I just went to the memberlist to check out the websites of new members (By join date, descending) and found that many of the first page are links to porn sites (2 different ones, multiple times). Just wanted to make you guys aware that it appears someone is spamming your registration process.
Yeah, I've had a spate of this on Realms recently too.
-Matt
Hello,
Yeah, I noticed that when they signed on (if you can call that signing on). Is there some moderator task you think we ought to take about it? My inclination is to shrug and ignore it, but perhaps my internet savvy is low.
Best,
Ron
Quote from: Ron EdwardsYeah, I noticed that when they signed on (if you can call that signing on). Is there some moderator task you think we ought to take about it? My inclination is to shrug and ignore it, but perhaps my internet savvy is low.
Well, the problem with lingering porn links is it might get the Forge filtered out by some web filters, which would be unfortunate.
As Xiombarg says, work porn filters might start picking them up and blocking the site as a result. Or might not, depending on settings.
If you go into the PHPBB admin area, you should be able to use user-management to search for the relevant users and remove the offending web links.
-Matt
I'm curious about the motive for the spamming, given that no posts are generated and it's unlikely that users would click the links on the membership page (or, for most users, even notice they're present). Does the presence of such links in databases like the Forge's get the linked-to site a higher ranking by search engines? If so, we're going to be seeing a lot more of this.
- Walt
Definitely a Clinton question. It seems well out of any posting-content issue, which is my moderator sphere.
Best,
Ron
Actually, I can answer Walt's question: the answer is "yes." It is considered a "cross-link" from another site, and thus gives the linked-to site a higher rank on some search engines as a result (such as Google). I know because I've been dealing with search engines, placement, and site rankings for the last year.
And as Kirt mentions, depending on the filter, it may also cause the Forge to be marked as a porn site and blocked.
I'm dead serious about this: get rid of the links before they cause problems. Since you know they're there, it could also become a legal issue if you just leave them (ex: "My twelve year old was reading the Forge and found links to porn sites from it. I'm suing you.")
Second to greyorm's answer.
A quick partial solution that might be a good idea anyway, would be to add a robots.txt at the site root that forbids robots to search the member profiles. This would at least render the porners' strategy ineffective and prevent Google & co from marking the Forge as a porn site.
You would need a stanza of the form:
User-agent: *
Disallow: /profile.php
Disallow: /memberlist.php
Alternatively, you could modify the page template so that profile pages would have the following in the <head> section:
<META NAME="ROBOTS" CONTENT="NOINDEX, NOFOLLOW">
The first alternative is generally considered safer, because more frequently respected.
This will not, of course, stop the legal threat, nor is it likely to discourage the porners as I doubt many of them check (or even know how to check) for these show stoppers.
SR
--
EDIT: template is spelled with an l
I took care of this problem manually the other day, but it looks like it's going to persist: we've already got several more of these.
Because of this, a new policy will be in place: users with no posts may have their website information removed at any time. This is just the information about their website, and nothing else about the user.
So, one spam post = permanent porn link?
Still, I can't currently think of a better idea, so...
Quote from: ethan_greerSo, one spam post = permanent porn link?
Yeah, but what's the chance of one of those people bothering to read this?
Quote from: xiombargYeah, but what's the chance of one of those people bothering to read this?
Point.
Hi All,
I've been having the same problem over at burningwheel.org. I seemed to have curtailed it by requiring email registration for new users (and deleting the existing porn sites). We'll see if this holds true.
-L