Message Board Spam

How to prevent it?

[helleborine]

I've started a message board.

Other message boards on my "topic" have had to close down because of persistant spam posts - personal, adult, pharma, etc.

I don't want this to happen to me. I searched the web using the keywords "message board spam" and "message board spam webmaster" but I can't seem to get the info I want.

How it is done, anyway? Is it automated, or can a hostile individual be behind it? I suspect the latter, as "topic" boards seem to fall victim ONE AFTER ANOTHER.

Thanks.

[bakedjake]

You might consider using a board that requires you to login to post. There are many available.

[karmov]

You could also prevent them from posting HTML links. The only other way around it is to have a few active moderators that keep an eye on things. Only one won't do since you'll need to sleep at some point :)

[Tsuren]

there is a picture code. It helps. Look at seochase.com/profile.php?mode=register

__________

boss! Please! Do not remove the link. :) How can I explain what picture code is if I canot show an example. It's not a link. This language is not understandable anyway :) That's not an advertizing, that's an example.

[Rosalind]

I'm more inclined to think it's automated spam, this is a very prevalent problem.

Look up ereg_replace, which works like this in php:

$message = ereg_replace("spam keyword","***",$message);

You can use this to blank out spam keywords that might appear in urls, and to a certain extent to censor offensive language. Use it smartly to avoid the S****horpe problem, though, and let your users know what is going on to avoid confusion.