Forum Moderators: rogerd
I naively assumed that the thought process for creating a new post would take a minute... ;)
Also, you may be able to change the technique a little: Instead of blocking new posts or giving them a "post later" message, put part of the delay into the transfer from the posting form to the refreshed view of the forum... In other words, make it look like it takes awhile to "create" a post, instead of starting the timer after the posting is completed. I hope that makes sense, but there's a good example at hand...
Jim
One thought that occurs to me is having a longer delay for new members, and shorter delays for senior/full members. I suspect that's possible with a hack.
The correct way to do this is to allow 6 posts every 5 minutes, so you limit on a high number over a period of time rather than a small frequency from one post to the next.
You will find this stop's the bots, but never affects "real users" (except those who go down a list of posts adding a "me too!" to every thread, but who needs those users anyway?).
I wrote a number of "anti-bot" code changes for my phpbb forum after being hit by a bot once.
Of course anti-bot measures are a big topic and there is far more to it that outlined above. (heh, maybe I should become a forum consultant :p )
So, welcome to WebmasterWorld and I'm certainly looking forward to seeing you post here as well. Any chance of giving away a few of your secrets?!
Here's another one ... after I tightened the flood control on my own forums, I quickly became aggravated that when editing a message I had to wait before resubmitting it. I'm not likely to post more than once in a two-minute period, but I'm a lot more likely to go back and fix something in a post within 2 minutes! :-)
The fix for me was to use a mod to remove flood control from editing posts (only). It's for phpBB (search for No Flood On Edit) but I'm sure most fora could be modified this way.
Best,
Dave
It might also have the side benefit of slowing down prolific new members. The member who makes 25 posts on his first day is rarely a high quality contributor, at least at the outset. A period of limited posting could be a time to acclimate to the forum culture.
1) Innovate, dont stagnate
2) Always remember: Innovation is never about duplication
Yet another thought: I wonder if anyone has tried an even broader flood control approach by limiting the number of posts by a new member for a longer period, e.g., 10 posts in an hour, or 15 posts in a 24 hour period? This would not only slow down bots, it would frustrate human spammers and make cleanups easier.
An interesting idea, if it can be implemented by modifying an existing SQL query in posting.php and without causing that query to use a temporary table then it may be worth doing.
Alternativly/additionally just give your mod's the ability to ban users. I wrote a custom page which allows all my moderators to do the following:
1) Ban a user
2) Remove a users signature
3) Remove a users avatar
All actions are recorded in a log which myself and other moderators can view. There is also a "staff notes" text box that allows them to put in a sentence explaining why the action was taken, eg "user was spamming", "animated avatar" etc.
Normally what happens when you have a spammer is you you need an administrator to be around at the time to ban the user and stop them spamming. As i am the only user with Administrator privileges on my forum, then previously if there is a spam issue when im asleep then the spammer could get left as an active user (..to continue spamming) for another 12 hours or whatever. This extra page allows issues to be delt with by moderators and means I dont have to worry so much :)
