Blocking a country IP?

Discussion in 'Managing Your Online Community' started by Fergal, Oct 12, 2013.

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  1. Big al

    Big al Regular Member

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    I have found this is the case many times. There seems to be quite a few "ten post" then post a link spammers.
    They usually post things like " Good site thanks" for approx nine posts, then on the tenth they put in a link to the website they are promoting.

    If the spammers can be deleted quickly before they receive any commission from people clicking their links, then their efforts in posting become a waste of time for them.

    The anti-spam measures help, but sometimes they need checking and deleting mercilessly.
     
    Big al, Oct 15, 2013
    #21
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  2. Fergal

    Fergal Regular Member

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    Thanks for that Cerberus, that's an education. I feel like you have given me a look through a door to a room that I didn't even know existed.
     
    Fergal, Oct 16, 2013
    #22
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  3. Arm Flailing Madman

    Arm Flailing Madman Regular Member

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    When I was starting out I was aghast at the thought. But wait... what will happen to all my Chinese, Nigerian and Russian users who desperately want to post on my site? What about all those thousands of potential stars just waiting to fill my forums with life and vitality!

    Turns out all you get from China, Nigeria and Russia are scams, fake lotteries and viagra pills.

    So I just slapped about 400 different IP DENY ranges in my htaccess file and I'm good to go.
     
    Arm Flailing Madman, Oct 21, 2013
    #23
  4. Code Monkey

    Code Monkey Regular Member

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    I just blocked the baidu IP ranges last night. So much better now without so many of their constant spiders hitting my site for absolutely no apparent reason.
     
    Code Monkey, Oct 21, 2013
    #24
  5. valdet

    valdet Regular Member

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    I use multiple anti spam mods and strategies, which have been working quite well. I barely if ever have any spam problems.


    The VbStopForumSpam has been very effective, but Spamlist is also very good as it allows you to update the spammy email domains list with ease, so they're bot allowed to even register an account if their domain is on the list.

    Jeff's hack has also proved to be very useful in blocking unwanted countries.
    I had most spam attempts coming from Russia, Ukraine, China, Turkey and Poland

    I also use few others so they're triggered at various levels during registration or posting.Depends on their actions

    But what has also been quite effective, is that we don't allow new members to post links in their first week. Obviously spammers don't know this as we altered the error message if they post links in first day.

    So while they post their usual BS: Thx; Good info; great read, it is very easy to detect them and delete/ban them at spot.
     
    valdet, Oct 22, 2013
    #26
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  6. Cerberus

    Cerberus Admin Talk Staff

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    I think the best way to stop a spammer is to let him think he has won. Setup a special usergroup for new members in which only those in that usergroup can see their posts. Also, disallow all others including guests/not logged in from seeing their posts. And then set it to where you have to manually approve their accounts, straight to moderation. Do not let them know they are being moderated. Then the spammer shows up, spams, looks at their posts or the bot parses the post to make sure it was posted, then leaves, and in most cases never returns. No one ever sees their posts but staff and them, and you can delete the accounts at your own leisure.

    This is the only full proof idea I can come up with after playing around with and may help some of you or may not. But, as I said before I am all for banning countries, specially if you use ads to make money. Might as well ban the low quality countries. Then when advertisers see you are driving premium traffic you can charge a premium price.
     
    Cerberus, Oct 22, 2013
    #26
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  7. Arm Flailing Madman

    Arm Flailing Madman Regular Member

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    ^ Man and I thought I was being original. I just add an invalidation filter which blocks out any posts made by the spammer to everyone except him. I call it cloaking. I'm sure there is another term for it.
     
    Arm Flailing Madman, Oct 22, 2013
    #27
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