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bbAntiSpam Forum Index - Textual Confirmation - FAQ: what is being sent to us

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Author Message
admin
Site Admin


Joined: 18 Apr 2006
Posts: 805
Location: Saint-Petersburg, Russia
Posted: Mon Oct 23, 2006 2:38 am    Post subject: FAQ: what is being sent to us  
A typical notification from Textual Confirmation looks as the following:
Quote:

User 'Yfeq' has failed to answer the Textual Confirmation
question correctly. It might be a spambot, therefore the
registration is rejected.

--

User: Yfeq
E-mail domain: @mail.ru
Website: http://(censored).com
Signature:
(censored)

--

Data provided by the server:
REMOTE_ADDR=125.244.xxx.yyy
HTTP_USER_AGENT=libwww-perl/5.805
HTTP_VIA=1.1 none:8080 (Topproxy-2.0/)
HTTP_X_FORWARDED_FOR=85.255.uuu.vvv
ENCODING=windows-1251

--

You are using the COMMUNITY EDITION of Textual Confirmation. This
message is also SENT TO US to improve our spam database. To avoid
information disclosure, buy the business edition license:
http://bbantispam.com/tc/?mode=register

--
Textual Confirmation, http://bbantispam.com/tc/


I don't want to show the spam words and spam URLs, therefore I replaced them with the word "(censored)".

Textual Confirmation regards privacy and sends only the domain part of the e-mail address, not the full address.

REMOTE_ADDR is an IP address of the spammer. HTTP_VIA and HTTP_X_FORWARDED_FOR give the list of the proxy-servers used by the spammer. HTTP_USER_AGENT contains the name of the browser or software. Finally, ENCODING allows to correctly interpret the non-English text.
donjoe



Joined: 30 Nov 2006
Posts: 2
Posted: Thu Nov 30, 2006 8:38 pm    Post subject:  
Hello!

Where is this "community" database?

What happens if I want to test the system after I install it and I intentionally give wrong answers? My IP will be sent to the community database and I'll be considered a possible spammer. How do I remove my IP from there? Same question for legitimate users of my forum that happen to joke around or simply not spell the correct answers like I hoped they would. Are they all to be considered possible spammers?
bryan



Joined: 30 Nov 2006
Posts: 3
Location: Spokane, WA
Posted: Fri Dec 01, 2006 12:40 am    Post subject:  
donjoe wrote:
What happens if I want to test the system after I install it and I intentionally give wrong answers? My IP will be sent to the community database and I'll be considered a possible spammer. How do I remove my IP from there? Same question for legitimate users of my forum that happen to joke around or simply not spell the correct answers like I hoped they would. Are they all to be considered possible spammers?

Yes, I'd like to know too. If registered users don't have their spammers reported to the community, what's the point in the community?

--Bryan
admin
Site Admin


Joined: 18 Apr 2006
Posts: 805
Location: Saint-Petersburg, Russia
Posted: Fri Dec 01, 2006 6:03 am    Post subject:  
Quote:
Where is this "community" database?

Sooner or later, will appear on bbspam.com. Right now I don't have time to work on this project.

Quote:
What happens if I want to test the system after I install it and I intentionally give wrong answers? My IP will be sent to the community database and I'll be considered a possible spammer. How do I remove my IP from there? Same question for legitimate users of my forum that happen to joke around or simply not spell the correct answers like I hoped they would. Are they all to be considered possible spammers?

The system will be smart, so you don't need to worry. If the system will not smart, my own sites will be marked as "spammer" in the first place. And in any case, it will be possible to delete wrong decisions.

Quote:
If registered users don't have their spammers reported to the community, what's the point in the community?

There are too few registered users, therefore they don't affect the database.
Memorie
Guest
Posted: Fri Mar 09, 2007 8:20 pm    Post subject:  
It has been since april of 2006 and the community database is not visable yet. Whats going on here?
admin
Site Admin


Joined: 18 Apr 2006
Posts: 805
Location: Saint-Petersburg, Russia
Posted: Sat Mar 10, 2007 4:29 am    Post subject:  
I'm starting to think that the idea of the community database isn't very good and shoudn't work. In the nearest future, I'll either implement it, either give up it completely.
_________________
Oleg Parashchenko, bbAntiSpam
Do you love our tools? Please sponsor further development!
asuter



Joined: 29 Nov 2006
Posts: 9
Location: Fribourg, Switzerland
Posted: Mon Mar 12, 2007 1:28 pm    Post subject: Any reasons?  
Hi Oleg

why do you think, the idea isn't very good? Are there any reasons besides the lack of time?

Personally I think it would be great to know, what IP addresses we have to deny. Then we could use the .htaccess possiblity to ban these IPs already before they can request anything on the server. Am I wrong?

And isn't it better to know this information collected by servers all over the world than only by our own server? Clearly, we have to be sure, that there is no server out there that sends false email notifications to the community database. Already thought about that?
admin
Site Admin


Joined: 18 Apr 2006
Posts: 805
Location: Saint-Petersburg, Russia
Posted: Wed Mar 14, 2007 4:35 am    Post subject:  
Quote:
why do you think, the idea isn't very good? Are there any reasons besides the lack of time?

First, there are competitors already, which invested a lot of efforts:

* http://bbprotection.net/
* http://akismet.com/

Second, I've learnt from their errors. There are complaints about Akismet. There are complaints about bbProtection. If I implemented the idea, I'd also get complaints. Actually, I do get complaints (another one) on behalf of other mods.

Third, there were similar attempts for e-mail antispam. But nobody uses it.

Finally, local antispam ([Advanced] Textual Confirmation) works very well and very easy in install and maintenance.

Quote:
Personally I think it would be great to know, what IP addresses we have to deny. Then we could use the .htaccess possiblity to ban these IPs already before they can request anything on the server. Am I wrong?

Unfortunately, false bans are possible.

Quote:
Clearly, we have to be sure, that there is no server out there that sends false email notifications to the community database. Already thought about that?

Yes, it's one of the problems. For the extensive list, see

http://www.bbprotection.net/support/forums/viewtopic.php?t=100
http://www.bbprotection.net/support/forums/viewtopic.php?t=116
http://www.bbprotection.net/support/forums/viewtopic.php?t=187
_________________
Oleg Parashchenko, bbAntiSpam
Do you love our tools? Please sponsor further development!
Ivaylo
Guest
Posted: Sat Mar 24, 2007 10:05 am    Post subject:  
Please excuse me for my bad english. Sad

I'm planning to install this MOD in my phpbb 2.0.21 forum, but I was worried what will happen if somebody accidently give a wrong answer to the TC question? I saw that other users asked the same question above. Even if the user is not banned (I don't have any banning mods) he/she will be sent to the database as a potential spammer.

I know that the admin already told there will be no database for spammers at this moment, but I want to be sure there is no risk of marking "innocent" users as spammers. Smile

I haven't tested the MOD yet, but it seems to be the best working MOD of all in the "Preventing SPAM - Bots and Humans" topic in phpbb's support forum. Currently I'm using the Humanizer, but the spam-bots pass it like a fast train. Sad

P.S. BTW, I'm from Bulgaria and I'm using the Russian alphabet as well. There are no other laguages installed, I hope it won't be a problem to apply the MOD to this laguage. Well, I'll test it and see how it works. Smile

I want to say thanks to the creator of this MOD. Very Happy
admin
Site Admin


Joined: 18 Apr 2006
Posts: 805
Location: Saint-Petersburg, Russia
Posted: Mon Mar 26, 2007 2:08 am    Post subject:  
Quote:
I know that the admin already told there will be no database for spammers at this moment, but I want to be sure there is no risk of marking "innocent" users as spammers.

Be sure. Why? Because I'm going to kill the idea of the database. The reasons are above in the thread.

Quote:
I haven't tested the MOD yet, but it seems to be the best working MOD of all in the "Preventing SPAM - Bots and Humans" topic in phpbb's support forum.

I'm glad to hear it. Very nice!

Quote:
P.S. BTW, I'm from Bulgaria and I'm using the Russian alphabet as well. There are no other laguages installed, I hope it won't be a problem to apply the MOD to this laguage. Well, I'll test it and see how it works.

In few days, I'm going to add the Bulgarian translation by diabolic.bg. You can try it right now.

Quote:
I want to say thanks to the creator of this MOD.

Thanks for thanks!
_________________
Oleg Parashchenko, bbAntiSpam
Do you love our tools? Please sponsor further development!
Ares



Joined: 28 Mar 2007
Posts: 24
Posted: Sat Mar 31, 2007 10:47 pm    Post subject:  
the idea of the spam database is being canceled?

so basically, TC will still BLOCK spam registrations, but it won't block/ban known spammers before they try to register?
admin
Site Admin


Joined: 18 Apr 2006
Posts: 805
Location: Saint-Petersburg, Russia
Posted: Sun Apr 01, 2007 2:25 am    Post subject:  
Quote:
the idea of the spam database is being canceled?

Yes.

Quote:
so basically, TC will still BLOCK spam registrations, but it won't block/ban known spammers before they try to register?

Yes. TC will stop spam registrations, but it won't use and create a blacklist.
_________________
Oleg Parashchenko, bbAntiSpam
Do you love our tools? Please sponsor further development!
Guest
Posted: Sun Apr 01, 2007 2:32 am    Post subject:  
admin wrote:
Quote:
the idea of the spam database is being canceled?

Yes.

Quote:
so basically, TC will still BLOCK spam registrations, but it won't block/ban known spammers before they try to register?

Yes. TC will stop spam registrations, but it won't use and create a blacklist.

that's okay, as long as you get the statistics/graph page up eventually, that will be just as satisfying Smile

You could even get that GeoIP API on your site, and list the top spammer IPs, and resolve spammer IPs to countries.
tranquocminh



Joined: 27 Mar 2007
Posts: 15
Posted: Sun Apr 01, 2007 10:20 am    Post subject:  
May I point out that while the notifications will not be sent anymore to the database it is important to receive them with full email address. Why ? Because some users make mistakes of typing or whatever. So it is important for the forum webmaster to monitor what is going.
admin
Site Admin


Joined: 18 Apr 2006
Posts: 805
Location: Saint-Petersburg, Russia
Posted: Mon Apr 02, 2007 1:24 am    Post subject:  
Quote:
That's okay, as long as you get the statistics/graph page up eventually, that will be just as satisfying

I know it must be done. Nice images are very very useful.

Quote:
It is important to receive them with full email address

Yes, it will be so.
_________________
Oleg Parashchenko, bbAntiSpam
Do you love our tools? Please sponsor further development!

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Ok.