22 replies to this topic

[Phil]

Because we are suddenly being targeted by enormous amounts of spam bots, we've had to disable registration for new members. We realise this is a somewhat drastic measure, but the 100 odd bots registering every day are just too much for us to handle. We are planning to do the long overdue upgrade to IPB 3.1 within the next weeks, which will allow us to use a custom question & answer challenge that should keep all the spam bots out for good.

If you are currently a guest and would still like to join Revora, simply send us an e-mail to info at revora.net with your desired user name and we will set it up for you. Also note that guest posting is still enabled in most parts of the board for now. However, should the bots change strategy and spam us guests, we'll have to disable that as well.

We apologise for the inconvenience.

[Beowulf]

Drastic isn't quite powerful enough of a word to describe this situation. Damn...

[Caspa]

Drastic? Maybe. But you do what you must in such circumstances.

[Soul]

This should of been done sooner.

[Beowulf]

Are there really no hacks to prevent this sort of thing?

I got one for vB that could potentially be converted to IPB.

[Phil]

Probably there are, but instead of spending days on trying to fix the registration while hundreds of bots are still signing up, we're just shutting the door and preparing our upgrade to IPB 3 instead. We'll have to do that at some point anyway and now is as good a time as any.

[Beowulf]

Fair enough. But I thought I'd toss the option out there.

[Caspa]

So, how much of a hassle is it going to be to upgrade IPB to 3.1, how much downtime is expected during the upgrade and what features could possibly go missing as a result?

[Phil]

So, how much of a hassle is it going to be to upgrade IPB to 3.1

A big one

how much downtime is expected during the upgrade

Maybe an hour or two of effective downtime

and what features could possibly go missing as a result?

• All skins
• MasterNews
• MasterMember
• Maybe other things like RePort and RAS

I won't deny it, it is going to be a pain. On the other hand, we are going to gain a lot of new features, of which avoiding spam bots is just one.

[Pasidon]

Just leave it like this. Not like we're getting new members anyway.

[some_weirdGuy]

I saw the title and the thought 'revora is dead in the water' came to mind.
However, i see its not as grim as my initial reaction lead me to believe. Drastic it may seem, but as a temporary measure it sounds to me like an already idea. What you may lose in legitimate new members is more than compensated by its blocking of illegitimate members(bots).


I wonder why its suddenly being target so much.

[Phil]

Like I said, it's obviously only temporary and shouldn't take longer than 10 days until we've upgraded. It's a pity for the 3-4 legit registrations a day we used to have, but I believe with guest posting and registration requests through e-mail this is acceptable for this time frame.

[duke_Qa]

Good choice. Hopefully things will smooth out now.

[Caspa]

I wonder why its suddenly being target so much.

Revora isn't being targeted any more than anywhere else. Spambots seem to be heavily increasing in activity on just about every forum I frequent.

[some_weirdGuy]

Revora isn't being targeted any more than anywhere else. Spambots seem to be heavily increasing in activity on just about every forum I frequent.

I see. I still wonder why there seems to be an increase overall.
Has there just been a whole lot more dumped onto the net, or have they changed who they target so that forums are frequented more often, or have they been upgraded so that they now bypass old security measures that use to keep them out? (or any other reason i haven't thought of).

I don't even know who would know the answer to such a question, so it seems that it will remain a mystery to me.

[Caspa]

If you'll remember, a few of the main players in junkmail over in Russia shut up shop during Christmas. Maybe they did so, to focus more on spambots. Bots are a lot more profitable these days than junkmail, after all.

Edited by Caspa, 22 January 2011 - 02:19 AM.

[Pasidon]

Not a bad theory... nevertheless... they're being developed so much better and faster since a year's time, so I can only imagine a time when we begin to suspect the most intelligent sounding people of being bots. No joke... it's un-far-fetched to happen. We're upgrading the site for now, but it's only a matter of time when the producers of these things input a behavior that'll enable them a way around again. I've seen digital dialogs developed in Japan last year that seem too human already... Can you imagine what happens when Russia gets their hands on tech like that?

[Caspa]

You mean when they finally make bots capable of creating relevant, intelligent and helpful posts? Am I the only person who doesn't see a problem there?

[Darthbyron56]

I hate those damn bots! Having had the problem with IPB before its a pain in the neck, the upgrade should sort it, but i've seen forums on the latest version of IPB and still have bots!

[Jedi_Consular]

The bots are hitting sites even with new versions of IPB installed, I'm removing them every day on other sites I help to Administrate. Just need tighter security, and enable some thing like recaptcha.