Suggestion - restrict new users from a certain domain

[.Ian]

Every single spammer that I get seems to have a gmail account.

They all post about dvd converters etc.

I would love a way to restrict people that come from gmail accounts. I do not really wish to ban them, otherwise I risk blocking genuine users.

Sadly the built in spam software never picks up these people and always marks them as probably not spam.

Thanks.

[Michael]

Just add *@gmail.com as an email address in your ban filters, it will make it so folks cannot register new accounts using a gmail.com email address, but won't affect existing members.

[.Ian]

But that is the point, I do not really wish to stop genuine people who have a gmail account from signing up.

[Michael]

Then I'm not sure what you're suggesting, just block spammers with gmail addresses? Put folks with gmail addresses on moderator approval of posts?

[.Ian]

the latter probably.

I do not wish to ban free email addresses - but the existing spam filter software is not warning upon any of these.

Or perhaps give anyone @gmail.com a spam warning level of say 4, which (depending upon settings) would need admin approval.

[bfarber]

[quote name='.Ian' date='16 October 2009 - 12:04 PM' timestamp='1255709055' post='1867583']
the latter probably.

I do not wish to ban free email addresses - but the existing spam filter software is not warning upon any of these.

Or perhaps give anyone @gmail.com a spam warning level of say 4, which (depending upon settings) would need admin approval.


But just like you, most admins don't want to automatically flag a user with @gmail.com address as a spammer. I'd venture to say the majority of site owners have level 4 automatically ban the user, or block their registration. Thus, we'd be banning every gmail user just because some spammers use gmail?

For the record, I use gmail, so I'd never be able to register at any IPB if we did that. :huh:

We will ban a gmail address (specific address) once it has been reported enough times. Make sure you flag these gmail spammers as spam users in your site to notify us. The database learns over time, but I can say I don't think auto-flagging gmail addresses as spam is a good solution.

[.Ian]

Not really talking about auto banning them - however my first suggestion was the ability to put any domain or maybe even a country say *@*.ru on some sort of watch.

using the spamming software was only a suggestion ;)

[mediabrat]

How active is your board? Would it be overkill to set registrations to admin validation for a while, at least until the current spam wave dies down? What if you put new members into a different group that you have set to moderate posting for the first few posts and promotes them to the regular members group afterward? Granted, it would affect all registrations, not just GMail, so it could be overkill depending on your needs, but it is one way of dealing with it.

[bfarber]

IPB also supports question and answer field on the registration form, which should help stop most automated registrations. It would not stop users from manually registering, and then posting spam (either manually, or through a program with a supplied valid username/password). You can also set new users to go to one group, whose posts are moderated until x posts (i.e. 5) are reached, and then auto promote members of that group to your normal members group. If you need help with that, feel free to submit a ticket.

[mld11]

You could create two usergroups. If you call your members group Members, call it Members+ and then make a Members group.

Make the new group the default members group (In conf_global.php), and force moderate them until 10 posts or something. Voila, :)