Thats probably a larger change to the forum, if it is even possible by just mods/plugins. The field on register is the one with least efforts on coding side, and also fairly cheap on configuration side.
...if only we had an admin around to do it
Some of them are not bots, but real amateurs who actually register on 10-20 sites manually (even if it requires multiple human verifications) and don't realize their links mostly get deleted within minutes after posting & they're banned.
Pretty poor investment for your time, but I guess if you're unemployed it's better than not trying at all...
(05-19-2010, 02:05 AM)Ocean Wrote: [ -> ]Some of them are not bots, but real amateurs who actually register on 10-20 sites manually (even if it requires multiple human verifications) and don't realize their links mostly get deleted within minutes after posting & they're banned.
Pretty poor investment for your time, but I guess if you're unemployed it's better than not trying at all...
yup, these people are pathetic, you can hire some from here:
http://www.freelancer.com/projects/by-job/Forum-Posting.html
Quote:Description
Details:
- Each post must be at least 35-40 words in length,
- The posts must be written in good English relevant to the threads.
- Manual Posting ONLY - No use of software, do not copy and paste text from other forums or websites. Do not spam or do anything that would get you banned
- The posts cannot start a thread; they must be replies to existing threads and must be related to threads without creating spam posts.
- Only postings with working signature and publicly visible links are accepted. If you have to log in to see it, the link will not be counted.
- I have huge list of forums, so there is no research on your side. I need you to register on each forum and post only 1 forum post per forum.
- We will require an Excel report with the following information:
1. Anchor text used
2. URL of page where our link is located.
3. Date the link has been placed.
4. Login and Password
The report must be send at least once a week, so we know the progress of this project.
I am looking for more than one posters - (maybe 8-10 posters) I'll hire more than 1 person so if your reply is good and with excellent English, I'll probably hire you for the job. At the end of the length of this project the ones that are posting great posts are might be considered full time.
Payment: $0.2 per forum post.
I only can pay for posts which still exists on the forum 7 days after it was posted. .
http://www.freelancer.com/projects/Forum-Posting/Forum-Posters.689816.html
Lol...
So in that case, the only real cure would be to go nazi on link posting? It seems the only way to not handicap everyone would be to target new users, doubt these people would go through the trouble of posting 5 "meaningfull" posts before their short spamming life
Reading the "rules" they have for their posts, they want their links posted on the forum but they also want their post to be related to the forum they're posting in so that it does not get deleted. So if I were looking to sell you socks on this forum, the best way to do that would be to jump into a thread and then find a nice spot to insert my sock link somehow. Maybe we are talking about ripping games for the emulator, I may tell you that I was on my way to my local game store to buy some new games to bring home and rip for Dolphin, then my sock got caught in a fence and was torn, then I went here <hypothetical sock link> to buy new ones. Someone may be able to get away with something like that if they were smart enough and it would draw less attention than just getting directly to the point and posting the link out of nowhere. It would be tough to find some software that would be able to tell the difference in my example and a "real" member. In the end, real people have to moderate the forum.
I've seen plenty of spammers trying to be "relevant" and failing miserably, I have my doubts that people who doesn't give a **** about what's discussed in the forum will manage to spour a bunch of convincing replies for 20 cents each. But I'd love to see them try in this thread with the sock links at the end
(05-19-2010, 10:18 PM)[SS] Starscream Wrote: [ -> ]In the end, real people have to moderate the forum.
I have to agree Daco is no real man ! xD
More like metaphysical entity
So that explains those seemingly suspicious users who post relevant stuff on forums, yet are actually into spamvertising bull crap.
A relatively simple solution would be adapting what some forums already use.. Disable link posting from new users with under 10-15 posts or so, or someone who simply registered on the same day (unless that link leads to dolphin forum and a relevant thread).
There are few legitimate scenarios where someone signs up on a forum and has reason to post valid links several times on the same day.. Except spam.