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Ask Slashdot: Using a Sandbox To Deal With Spambots?

Posted by samzenpus on from the go-to-your-room dept.

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?"

9 of 167 comments (clear)

  1. Old Idea by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

    Old idea that doesn't fix much because spammers change accounts after 1-20 posts anyway.

  2. hellbanning. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hellbanning

  3. Reddit by cornface · · Score: 5, Informative

    Reddit does something like this.

  4. Shadow Ban by TubeSteak · · Score: 5, Informative

    The practice goes by several other names I can't recall, but I know it as a "shadow ban"
    Basically, you tick a box and nobody but that poster can see their nonsense.

    Some forum software already includes the feature, others require a plugin or a roll-your-own solution.

    --
    [Fuck Beta]
    o0t!
    1. Re:Shadow Ban by Compaqt · · Score: 4, Informative

      Drupal has a module to do this to put trolls in their own "cave"

      http://drupal.org/project/cave

      --
      I'm not a lawyer, but I play one on the Internet. Blog
  5. Re:I will sell you this solution already debugged! by MightyYar · · Score: 5, Informative

    Because it will be trivial for a spammer to check his posts from another account?

    --
    W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
  6. Reddit Does by Stickybombs · · Score: 5, Informative

    Steve Huffman, one of the creators of Reddit, talks about this exact solution during his Udacity class, Web Application Engineering. http://www.udacity.com/overview/Course/cs253/CourseRev/apr2012 I think it was during week 4 "Whom to Trust," but I don't have links to the exact video. So in short, yes, it has been done effectively in the past, though I believe they wrote their own code to do it.

  7. Make sure Google etc can't see it. by billstewart · · Score: 4, Informative

    The really important thing is to make sure Google (and the other search engines and ad services, if you care about them) can't see the spam. That's the real objective of the spammers, and those that bother checking may find that spamming you is less effective in fixing their page ranks.

    --

    Bill Stewart
    New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
  8. Re:I will sell you this solution already debugged! by Frnknstn · · Score: 5, Informative

    This technique is widely used against trolls on various Internet forums. It is often called 'Hellbanning'

    --
    If it's in you sig, it's in your post.