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Anyone else seeing a weird spike in spam signups and junk posts this week? I’ve been cleaning the same garbage over and over and it’s starting to get annoying. I’ve got the usual anti-spam stuff in place, but somehow a few still slip through. Not sure if it’s bots or just people abusing registration forms. I’m thinking of tightening things up a bit, but I don’t want to make…
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Yeah, we’ve seen a bit of that too lately. Usually it’s some bot wave or a new batch of junk accounts trying the same old crap. To be fair, If you’re already on the usual filters, I’d tighten registration just a bit rather than going full lock-down. No point making it miserable for legit users because a few spammers are being annoying.
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Personally, yeah, we’ve had a little burst of that too. Looks like the usual bot churn, same garbage accounts with slightly different names. I’d just add one more friction step if you can without annoying legit signups too much. The second you go too hard, the spammers just keep going and your real users get pissed off instead.
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Yeah, same here. Usually it’s not even “smart” spam, just some dumb wave hammering the same reg form with slightly different junk. I’d look at the logs before changing too much. If the same IP ranges / ASNs are hitting it, you can usually tell pretty quick whether it’s bot churn or actual humans abusing throwaway accounts. We had one forum where the spam spike was basically all coming from a couple of hosting providers in bursts every few minutes. What’s annoying is the ones that get past the obvious stuff because they look “normal” enough on signup, then post some half-baked nonsense a day later. That’s where a little more friction helps more than a giant wall. Honeypot + rate limit + email verification is usually enough in my experience, but if you’ve already got that, the next step is typically tighter first-post moderation or new-user post limits. I wouldn’t go full lock-down unless it’s really bad. That usually just shifts the pain onto legit users and then you’re stuck undoing it later.
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Well, yeah, been seeing more of it too. Same old garbage, just a different coat of paint. At this point it’s usually either a bot wave or some bored lowlife with a script. I’d check the logs first before changing a bunch of stuff though — half the time it’s obvious once you look at where it’s coming from. And yeah, don’t go nuclear unless you have to. Making real users jump through hoops because some spam farm got busy is always a fun way to kill a forum. Interesting take.
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Personally, yeah, we saw a burst like that a while back and it was mostly just noisy bot churn, not anything clever. If you’re already on honeypot + rate limit + email verify, I’d be looking at first-post moderation before I start piling on more signup friction. That’s usually the bit that actually cuts the junk without making legit users hate you.
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To be fair, yeah, I’ve seen that too. Usually it’s just some dumb burst and then it dies off, but it’s annoying as hell when it lands on your board. If it’s the same junk accounts posting the same nonsense, I’d be checking whether they’re getting past signup or just reusing old sessions/cookies/IPs. A lot of the time the “spike” is just a few gaps in whatever anti-spam setup u already have, not some big mystery. Honestly the part that usually helps most is slowing down the first post, not the signup. People always want to make registration harder, then real users get punished while the spammer just moves on to the next cheap script. Classic forum nonsense. Could be wrong though.
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Yeah, same here. Usually it’s not “smart” spam, it’s just a burst of garbage accounts hammering the same weak spot until they get bored or blocked. If they’re getting past signup, I’d look at the first-post flow more than the registration form. That’s where I’ve had the best results too — approval queue, tiny post delay, or even just a stricter filter on links/keywords for brand new accounts. Making signup a pain just seems to annoy legit users more than it slows the junk down. Also worth checking whether it’s one or two IP ranges or a bunch of rotating junk. Half the time it looks like a huge wave, but it’s really just a few scripts cycling through proxies and reusing the same patterns. If you’ve got logs, the fingerprints usually stand out pretty fast.
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Yeah, seen that too. Usually it’s not some big coordinated thing, just a burst of junk accounts finding a gap and hammering it until you patch it. I’d watch first-posts more than signup like axel said. Tightening registration too much usually just annoys legit people and the spam still leaks in anyway.
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Yeah, had a nasty little burst like that last week. Same recycled junk posts, same “new user” garbage, like the scripts got bored and decided to cosplay as humans for 10 seconds. Honestly I’d be more suspicious of the first-post stuff than signup too. Tightening registration just turns into busywork for legit users, which is always fun in the dumbest possible way.
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From what I see, Usually, yeah, it’s been the same crap on a couple boards I deal with too. Usually it’s some dumb burst, not “advanced bots” or whatever people like to pretend. I’d check the first-post queue and any weak registration step before you start locking everything down. Half the time tightening the whole signup flow just annoys real users and the junk still gets through anyway. Honestly,
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