The Guitar Gallery Forums - The Guitar Legacy of Matsumoku

Lately, the Forum is bombarded by spam bots (again). These 'members' frequently use generic e-mail addresses. I've just blocked e-mail addresses ending with '@aol.com', '@gmail.org', '@email.com' and '@yahoo.co.uk'. I'd love to block '@gmail.com' and @hotmail.com, but I've noticed a few regular members utilize such address too. If you do, and you read this, please change your email address to a less anonymous one. Sorry for any inconvenience these measurements may cause ...

_________________
http://www.GuitarDir.com has been hacked by some mindless fool, destroying years
of gathering info on guitars by non-commercial guitar lovers. Why?

Lately, the stream of spambots has slightly deminished, thanks to the forum software update, and the blocked e-mail servers. From the 10+ a day that still manage to break through, 9+ use @gmail.com or @hotmail.com addresses.

_________________
http://www.GuitarDir.com has been hacked by some mindless fool, destroying years
of gathering info on guitars by non-commercial guitar lovers. Why?

I've put a 24hr ban on all gmail and hotmail addresses. Any member with such an address trying to log in gets the following message:
"All gmail and hotmail addresses will be blocked permanently soon. Please change your email address tomorrow (this temporary ban will be lifted within 24 hours)."

_________________
http://www.GuitarDir.com has been hacked by some mindless fool, destroying years
of gathering info on guitars by non-commercial guitar lovers. Why?

Hmm, I didn't receive that message when I logged in.

... guess it doesn't apply to registered members then. Good!

_________________
http://www.GuitarDir.com has been hacked by some mindless fool, destroying years
of gathering info on guitars by non-commercial guitar lovers. Why?

The 24 hours went by without any spambots. The ban expired, and I just removed four, all with gmail addresses.
Think it would be a good idea to block @gmail.com permanently. Peers??

_________________
http://www.GuitarDir.com has been hacked by some mindless fool, destroying years
of gathering info on guitars by non-commercial guitar lovers. Why?

I say yes, but perhaps every active member should be notified via PM?

_________________
FWIW, an after market esoteric nut is a solution to a problem that doesn't exist, and a great way to convert your money into someone else’s.

Or, how about John notifies everyone in person?

I've opened up gmail again. With the newer spambot countemeasures new users that do not validate within the hour are dismissed. Nearly all serious members validate their accounts immediately and almost always post right away.

Gmail has also tightened things up a bit. All bots using disposable email addresses now are using virtual subdomians and disposable SMTP servers. Bots were using a back door approach rather than using the actual registration forms. With the updates to phpBB and the updated spambot countermeasures we see far fewer.

I've also made a change to the PM rules. Human spammers that do not meet certain criteria get a error message whey trying to send PMs. We should see FAR less PM spamming now.

There is really no way to completely eliminate spammers without severely crippling the forums. There are ways, but they're fairly drastic.

Nice!! Anything that limits the bots is good, eh!!

_________________
FWIW, an after market esoteric nut is a solution to a problem that doesn't exist, and a great way to convert your money into someone else’s.