Bugs and things to fix

[JoB]

Would preventing people with no posts from making new threads help solve the problem, or would it instead just spread it out to pre-existing threads that didn't ask for it, do you think?

I can think of an array of limits that would allow newcomer behavior but curb the sudden burst of link-laden posts from a spambot, but that's not very helpful unless the forum software supports such limits (or you want to roll your own code), I'm afraid. Having that said, it seems that SMF 2.x supports putting users into profiles with different permissions as well as settings so that users below some post count must do "verification" before posting, which seems to consist of randomly chosen knowledge questions from a set that SMF would need the admin to provide ...

[viola]

I can think of an array of limits that would allow newcomer behavior but curb the sudden burst of link-laden posts from a spambot, but that's not very helpful unless the forum software supports such limits (or you want to roll your own code), I'm afraid. Having that said, it seems that SMF 2.x supports putting users into profiles with different permissions as well as settings so that users below some post count must do "verification" before posting, which seems to consist of randomly chosen knowledge questions from a set that SMF would need the admin to provide ...

We've actually put a lot of this in place. I switched it out recently with a recaptcha but I don't think there is a way to stop it completely. We can keep adding restrictions but there are always going to be some that get through and we will just have to stop those ourselves when we see them. That is part of our job after all

[JoB]

Sorry to be the one who keeps dragging in somewhat-dead critters referring you to users' complaints in the comments section, but here we have a case of "password lost and cannot make a new account" ...

Also:

Emails to this site's webmaster come to me, as well as to all the mods and admins, but we've already made the blood sacrifice on the Rune of Confidentiality we take confidentiality seriously.

Offhand, I don't see any menu or help that would direct (non-logged-in) people to try e-mail-ing in case of (login) problems, much less what address to use. Is that intentional?

[viola]

Sorry to be the one who keeps dragging in somewhat-dead critters referring you to users' complaints in the comments section, but here we have a case of "password lost and cannot make a new account" ...

Also:
Offhand, I don't see any menu or help that would direct (non-logged-in) people to try e-mail-ing in case of (login) problems, much less what address to use. Is that intentional?

I'm on it.

[JoB]

Something new ... is it possible that Kis' home IP has somehow gotten onto a (server side) blacklist?

[wavewright62]

Something new ... is it possible that Kis' home IP has somehow gotten onto a (server side) blacklist?

Yes.  I found Kis' ban among the dozens of hits that have happened within just the last 24 hours, and removed it.  I don't know whether the ban will be reimposed if Kis tries again now, though, as I can't find a whitelist/always allow list?

[viola]

We added a bunch of stuff to combat the recent influx of russian IP spambots. I've changed some of it so Kis should be able to get access again.

Sorry for all the craziness with access lately. In the last few weeks we've had hundreds if not thousands of attemps to access the site by spambots. We're trying to figure out the most effective ways to prevent spam and sometimes it's a little too effective and prevents actual humans.

[Kis]

I'm free! Thank you very much!!

[JoB]

Sorry for all the craziness with access lately. In the last few weeks we've had hundreds if not thousands of attemps to access the site by spambots. We're trying to figure out the most effective ways to prevent spam and sometimes it's a little too effective and prevents actual humans.

I take it that fail2ban, or something acting in the same way but built into SMF, is already in action?

How about the registration page JavaScript-loading a web bug from a different site, and checking a la Port Knocking that the registering browser did that ... ?

[ponders use of client certs in the browser, or in OpenVPN connections]
[and then there are such things as site-toplc-specific CAPTCHAs ...

]

[wavewright62]

I'm way too out of practice to approach the first, but the second was pretty easy once I stopped panicking and just looked at it. (Took longer than 30 seconds, though.)
For us it may be:
Complete the phrase:  Sigrun Eide is the __________ of the expedition.
1) most qualified captain
2) most best captain
3) man with a past
4) Mary Sue

[viola]

We used to have website specific questions but they weren't always working. I've downloaded a program that will check the new registrations against reported spam users from an online database.

[Ragnarok]

Can we get an indian flag ( :india: ) added to the list? Or something to indicate Hindi at the very least.

[wavewright62]

We've had more comments in Disqus about users not being able to create profiles.  I set up a test - sent an email from my work email (not heretofore connected with wavewright62 in any way) to webmaster@ , thinking that as a mod I would get a copy, but I didn't.  Because I don't necessarily want to bog down admins, I can't recommend that course of action to the general public on Disqus.
Next I tried logging out and attempting to create an independent profile, again using my work identity.  That registration failed - I immediately got an 'Error has occurred!' 
So far as I know, nothing about me, my ISP, or my IP address, should trigger the anti-spambot protocols - am I correct? 

[viola]

Just an update on my side of things: I am aware of the issue of people not being able to make accounts and I know there needs to be a fix. Unfortunately december is the worst month to work on it. I'm knee deep in papers and exams at the moment for uni and I'm not going to be able to sit down and work on the issue until at least christmas week. I'm really sorry for the delay, but I promise I will get to it.

Can we get an indian flag ( :india: ) added to the list? Or something to indicate Hindi at the very least.

Tadaaa! 

[Unlos]

Dilandu reports that he's suddenly banned from the forum, I'm guessing it's the antispam things that are a bit too effective again. Can anyone help him?