Do Something About The Multiple Aliases,Please!
- Thread starter jonnyy40
- Start date
There is a way to prevent (most of it) spamming via multiple aliases but I think its a coding issue...
The ability to ban (filter out) words or urls or email addresses et cetera.
For example the gwertyu word, if the code was set up in a way so that when someone (anyone) types that word in their message post prior clicking the submit reply button...
The message can't be sent until the word is removed.
This is done elsewhere at other forums.
I remember one particular forum that allowed the post to go through but the banned word(s) would be missing (automatically deleted).
Main reason when the gwertyu guy showed up once at this other forum and spammed...
He hasn't had the ability to post his junk no matter how many new aliases he uses.
The following words are banned at this other location:
gwertyu
anboan
www.anboan.narod.ru
anboan@narod.ru
ICQ: 70966433
The word ICQ can be posted but not in the same message post with the numbers 70966433
Simply, it works like some of the good email filters we see used by some ISP's or third party email spam filters.
As for the IP address of this guy...why bother trying to ban his IP address because that's an easy thing to get around for any spammer.
However, its a lot more difficult for a spammer to change his website links and such...reason why its more effective to ban words or specific urls or ban the ability to post specific email addresses.
Also, I've seen flood filters set up so that the same message can't be typed in multiple times in a 24 hour period regardless if the spammer changes a few words in the message posts...
Whereas I believe ET has a flood filter like 15secs to 1min or something like that.
Check out his test thread...
http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=49211
That's when he was testing to see if his IP address is ban or his ability to post.
Once he saw he was able to post at will...
He did just that.
Here's the part that's scary about all of this...
Imagine what message that's being sent to all other spammers that are members at ET or soon to be members...
The message is this...
Its ok to spam the exact same message over and over again at ET and the worst thing that can happen...
You'll be forced to get a new alias.
Just imagine what will happen once some porn sites find out about ET
NihabaAshi
Baron can and does ban individual IPs and IP ranges. But it's tough to keep folks out solely based on IP address, since most ISPs rotate IPs.
IMO, the answer lies in a more difficult registration system, perhaps the first few posts a new user makes require mod approval before appearing. Or new users are not allowed to post until some time has passed since registration. Or maybe they have to request posting access.
Or my favorite - figure out how much it costs to charge a credit card and do that with identity check - so we have only one person per alias. I'd be willing to shell out five bucks for an ID. And anybody can still read ET, a real ID could be required only for posting rights.
But didn't Silicon Investor try that? And drop it? Hmmmm. . .
Problem is, that cuts down on statistics, which drives ad revenue, which powers EliteTrader. Not enough advertising and no more ET. Perhaps if somebody comes up with a perfect solution, Baron'll implement it. Any ideas?
IMO, the answer lies in a more difficult registration system, perhaps the first few posts a new user makes require mod approval before appearing. Or new users are not allowed to post until some time has passed since registration. Or maybe they have to request posting access.
Or my favorite - figure out how much it costs to charge a credit card and do that with identity check - so we have only one person per alias. I'd be willing to shell out five bucks for an ID. And anybody can still read ET, a real ID could be required only for posting rights.
But didn't Silicon Investor try that? And drop it? Hmmmm. . .
Problem is, that cuts down on statistics, which drives ad revenue, which powers EliteTrader. Not enough advertising and no more ET. Perhaps if somebody comes up with a perfect solution, Baron'll implement it. Any ideas?
I suggested a modified version of this awhile back. Adopt the Yahoo option that group moderators have of monitoring the first few posts of a new member, so those intial posts must first be approved by the moderator before they're allowed to get thru to the board. It's not a perfect solution, qwerty-whatever can post bad film reviews in chat for a few days and then try to sell us the moon, but is he really going to go thru that much trouble, being a spammer? He's certainly not going to start a thread on the best indicator or outline his fav option strategy.
H
Yes he will and has done so in the past elsewhere.
Just ban his ability to post his website links, email address or any other filtered words regardless how many aliases he may have here at ET.
Works well elsewhere and I can't imagine why it wouldn't work well here at ET.
NihabaAshi
If there is a way to prevent new users from inserting links in their posts, then I feel that will cut down the spammers game a lot....Many of them seem to immediately spam by putting in a link in their posting....make it like 50 post or 30 days before they can insert a link...if that can be possible....
Or maybe when one registers here, they must provide a real personal email address for verification....not a free one such as Yahoo, Hotmail etc..
I suspect they'd do something like:
Hotmail is already blocked, and Yahoo probably is. The problem is new free domains are added to the net frequently. And, many folks have some admin rights to create and destroy email addresses. For instance, I have two or three additional email addresses that I can add, change or delete at will from my ISP.
Actually i only use yahoo and have never set up my time warner email so I'm assuming there are others who simply use yahoo or hotmail as their main email.
I did this because I hate changing my email address everytime I changed my ISP.... Plus you can check your email from anywhere...
i understand the logic behind it but I would have to go with the URL prevention instead...
If I had to join now I dont think I would go through the trouble of figuring out how to set up my real email. Heck, I dont even remember my user name on my ISP account which means i would have to call up etc....and make a project out of it...
Nick
Quote from NKNY:
If I had to join now I dont think I would go through the trouble of figuring out how to set up my real email. Heck, I dont even remember my user name on my ISP account which means i would have to call up etc....and make a project out of it...
Nick
I used to do the same thing, but wanted in on some other sites that didn't allow the freebies. So I had to figure it all out - it was a pain.
And the funny thing is, I have the ability to set up 2 or 3 (or mebbe more) additional email accounts on the same domain, but I can pick the names, register someplace, delete the accounts, generate new addresses and reregister. So by eliminating the freebie accounts, all they've done to stop me from having unlimited aliases is to make me have to figure out how to use my ISP email.
The real fact is, neither IP tracking nor email registration nor hyperlink blocking can do much in the war on spammers and multiple aliases. Every effective way requires a bigger obstacle for regular folks to sign up.
