RiderSite.com - Motorcycle Forums

A quick poll of some of our more problematic email addresses.

if you use the following email addresses for accessing RS/ARS can you let us know. if you dont use them on this website, DONT VOTE or use the 'other' option.

I am looking to block Yahoo, AOL and Hotmail addresses. They produce more spam addresses than any other email services and as such I want shot of them to alleviate the strain on a. the server and b. Sam and I!

There's no need to change the forum software add patches or mods to the forum software (as these things inherently slow and unstabilise the forum) and a few simple steps (as listed above) will quite readily reduce things down to acceptible levels

Anyways, if you can vote so I can get a feel for how many regulars use those email providers, it'd be appreciated. Note Yahoo is yahoo.com not btinternet, etc provided by yahoo..

Don't know if I do or not. How do I tell?

If you're unsure which email addy you subscribed using, have a looksee in your profile where it will list it.

Isn't MSN and Hotmail the same thing?

I use an ntlworld.com address.

Although it won't affect me personally and I can see the benefits, I can also see that blocking these addresses could stop a lot of "genuine" new people from joining.

I think if you did do this, the Sign Up page must make it absolutely clear which addresses will not work and maybe point people in the right direction for getting an address that will work.

The other thing I've seen on sign-up pages for other forums is one of those things where you have to type in the word that has been shown to you in a distorted form that is hard for a bot to read - something like that to weed out the spammers / bots might be a better way to go.

Yeah Ive seen them too..

http://my.jetscreenshot.com/1169/20101212-qj9a-73kb.jpg



Doesnt stop spammers to be honest

There would be a warning on the Site portal as to what email addys wont be accepted.

Although theyre the same company so to speak, Php recognises the characters that make up the email address '*@hotmail.com' not the company that issues the email addresses. MSN.com and similar dont particularly cause issues, but the freebie hotmail accounts are a right pain in the tits.
Problem with the spammers is they dont care whether the addy gets approved as while it's in limbo awaiting approval, theyre already 'on the system' and able to advertise whatever they wish to advertise, which is what theyre ultimately trying to do.

over time you see patterns forming and the current trend is to use the hotmail and yahoo email addys for spam. as trends go, they tend to pass but at the moment there's a run on those email addys..

previous runs havent really affected users as 'ihavea12inchcock.com' isnt in regular use.. but the current trend as ive said, affects admins more as it quadruples time spent killing the little sods off while not affecting genuine users

To give some idea of the size of the problem, in the last month I have checked out 452 applications and 2 have been genuine ( welcome Aprilionaire and NorvernFalco )
An obvious spammer takes 13 mouse clicks to deal with, an iffy one several more to research.
Costing me a fortune in mice.

Completely sympathise Sam and you are having to cope with a ridiculous amount of rubbish compared to "real people" - was just hoping that there could be a way to prevent this crazy waste of your time without blocking any genuine people.

There again an explanation on sign-up of which email addys don't work and why should be OK.
(I just remember the past when we had people trying to sign up but had no idea why they were failing - as long as we can avoid that, it should be fine).

It's not necessarily a permanent thing. Just while the flood passes. Im looking at how it can be worked around at the mo, but as in my first post, I need a gauge of the possible impact on regulars

Right, Ive banned a few particular email addresses that keep coming up, done some deleting (lots still to do) but im on leave now so I have more time to ponce about behind the scenes deleting cretinous wankers off the forum books..

Think I nuked 100 already today before we went shopping, so i'll keep nibbling away at them when i find a half hour spare here or there.

By 'nibbling' I mean something more akin to unleashing hell and mowing the bastards in half with a 50cal machine gun.. although in a forum based manner. Which isnt quite and exciting. Not even by a huge bit of imagination.. and there's lots less noise and bloodshed

It's quite an anticlimax really. Like opening a letter from the taxman.