Dealing with possible bots in the forums
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@kymj8 said in Dealing with possible bots in the forums:
Would flagging a suspected user or post help? I have never done that.
yes.
We already have a post queue for new posts. But sometimes the posts are ambiguous and it's not clear whether someone is a bot or not.
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If you’re old enough and lucky enough to have been around when everyone you chatted with online was 18F, then you know you need to take things with a grain of salt. This thread ended up doing exactly what you were trying to prevent, waste staff time. Let the staff handle things as they see fit. They’ve been doing an awesome job so far. No need to overthink things or butt in. Been there, done that. I learned to let things be. Not trying to attack you. Just my 2c.
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@humptydumpty said in Dealing with possible bots in the forums:
Sorry. I am not sure what 18F is or the point you are trying to make here:
If you’re old enough and lucky enough to have been around when everyone you chatted with online was 18F, then you know you need to take things with a grain of salt.
Chat? I check the Support category to be aware of any issues that others are reporting that I might also experience. Like the two I referenced:
I try to understand the isssue and scroll down quickly to see the solution or status.
This thread ended up doing exactly what you were trying to prevent, waste staff time. Let the staff handle things as they see fit. They’ve been doing an awesome job so far.
I posted my question here in the Off-topic category. I got an affimative answer.
And I got this:
No need to overthink things or butt in. Been there, done that. I learned to let things be. Not trying to attack you. Just my 2c.
You lost me again here. Sorry.
Anyway, I value everyone's time: staff, mine and anyone coming along in the future. Do you read through most support topics?
Question for anyone: Is there a reason not to just delete the chat with and about bots to reduce the noise and help people understand issues or find solutions quicker? In the forums I manage I delete anything totally off-topic. It seems to be appreciated. -
Most people I know with office jobs sound like bots
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kymj8 sound a lot like a bot - way too many grammatically correct sentences
Everyone’s a suspect!
BTW: called it in January
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Forum staff could consider setting up a honeypot on the forum to catch bots:
Here are some tips for creating effective honeypot posts to catch bots on a forum:
- list itemMake the post title and content generic - Use common keywords bots may search for like "free," "deals," "offers," etc. But keep the content vague.
- Hide the post from normal users - Use CSS to hide the post or place it in an unlinked, obscure category. Legit users should not see it.
- Disable comments on the post - Bots may try to automatically comment on posts with links. Disable comments to further hide it.
- Include links to dummy sites - Bots may crawl links, so link to a fake domain you own or a page that logs access attempts.
- Monitor traffic sources - When the honeypot post gets activity, check referer headers to identify the traffic source and block those IPs/bots.
- Use obscure keywords - Pepper the post with uncommon keyword combinations that seem real but unlikely to be searched by humans.
- Publish at odd hours - Bots may crawl at night when human activity is low. Posting at 3am may smoke them out.
- Update dynamically - Change the post title and content periodically to keep attracting new bots. The activity will help identify patterns.
- Ban users who interact - Any user accounts that view, comment on, or otherwise interact with your honeypot post are very likely bots.
- The goal is to make the post attractive to bots but invisible to real humans. Any engagement with it signals suspicious automated activity you can then block.
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Quick search. This may or may not be of interest or already being used:
https://www.npmjs.com/package/nodebb-plugin-spam-be-gone -
@marcusquinn said in Dealing with possible bots in the forums:
Quick search. This may or may not be of interest or already being used:
https://www.npmjs.com/package/nodebb-plugin-spam-be-goneThat plugin uses Google, so I hope it isn't used on this forum.
