There is no automated program that will catch 100% of spam.
Or even close to it. Your best bet is to attempt to find a solution that works for you.
Human Test plugin doesn’t actually test if someone is Human, it just checks if the answer in the input box is right. The bots usually have a good guess at these, and over time get them right once in a while. Its hardly fool proof (but then, doesn’t claim to be).
Ofcourse, thats not really spam either, thats just spammer registrations.
You could make sure that only people you approve can post. And you should be running something like Akismet also.
The best spambot plugin? You. The moderator.
Also, on your website Interests and Location are not required to be a correct answer, so that plays no part in the passing or failing of the Human Test plugin.
But its common for all of these spambot registrations, that they have the exact same interests.
I would prefer that no spambots register at all, but when they appear so sophisticated, I hesitate with deleting them right away.
Human Test is kind of old now, and there are new programs out there like this: https://bbpress.org/plugins/topic/nospamuser/
That any good? Or better? Can you run both?
You can run both, but it still won’t stop all of the spambots getting through. Nothing will. Thats something we all face mate, whenever you run a website on any platform.
I would prefer that no spambots register at all
Never ever ever going to happen.
All the other plugin you’ve linked does is check to see if they are giving you an email address that an external database knows to be a spammer. It doesn’t actually do anything if it doesn’t know it’s a spammer from another website.
It’s the law of averages. Lets say that every measure you take stops 90%.
1000 spam bots try to register.
900 are stopped by the first one.
90 are stopped by the second plugin
1 are stopped by Akismet when trying to post.
That means that 10 spam bots got through your plugins to register, and 1 of them can post without it being picked up as spam.
It’s why we have moderators.
Human Test have prevented absolutely all spambots from registering since I installed it. For almost a year, untill yesterday.
You mention “several” registrations. Is there a specific reason that you think this is a spambot as opposed to a human spammer?
Akismet catch in my blog 99 % of spam. In bbPress ck’s plugin Human Test works 100 %.
Yes.
They have similiar email adresses, exact same specifications for interests, occupation, website, and location.
Oddly, they list my website as theirs. They are registered almost at the same time, which breaks the normal flow of registrants I usually have. I never get three new members in two minutes.
They are also named similarly, like “Cecilie” and “Cecilia”. Often with english names these bots, which again is not typical for my norwegian forum.
And of course, they never post.
I always wondered about this: if the spammer never posts, why does it matter if they are registered? Do they eventually come back and post spam, or does the link in their profile give them enough benefit? Or, do they use a fake email so they never get the password and thus never post (making their registration a half failed attempt at posting spam on your forum)?
There used to be a plugin to delete users that were registered for so long who never posted (so, mass deleting inactive users.)
Yeah I had the mass delete plugin before, but it messed up the order of posts. It created a problem where suddenly, the freshest posts would not show. It paralysed discussions.
I just like to have controll over my users. I want to know that people registering are real, so I can know exactly how many users I have on my forum. I take this very seriously.
Also, there is the fear of these bots being inactive, then suddenly coming back and spamming the place down. And lets say I had ignored all spambots, and they go off like a bomb together… would not be nice.
After a year of running this forum, this seems unlikely, so its mostly about prevention, and what ifs. But like I said, I really want accounts to be authentic people.
I don’t question your desire to get rid of them (or prevent the registrations in the first place) I just wonder what the spammers get out of registering and never using the account.
Me too.
I believe your theory about them never getting the password is correct.
So does the bb-nospamuser have any advantages compared to human test ?
