Forum Moderation

    • September 16, 2018 at 4:17 pm

      Since the last 2018 Chinese spam attack, forum posts are no longer allowed without a moderator review. Is it possible to pre-approve known forum contributors so their posts do not sit in queue?

      Some forum discussions/questions may benefit from a more urgent response, and I think those of us who have a track record of trying to help others should be allowed to post with limited moderator vetting.

      Thank you

    • September 17, 2018 at 9:29 am

      Hi Jim.
      We are currently tweaking the anti-spam settings to limit spam attacks. One setting holds comments that have links, which is why your recent post was held for moderation. We will look into further adjusting. Thank you as always for your feedback and collaboration.
      Best,
      Mia

    • September 17, 2018 at 4:38 pm

      Thank you for the explanation! If I see something that seems urgent I’ll use more words rather than provide a link. That should get our response posted a little faster.

      A 100% anti-spam solution is hard to find. ReCaptcha will stop most bots, but can be annoying to real people unless you use the ‘skip’ feature for known users.

      Then there is configuring Fail2Ban intrusion rules at the Apache level to deny access under certain conditions, such as too many hits within a certain time, or too many failed login attempts. The ban can be set to last a couple hours, a few days, or longer.

      Another way to protect against known spammers is to use the appropriate module/plugin from StopForumSpam here: https://www.stopforumspam.com/mods

      Incoming registrations and forum posts are analyzed in the StopForumSpam cloud in real-time and denied access if the posters IP or Email has a history of spamming. I use this on a Drupal site and it has been reliable.

      I also use a Honeypot heuristics module developed for Drupal (Botcha) that is very reliable.

      Between ReCaptcha, StopForumSpam, and Botcha… no spammers have gotten through on my Drupal site for almost two years now. But the bots keep getting smarter and it will probably be a matter of time before they can find a way around todays best defenses.

      Good luck on your war with the spammers!

    • September 19, 2018 at 8:51 am

      We are continuing to tweak the settings. As of today, you should see your replies posted right away. I realize they were being held for moderation the last couple of days.

      And thank you for the additional references.

      Have a great day.

    • November 26, 2019 at 2:37 pm

      I’ve attempted to post relies multiple times and they are not going through. Is there some new set of rules being used for forum posting? Can long-time regulars please get a pass?

      Thank you

    • December 2, 2019 at 10:48 am

      Hello Jim.
      Thank you for letting us know. We have made two adjustments to the latest spam filters which should help. We will monitor over the next couple of weeks to make sure. Please don’t hesitate to reach out again with any further issues.
      Best,
      Mia

    • December 2, 2019 at 7:17 pm

      Hi Mia,

      Thanks again for your support and taking my posts out of moderation limbo. When you posted them, one was duplicated and can be deleted. Is there anything I should do differently when posting in the future?

      Thanks,

      Jim

      PS – I noticed the forum font changed again. If it could be heavier I think that would make it easier to read.

    • December 10, 2019 at 11:49 am

      Hi Jim.
      I wanted to let you know that we are looking into the font issue and should have that resolved today.

      Thank you again for your collaboration with the forums.

      Best,
      Mia

    • January 13, 2020 at 12:34 pm

      My posts are being blocked again. Can you tell me what rules I broke? Thanks