Slashdot Mirror
Ask Slashdot: Using a Sandbox To Deal With Spambots?
shellster_dude writes "Slashdot is certainly no stranger to the problem of spam bots. While blocking a spam bot may seem like the best solution, it is likely that the spammer will simply re-register with a different name. While trying to solve this dilemma on my own forums, I had an epiphany. What if, instead of blocking a spam bot, I could mark a spammer, and then hide all their comments from everyone else? The spammer could continue to go their merry way, spamming to their heart's content. When they visit the forum, they see their spam comments correctly placed in the threads, but their comments would only be visible to them. Thus, an effective sandbox which would prevent them from registering a new user once they had been 'blocked.' Are any other Slashdotters familiar with this technique? Does any software currently use this technique?"
Why is nobody responding?
John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
Yup, also known as "miserable users" on some forum software.
Hey, wacky idea, why not assign a "degree of spamminess" rating and let people decide on their own level of viewing? You could even do it for funny posts, informative posts, troll posts etc. Mind you, it could get out of hand and overly complicated.
Please consider this account deleted, I just can't be bothered with the spam anymore.
I'm pretty sure that the vbulletin forum software has this feature. Users can be tagged by moderators such that all of their post are invisible to the rest of the community. Members see their own posts. In a spambot situation, I would be cautious about using this approach on account of database growth and system maintenance. ymmv.
What's even funnier is to allow all the people marked as "spammers" to see each other's comments as well. We called this the Secret Garden.
There's a site called Slashdot which allows comments to be rated from 0 to 5. Spam, trolls, and posts like this one will be moderated down to zero and blocked from view by most other users.
Check it out some time.