How to block certain types of user registrations

Product Support

AI-generated summary

A new moderator seeks advice on blocking spam registrations, particularly from Indian bots that bypass built-in filters and post gibberish, hotline numbers, or Hindi text. They want to avoid blocking all users from India. NateDhaliwal suggests using the AI spam detector plugin, which can be tuned to flag non-English content and suspicious phrases like hotline numbers, referencing this guide. Canapin expresses concern about the complexity and potential cost of the AI plugin, recommending instead to first adjust Discourse’s native spam settings and thresholds, and install the Akismet plugin — which offers a free API key — to catch spam. They note their own forum successfully blocks most spam (also largely from India) using Akismet and the Min first post typing time setting. NateDhaliwal clarifies that OpenRouter and Gemini keys are free up to a limit, countering the assumption of mandatory paid services.

1

Hello,

I’m moderating a community running on Discourse, and I’m kind of new to the platform, so forgive me if there’s already a topic about this.

Is it possible to block certain types of users on my forum?

We’re being inundated by Indian bots that keep trying to register. So far, the built-in filter blocks their registration, but some inevitably fall through the cracks, and then proceed to create multiple topics with nonsensical gibberish, “hotline numbers,” or even entire posts in Hindi, in another alphabet.

What are my options regarding this? Do I create a filter to block certain words (but they don’t always use the same words) or the Hindi alphabet? How do I do it so I automatically block these spam bots? I don’t want to block the entire country of India if I could help it though, as there’s some legit traffic from them.

Thanks!

2

I would just use the AI spam detector (in the AI plugin). You can ask it to be more aggressive towards non-English posts, and posts containing hotline numbers, etc.

3

I have not tried this, but I feel it might be a bit of a hassle to install, configure, subscribe to a paid external service, manage the account to suggest to “just use” this plugin :thinking:

I’d try to tweak Discourse spam settings and thresholds first : https://meta.discourse.org/t/tips-for-preventing-spam/264020#p-1285092-spam-related-site-settings-5

Then, also install the Akismet plugin. You can obtain a free key very easily by just registering an account: https://meta.discourse.org/t/tips-for-preventing-spam/264020#p-1285092-akismet-anti-spam-plugin-3

My forum has a lot of spam (most from India as well), but the vast majority is caught either by Akismet, or by the Min first post typing time setting.

4

OpenRouter is free, and Gemini keys are free to a certain limit, IIRC.