!!!PLEASE READ: combating spam!!!
Posted: Sun Jun 26, 2005 7:30 pmFolks, there have been a lot of posts here about spam and what PBase is doing to combat it. As users, we need to understand that spam is something that can only be _avoided_ if both the admins and the users do their own part.
Some common questions and answers
Why only PBase ? Other sites don't have them
Spam will hit sites that are very popular. The more popular, the higher the chance that SPAMmers will target you. PBase is a very highly indexed site (by google and others).
It seems all these Spam come from ".ru" or ".tv" domain - can't one just block these domains ?
This will only be a very short term solution - it is very simple for SPAMmers to change domains - they typically operate with hundreds of forged/captured domains and can keep changing the moment they analyze some are blocked
What can we as users do ?
Good question. You can do a lot. PBase already has the required functionality for us to combat Spam.
a) You can completely disable comments - not a good idea if you like people to leave a comment
b) You can only allow PBase subscribers to leave comments - again, not a good idea if your friends who are not PBase members like to browse your galleries
c) You can show PBase subscribers comments immediately while guests comments will only show if you decide to (PBase has this option)
I use option C) its the best option for me to allow everyone's comments while at the same time defeat the purpose of spammers
d) Please do _not_ post the entire spam comment here in the forums. It does not really help anyone and you are just increasing chances of spammers acheiving what they want - more indexing and visibility
How does one defeat spammers ?
Think about why spammers target high visiblity sites with lots of URLs. They want visibility - their bet is, that search engines will index these popular sites, in return indexing the URLs they post , and in return the sites pointed to by the URLs will get popular. The way to defeat is to not show those URLs to search indexers.
What can PBase do ? Can they really do nothing ?
Well, they already have allowed us the option of moderated comments. That is a great option. They _can_ do more by improving their spam gateways, but I would not wait for that to happen.
In addition, they have ensured that HTML code cannot be pasted by people in guestbooks - that avoids huge fonts being posted.
Beyond this, they can introduce options like forcing a guest to enter special generated letters each time a person posts a comment - I don't like any such option that will keep a person away from commenting.
So in short, spam can only be stopped/avoided if we as users know what to do.
How do I enable such options in PBase ?
1) Make sure you are logged in
2) Go to http://www.pbase.com/account
3) Who can post comments - select "guests can post" (if you want)
4) Who can post non hidden comments - select "only comments from PBase subscribers display immediately"
5) Click on Update button
Now what will happen is that when guests leave comments, including SPAMers, the comments will be accepted, but no one, except you will be able to see it. When you go to comment management, you will see that you have a new comment. If its valid, click on "show", If its spam , click on delete.
What have you now done ? You have stopped spam comments from being displayed, therefore stopped it from being picked up by search engines. You have effectively stopped the spammer from acheiving their objective as well as ensured that bad comments don't litter the public view of your guestbook.
I am sure all of us can log in once in a few days and just delete the spam comments, if we have any, as long as outsiders never get to see them, eh ?
regds
arjun
Some common questions and answers
Why only PBase ? Other sites don't have them
Spam will hit sites that are very popular. The more popular, the higher the chance that SPAMmers will target you. PBase is a very highly indexed site (by google and others).
It seems all these Spam come from ".ru" or ".tv" domain - can't one just block these domains ?
This will only be a very short term solution - it is very simple for SPAMmers to change domains - they typically operate with hundreds of forged/captured domains and can keep changing the moment they analyze some are blocked
What can we as users do ?
Good question. You can do a lot. PBase already has the required functionality for us to combat Spam.
a) You can completely disable comments - not a good idea if you like people to leave a comment
b) You can only allow PBase subscribers to leave comments - again, not a good idea if your friends who are not PBase members like to browse your galleries
c) You can show PBase subscribers comments immediately while guests comments will only show if you decide to (PBase has this option)
I use option C) its the best option for me to allow everyone's comments while at the same time defeat the purpose of spammers
d) Please do _not_ post the entire spam comment here in the forums. It does not really help anyone and you are just increasing chances of spammers acheiving what they want - more indexing and visibility
How does one defeat spammers ?
Think about why spammers target high visiblity sites with lots of URLs. They want visibility - their bet is, that search engines will index these popular sites, in return indexing the URLs they post , and in return the sites pointed to by the URLs will get popular. The way to defeat is to not show those URLs to search indexers.
What can PBase do ? Can they really do nothing ?
Well, they already have allowed us the option of moderated comments. That is a great option. They _can_ do more by improving their spam gateways, but I would not wait for that to happen.
In addition, they have ensured that HTML code cannot be pasted by people in guestbooks - that avoids huge fonts being posted.
Beyond this, they can introduce options like forcing a guest to enter special generated letters each time a person posts a comment - I don't like any such option that will keep a person away from commenting.
So in short, spam can only be stopped/avoided if we as users know what to do.
How do I enable such options in PBase ?
1) Make sure you are logged in
2) Go to http://www.pbase.com/account
3) Who can post comments - select "guests can post" (if you want)
4) Who can post non hidden comments - select "only comments from PBase subscribers display immediately"
5) Click on Update button
Now what will happen is that when guests leave comments, including SPAMers, the comments will be accepted, but no one, except you will be able to see it. When you go to comment management, you will see that you have a new comment. If its valid, click on "show", If its spam , click on delete.
What have you now done ? You have stopped spam comments from being displayed, therefore stopped it from being picked up by search engines. You have effectively stopped the spammer from acheiving their objective as well as ensured that bad comments don't litter the public view of your guestbook.
I am sure all of us can log in once in a few days and just delete the spam comments, if we have any, as long as outsiders never get to see them, eh ?
regds
arjun
