is delicious. Just splash some cracked black pepper and balsamic vinegar. Could eat it all day alongside my double-pepperoni pizza.

 the Signless wrote:
A problem with captcha codes is that for some reason China blocks some of the services that provide them, resulting in an image load error and a box asking for the code.

I am surprised dakkadakka is not blocked by the great firewall of china too.

Baxx wrote:

 the Signless wrote:
A problem with captcha codes is that for some reason China blocks some of the services that provide them, resulting in an image load error and a box asking for the code.

I am surprised dakkadakka is not blocked by the great firewall of china too.

I can take care of that.

Tiananmen, Tiananmen, Tiananmen!

1989! 1989! 1989!

 Kid_Kyoto wrote:

Baxx wrote:

 the Signless wrote:
A problem with captcha codes is that for some reason China blocks some of the services that provide them, resulting in an image load error and a box asking for the code.

I am surprised dakkadakka is not blocked by the great firewall of china too.

I can take care of that.

Tiananmen, Tiananmen, Tiananmen!

1989! 1989! 1989!

exalted