Authentication overkill?

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wysocki

New to Scribus and this forum, but I'd like to make a comment about the forum UI.
Is it really necessary to have posters fill in verification code, then check the Captcha box, then fill in the year that they can get by clicking to another page?! In addition, to submit a post, you already have to be authenticated via an email and then login with your password. I have worked at the Department of Defense and their communications did not require as much authentication info as posting a message here entails.

Just sayin...  ::)

a.l.e

I feel your pain!

Sadly, this forum engine does not seem to have any effective (for us) mechanism to avoid (most) spam.

I could not find any plugins (mods in SMF language) that would really help us.

The way this forum works (and from the type of spam we're getting), i think that what we needed is a way to hide the posts that match some criteria until they are moderated.

Some ideas:

- Admins / moderators can mark a user as "Validated"
- Admins / moderators can mark users as "Dubious"
- Post by user who are not "Validated" are put in a moderation queue, if they contain links or attachments (and are not shown until the specific message gets validated).
- The user gets a warning message if their post is going to the moderation queue.
- Links in the profile are only shown for validated users.

If anybody can find a mod that can do that (https://custom.simplemachines.org/index.php?action=mods), or is willing to create such a mod, just ring a bell!

Until then, all we can do is to make it harder for spammers to register (with the painful process you're highlighting) and delete all their messages as soon as possible (with a mod I've created, that helps detecting the most sneaky tentatives)...

AdmFubar

you mean out of the 28 spam mods there there isnt one that even comes close?
Using Scribus 1.6.1, openSUSE 15.6
Advanced hobbyist

a.l.e

AdmFubar: have you had a look at them?

If you find one that you think is useful for us, please post the link in here, with ideas on how to use it.

To me the biggest issue is, that we want new users to show up and directly ask questions (and possibly show us what the problem is with sample images and documents).
On the other side, the current users are very reactive and replies show up in a matter of minutes.

Also, it might be interesting to notice that most spam comes from "random" email addresses and ip addresses (banning / filtering them does not really help much).

From what I can tell, most of the mods simply forbid things or are based on rules on email / ip address.
Which is not really what we need / want.

AdmFubar

click the link you posted and in the search field type spam. it will list all the spam mods  available. i'm sure something there that can work for the forum.
Using Scribus 1.6.1, openSUSE 15.6
Advanced hobbyist