Dealing with spammer accounts

I remember registering for a cubing forum (might have been either the puzzleproz or cube4you forum.. either way I only registered and never post there) and the registration form had a field for you to list your interests. Your registration would only be approved if your interests included the word "cubing." This was stated in the rules which you had to read before registering. In my haste I only skimmed it and missed that part, but since cubing is one of my interests anyway, I got in

I was thinking this might be a good way to prevent people registering just to spam. They probably wouldn't bother to read the rules and likely wouldn't have cubing as an interest. People who want to join the forum legitimately would be more likely to read the rules, and even if they don't, they wouldn't be here if cubing wasn't one of their interests.

EDIT: I also noticed that a lot of spammers fill in "1" as their WCA ID. Maybe you could automatically reject anyone who does that.

Good points! But what about those who don't currently have cubing as an interest?

EDIT: For example, mine says "Rubik's cube"

Well how about having a multitude of keywords, such as Speedcubing, speedsolving, puzzling, cubing, rubik's, cube. And so on.

Puzzleproz is the site that asks you to put "cubing" into your interests when registering.

Or tell people somewhere in the middle of the rules/TOS that they need a specific keyword in their interests. Then you'd make sure they were human, AND read the rules.

Here is an example registration page:

Username:
Password:

To verify your cubing knowledge, please enter the following:
T-Perm:
Sexy move:
Superflip:

(It'd be funny if the spammers actually would go and learn that)

I just learned about the term "sexy move" a few days ago, and I don't even know the superflip alg (though I know what it is), so that means I'd fail?

You pass for trying

What is the sexy move anyway?

ConnorCuber said:

What is the sexy move anyway?

Click to expand...

R U R' U'

nitrocan said:

Here is an example registration page:

Username:
Password:

To verify your cubing knowledge, please enter the following:
T-Perm:
Sexy move:
Superflip:

(It'd be funny if the spammers actually would go and learn that)

Click to expand...

Hey now. We're just trying to curb spammer account registration, not limiting the forum to cubing experts. We don't want to shut out newbies who don't know the superflip or even the T-perm.

shelley said:

nitrocan said:

Here is an example registration page:

Username:
Password:

To verify your cubing knowledge, please enter the following:
T-Perm:
Sexy move:
Superflip:

(It'd be funny if the spammers actually would go and learn that)

Click to expand...

Hey now. We're just trying to curb spammer account registration, not limiting the forum to cubing experts. We don't want to shut out newbies who don't know the superflip or even the T-perm.

Click to expand...

It would be enough to just ask to terminate all accounts with a WCA profile "1" and all active members should fill in their profile with some specific answers.

MistArts said:

ConnorCuber said:

What is the sexy move anyway?

Click to expand...

R U R' U'

Click to expand...

Sexy .

ConnorCuber said:

MistArts said:

ConnorCuber said:

What is the sexy move anyway?

Click to expand...

R U R' U'

Click to expand...

Sexy .

Click to expand...

It really is

Or make the WCA field required. For those that don't have one, put in a 0.

I was just joking about that T-perm stuff.

I think it is a good idea. I will probably simply ask a question about cubing, like "How many sides are on a 3x3 Rubiks cube?". I will work on this soon.

Most spammers here aren't computers, they are actual people simply registering and spamming. You have to type in a verification code, and activate your email before posting.

you should probably have 'random' questions

You could compile a few questions(10?) and just deal them out as you wish

they'd make it harder for bots...much harder, but still doable...actually; I could write a program to do that....oh well...

I think we've established that bots aren't the problem, because there's a captcha and email verification process. We're trying to screen out the human spammers. A question that's easy enough for a complete newbie could probably be defeated by a human spammer.

My point was that the Puzzleproz forum had a good idea, because it required that you read the rules before registering, which most spammers wouldn't bother to do (as spammers, they don't intend to follow the rules anyway). Yet even if an actual cuber didn't read the rules, it would still be possible for them to get approved because they are likely to be cubing enthusiasts.

shelley said:

I think we've established that bots aren't the problem, because there's a captcha and email verification process. We're trying to screen out the human spammers. A question that's easy enough for a complete newbie could probably be defeated by a human spammer.

My point was that the Puzzleproz forum had a good idea, because it required that you read the rules before registering, which most spammers wouldn't bother to do (as spammers, they don't intend to follow the rules anyway). Yet even if an actual cuber didn't read the rules, it would still be possible for them to get approved because they are likely to be cubing enthusiasts.

Click to expand...

So what question would you suggest asking?

I don't like the idea of embedding content into the rules/agreement. I'll be honest, when I register at a forum, I almost never read the agreement, I simply scan it to see if there is anything really important. Embedding into the rules would filter out a lot more than just spammers.