Don't trip on the Googlebots

[eyégor]

currently there are half a dozen probing our site.

[Bob Juch]

currently there are half a dozen probing our site.

Well good! That should make us easier to find.

[PlacentiaSoccerMom]

currently there are half a dozen probing our site.

Just out of curiosity, how can you tell?

[earendel]

Just out of curiosity, how can you tell?

An even more fundamental question - what's a Googlebot? I have an idea, but I'd like to use my ATA lifeline.

[MarleysGh0st]

An even more fundamental question - what's a Googlebot? I have an idea, but I'd like to use my ATA lifeline.

Those are the robots from google and similar search engines that crawl around the web, indexing what they find along the way.

Amazing that they've found their way here so quickly!

[eyégor]

Just out of curiosity, how can you tell?

I noticed that several of the 'guests' on the site had the same IP so I ran a whois on it.

An even more fundamental question - what's a Googlebot? I have an idea, but I'd like to use my ATA lifeline.

Google's indexing robots that crawl the web indexing sites.

[TheConfessor]

A much bigger concern is the Spambots. I expect they will show up soon with automated registration and many posts about discount drugs, investment opportunities, how to increase both length and girth, links to hot girl on girl action, etc.

Apparently there are spambots that regularly troll message boards and automatically register, in most cases claiming to be from various third world countries, and leave their calling cards on the boards. This happened within a few weeks on the Ken Jennings board and on the Grand Slam board. For the folks who have expressed concern about having moderators, these are the only kinds of posts that I would ever expect to delete. We never had spam or needed moderators at the ABC board because no one ever created spambots for that arcane board format.

Ken was eventually able to thwart the spammers. I asked him how, and he said phpBB has an optional added step in the registration process, which he added. It asks the registrant to answer a simple question that the spambots don't know how to handle (at least so far). Like they might ask what color is a ripe banana or which US president had a beard and the first name Abraham. I passed along this info to Ogi for use on the Grand Slam board, and once he added the registration question, the spamming stopped immediately.

I don't recall seeing any such question when I registered for this board. Without it, I almost guarantee that the spambots will find us and start spamming. So that might be something to look into. I don't recall if Bob Juch had this problem on his board or if he took steps to prevent it.

[tubadave]

Ken was eventually able to thwart the spammers. I asked him how, and he said phpBB has an optional added step in the registration process, which he added. It asks the registrant to answer a simple question that the spambots don't know how to handle (at least so far). Like they might ask what color is a ripe banana or which US president had a beard and the first name Abraham. I passed along this info to Ogi for use on the Grand Slam board, and once he added the registration question, the spamming stopped immediately.

I don't recall seeing any such question when I registered for this board. Without it, I almost guarantee that the spambots will find us and start spamming. So that might be something to look into. I don't recall if Bob Juch had this problem on his board or if he took steps to prevent it.

I didn't turn on Account Activation, so that everyone could register freely without needing approval from me or anyone else. I do, however, have the Visual Confirmation Code step enabled on the registration page. I don't think spambots can get by that, but if they can, we'll see about making some other changes.

[MarleysGh0st]

Ken was eventually able to thwart the spammers. I asked him how, and he said phpBB has an optional added step in the registration process, which he added. It asks the registrant to answer a simple question that the spambots don't know how to handle (at least so far). Like they might ask what color is a ripe banana or which US president had a beard and the first name Abraham. I passed along this info to Ogi for use on the Grand Slam board, and once he added the registration question, the spamming stopped immediately.

I don't recall seeing any such question when I registered for this board. Without it, I almost guarantee that the spambots will find us and start spamming. So that might be something to look into. I don't recall if Bob Juch had this problem on his board or if he took steps to prevent it.

No, this Bored doesn't currently ask that, just the Captcha to "type the letters and numbers you see in this image."

The MegaBB Bored Bob set up had a double opt-in process: after registering a screen name, the board software would send an e-mail to your e-mail address and you'd have to click on a link in that e-mail to confirm your registration before you could post. I don't know if the spambots have automated a way around that yet.

[TheConfessor]

I didn't turn on Account Activation, so that everyone could register freely without needing approval from me or anyone else. I do, however, have the Visual Confirmation Code step enabled on the registration page. I don't think spambots can get by that, but if they can, we'll see about making some other changes.

I think the spambots are smart enough to get past the character recognition. Maybe you want to keep it easy to register while we're rounding up all the stragglers, but it would be a good idea to have a plan for a more rigorous process ready to implement at the first sign of spamming.

[BackInTex]

How about "What is the first name of the original host of the show that this bored is all about?"

[tubadave]

The MegaBB Bored Bob set up had a double opt-in process: after registering a screen name, the board software would send an e-mail to your e-mail address and you'd have to click on a link in that e-mail to confirm your registration before you could post. I don't know if the spambots have automated a way around that yet.

That option is available here as well, as is the option of a new registrant having to wait to be approved by an Administrator.

I think the spambots are smart enough to get past the character recognition. Maybe you want to keep it easy to register while we're rounding up all the stragglers, but it would be a good idea to have a plan for a more rigorous process ready to implement at the first sign of spamming.

Requiring new users to click a link in an email is likely what I'll switch it to once everyone is more or less here, but the option of requiring all new users to be manually approved by an Administrator is there too, if it's needed.

[MarleysGh0st]

How about "What is the first name of the original host of the show that this bored is all about?"

Original host? You mean on the British version?

[tubadave]

As a precautionary measure, I have banned the entire range of IP addresses that Google uses for its web crawling bots. Hopefully, that will at least delay any potential spam attacks.

[TheConfessor]

As a precautionary measure, I have banned the entire range of IP addresses that Google uses for its web crawling bots. Hopefully, that will at least delay any potential spam attacks.

Doesn't that prevent Google from listing us in the results when people search the web for info about WWTBAM? Is that what we want?

[Bob Juch]

I don't recall if Bob Juch had this problem on his board or if he took steps to prevent it.

No, because it requires email confirmation.

[Bob Juch]

I didn't turn on Account Activation, so that everyone could register freely without needing approval from me or anyone else. I do, however, have the Visual Confirmation Code step enabled on the registration page. I don't think spambots can get by that, but if they can, we'll see about making some other changes.

Yes, there are some spambots that can OCR the Capcha. Since phpBB is so common, they found it worthwhile to do that.

[Bob Juch]

As a precautionary measure, I have banned the entire range of IP addresses that Google uses for its web crawling bots. Hopefully, that will at least delay any potential spam attacks.

Doesn't that prevent Google from listing us in the results when people search the web for info about WWTBAM? Is that what we want?

That's a terrible idea! That will not stop spam at all and just keep people from finding us.

[tubadave]

Doesn't that prevent Google from listing us in the results when people search the web for info about WWTBAM? Is that what we want?

I would say that it most definitely keeps us out of the Google listings. As for that being desirable or not, I'll leave that up to everyone else.

It's easy enough to change back, if everyone wants to be accessible via Google. I figured if it was left undone for very long, it would become a moot point before it could be discussed.

So what does everyone think?

[tanstaafl2]

Doesn't that prevent Google from listing us in the results when people search the web for info about WWTBAM? Is that what we want?

I would say that it most definitely keeps us out of the Google listings. As for that being desirable or not, I'll leave that up to everyone else.

It's easy enough to undo, if everyone wants to be accessible via Google. I figured if it was left undone for very long, it would become a moot point before it could be discussed.

So what does everyone think?

Ultimately I defer to the technophiles. I would think making it a little bit challenging for others to find us is OK. Better to have people learn about us by word of mouth through auditions, trivia conventions or just conversation with other members, whether live or out amonst the electrons, than just having anyone stumble in.

Perhaps not.

[Bob78164]

Doesn't that prevent Google from listing us in the results when people search the web for info about WWTBAM? Is that what we want?

I would say that it most definitely keeps us out of the Google listings. As for that being desirable or not, I'll leave that up to everyone else.

It's easy enough to change back, if everyone wants to be accessible via Google. I figured if it was left undone for very long, it would become a moot point before it could be discussed.

So what does everyone think?

I think we should be Googlable. It'll be easy enough to solve the spam problem when it occurs -- one or more of the solutions already discussed should suffice. --Bob