Using custom user fields to prevent bot signups

Support
1

We seem to be experiencing an uptick in spam lately as follows:

  • a new user account is created
  • said account posts on old threads, with somewhat-relevant technical content that isn’t obvious spam at first glance
  • at the end (or in the middle of the post) is a link to something completely unrelated to the question (or the content they are posting) that is obviously spam, such as links to bitcoin trading, porn, or other links.

I’m evaluating a couple of ways to address this, but it seem like preventing bot signups could be one way to nip this in the bud.

Is there a way to pre-set a confirmation checkbox User Field:

https://[FORUM URL]/admin/customize/user_fields

to be checked, so i can do something like this:

image
image961×463 36.4 KB

other suggestions to prevent spam signups (we have auto silence fast typers on first post set to true, but it is not helping as much as we’d like)

1 Like
2

Are you using akismet?

3

Are you sure these are automated signups? Typically that’d mean you also see a lot of unused new user accounts. In the past, these have been human-driven registrations, so checking a few boxes is only going to slow them down a little bit.

1 Like
4

Yeah these are almost certainly actual humans.

There’s been a massive uptick in human spam over the last 10 years.