Stupid Guest Tricks

If you are new to SGT, welcome! If you are ready to join and become a member, even more so.

However, right now we're under attack from a botnet that is trying to create 50 new bogus members per day. We are doing all we can to block these fake members, but given the volume, it's not easy.

As a result, if you join with a username that looks like a random string of characters, it's very likely your membership will be rejected out of hand.

We do not want to toss you babies out with the bathwater, so if the username you want might be confused with jibberish, please drop me a note at <[email protected]> a day ahead and I'll try to avoid rejecting your application.

If you want a "normal" username that looks like something a human might write, then just go ahead and join. I should be able to approve your request within 48 hours.

Thanks for understanding. We're looking at ways to block these spambots, but right now it's all manual.

Zazu, Admin
StupidGuestTricks.com

Would it pay to do a sort by number of posts ( 0 )/join date and delete any user that joined over three months and has zero posts? Can a batch job be run to save time?

Just took a look. There's 511 pages of users with zero posts.

hobie16 wrote:Would it pay to do a sort by number of posts ( 0 )/join date and delete any user that joined over three months and has zero posts? Can a batch job be run to save time?

Yes, a batch delete would be a wonderful thing. Unfortunately, we don't presently have such a tool available. I'm deleting 100 bogus members per day (time permitting), so we should be clear of them in about a year. Sadly, we have no way to actually purge these bogus members, so our membership count will continue to be inflated.

Zazu, Admin
StupidGuestTricks.com

If you keep up the pace you'll be done in 255.5 days. Aren't there other admins?

hobie16 wrote:If you keep up the pace you'll be done in 255.5 days. Aren't there other admins?

No others active at this time. If anyone wishes to volunteer, contact Cujo off-list, as only he can grant moderator privileges.

Do you guys have the source code for this?
if not maybe the owner/host can add a module. or change the login function a little. but a bot can learn that too.
add a capcha module with a timeout function. i.e. like 5 trys and you are locked out for 15 mins.

drcorey wrote:Do you guys have the source code for this?

No, vBulletin is proprietary.

if not maybe the owner/host can add a module. or change the login function a little. but a bot can learn that too.
add a capcha module with a timeout function. i.e. like 5 trys and you are locked out for 15 mins.

Owner Cuju might be able to do many things, but as he plans to put himself out of office by year-end, I doubt he'll feel like investing any more time than is needed to enable existing tools.

Zazu wrote:No, vBulletin is proprietary.


Owner Cuju might be able to do many things, but as he plans to put himself out of office by year-end, I doubt he'll feel like investing any more time than is needed to enable existing tools.

ah vbullitin.
yeah, I think you can buy a source code license but he prolly dont. or if he did, dont want to bother.
the vbullitin people prolly already have this addon but dont know what it cost. they charge for everything. wonder what kid of license he has thou. much be minor if he is thinking of giving it away. running this would be good for a homebound person.
err, like me, I am waiting for disability because I cant work or even walk more then 24 yards or so.
wonder if he would donate it to my church. do you know what it cost per year to run it?

I'll PM Cujo, I have spare cycles.

Also all the more reason to move to phpbb...