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Not sure if it’s just me, but the spam has been getting annoying again the last few days. I’ve been cleaning up the same junk registrations and bot posts over and over, and it feels like the filters are missing more than they should. I’ve tightened a couple things on my side, but I’m still seeing stuff slip through. Maybe it’s the newer bots being a bit smarter, or maybe my setup is just too loose. Hard to tell. Anyone else dealing with this right now? If you found a decent way to slow it down without making legit users jump through…
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Yeah, I’ve seen a bump too. Last few days it’s been the usual junk reg + AI-ish nonsense posts that somehow make it past the first layer and then sit there until someone notices. What’s been helping on my side is less “harder captcha everywhere” and more stacking a few boring checks together — email/domain reputation, rate limits on signups, and a couple hidden fields that the bots still tend to trip over. The obvious stuff gets bypassed pretty quick once they start targeting a forum. If your filters are suddenly missing more, I’d honestly check whether it’s not the bots getting smarter, but one of the rules getting too lenient after a tweak. Seen that happen plenty — one small change and suddenly the junk starts leaking through like crazy. Not much else to say except yeah, it’s annoying as hell this week.
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Yeah, I’ve seen a bit of a spike too, but honestly half the time it’s not “smarter bots,” it’s some rule or threshold quietly getting too soft after a tweak. In most cases, I’d check the boring stuff first: signup velocity, same ASN/IP ranges, disposable mail domains, and whether your first-post moderation is actually catching anything or just making the junk visible later. Hidden field traps still work for a lot of the cheap stuff, but once they start using browser automation it gets flaky fast. What’s been more useful for me is delaying trust instead of trying to block everything up front. Let them register, but keep new accounts on a short leash for a bit — posting limits, link limits, in most cases no profile links until they’ve got a couple legit actions. Less annoying for real users than endless captchas, and it cuts down the garbage that actually lands. Also, if you’re seeing the same junk registrations over and over, I’d look at whether they’re rotating emails but not fingerprints. That’s usually where the gap is.
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From what I’ve seen, yeah, I’m seeing it too, but I don’t think it’s just “bots got smarter” like people always jump to. Half the time it’s some little setting that got loosened and nobody notices until the junk starts piling up. The annoying part is it usually looks like a traffic spike or a spam wave, but it’s really just one weak point getting hammered. I’ve had better luck with boring friction than trying to block everything hard up front. New accounts with no links, no signatures, no profile junk for a bit — that kind of thing. Captchas alone are pretty much a joke now if the spammer cares enough. Also, if it’s the same kind of crap over and over, I’d check whether they’re reusing the same patterns more than the same emails. A lot of these crews rotate addresses but keep the same behavior and timing. That’s usually where you catch them if the filters aren’t totally asleep.
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Yeah, I’m seeing a bit more of it too. Usually it’s not some genius new bot wave, it’s one weak spot getting hammered until it looks worse than it is. I’d check the boring stuff first like rate limits and whether any recent tweak made the signup flow too easy. Captchas alone don’t seem to buy much anymore, just annoy real users. Could be wrong tho.
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