Guestbook Spamming how to stop it?

[Peaktao 0]

Hi, I've had some amount of spamming in my guest book for quite some time. This is very annoying!I wonder if i can do anything to stop it? I have now disabled HTML code in my guestbook so that they can't put a link in directly, but those people haven't stop. It there a way to block spam?Thanks a lot.

[wild20 0]

Is it the same person over and over again? Use an IP trace like sitemeter.com to find the IPs, then use something like messagespy.com to ban them. That may work. You have a complicated issue there. You may just have to keep working through it. You could also start requiring an email to be posted. Or email confirmation if you could find that kind of guest book.

[Peaktao 0]

Is it the same person over and over again? Use an IP trace like sitemeter.com to find the IPs, then use something like messagespy.com to ban them. That may work. You have a complicated issue there. You may just have to keep working through it. You could also start requiring an email to be posted. Or email confirmation if you could find that kind of guest book.

Thanks very much for your advice. I've looked at it. However, it appears to come from different persons :-(, so i managed to block some. I also noticed that spam are reduced after i disabled HTML, from about 10 a day down to a few a day, but it looks a lot messier, oh well.

[rvovk 0]

Guestbook spam has become more and more evident in this times. Looks like some others want ot have free advertisment at your page. It is always about viagra and some other pharmacy things. Why? I don't have a clue. But I have a solution for this problem. It is called CAPTCHA. It is system that proviedes protection against spam, some pattern of numbers and letters must be entered before hitting submit button or else input will not be submitted. Try looking for this at Google, or try this guestbook with captcha system. Guestbook script is here.

Regards, Robert

[mama_soap 0]

Apart from what Robert has suggested, I think you can try making your gb moderated, so that you approve of every entry before publishing it. It may not stop the spam, but at least it prevents it from becoming public. The disadvantage is that this may discourage people from posting at your guestbook, and that you need to be online frequently.You could also use an image to verify that the user is human - just use the sort of authentication that allows the user to type in what he/she sees on a randomly generated image That might help too.Hope this helps.Cheers!

[Hamtaro 0]

I know exactly what you mean! Mine's all different people, too! I keep getting these messages advertising car rentals, hotels (mainly in Hawaii), and other spam links. Anyway, the only thing that I can tell you to do, is go with everyone's suggestions. However, an image verification wouldn't always work, though (especially since some spam bots can read characters in images).

Also, if you decide to do the random image thing (but don't know how to), there is a tutorial for it at: http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/
Although, that uses a login form validation, but it should be easy to follow and refine to the way you want it.

If you know how to do it (and I'm not so sure that I do), you could prevent the message from being sent at all if it contains things like links or whatever kind of HTML you want to prevent.

[icemarle 0]

Ugh. I'm getting similar problems with my forums. First I tried to ban them, but they came back. Then I had most forums accesible to members only. They registered. Finally I had them face the Email verification and the random code. They stopped, thankfully. However I have a forum for guests (updates forum) and they spammed that. That pissed me off and led me to turn the whole forum Member Exclusive.

Edited February 28, 2006 by icemarle (see edit history)

[rvovk 0]

Yes, I would say welcome to the jungle. My guestbook hasn't been spammed since I installed image verfication system. (it has to be random). Forum spam can be stopped by mail verfication and image verification combination.Btw, Mama Soap, how is your new guestbook coming? Any success?

[Becca 0]

argh arghhhhh ARGHH I have that... not only in my guestbook... but in the comments system on my wp blog as well. It's soo bloody annoying. and takes up all my space i have .

[gameratheart 0]

Guestbooks are intended as a way of people to leave their comments on your site, or just to say they have been there.

 

But all guestbooks ever are, are just a way for people who visit your site to leave a message, just like voicemail on a phone. And if you've ever listened to voicemail, you'll know you will have some spam sometime. It's the same on guestbooks.

 

While I have to say I do not in any matter condone spamming, it happens. Guestbooks are intended for the public to write in. What they choose to write is up to them. You may intend it for creative comments, but do you tell them that? You have to set rules. If there are no rules, then there is full freedom.

 

A guestbook will always have spam and there is not much that can be done about it. It's the same wherever the public can go. And that's the reason I don't have a guestbook or blog. So why get annoyed? It happens everywhere. If you don't like it, don't have a guestbook!

 

Sorry, just had to get that off my chest. But it's true - the simplest way to stop spam is to have nothing for the people to spam in. And if you do need something for commenting, use a forum - much easier to control!

Edited March 11, 2006 by NDPA (see edit history)

[iGuest 3]

spammers

Guestbook Spamming

 

I have several scumbags trying to access my guestbook but I have renamed it so they get a lovely to the point 404.

 

Html message.The morons are using the same browser config and I am in the process of finding out how to add that browser to my htaccess file

Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 7.0; Windows NT 5.1; .NET CLR 2.0.50727; .NET CLR 1.1.4322

 

-reply by malamute

[bishoujo 0]

The spam discussed could also refer to those annoying bots that leave stupid links and ads about viagra. I don't think the thread starter is trying to block out people whose comments he doesn't like. Off topic here, but why get a forum just to obtain one-way feedback?? Forums are more complex and meant for discussions, not for giving feedback.

 

When I had guestbooks, my settings are such that comments will only show up on the guestbook after I have moderated it. While it is time wasting to read through and delete the spam messages, at least there won't be undesirable comments showing up to ruin the impression on your website or offend your visitors. Using CAPTCHA is also an effective way to prevent spam.

 

Guestbooks are intended as a way of people to leave their comments on your site, or just to say they have been there.

 

But all guestbooks ever are, are just a way for people who visit your site to leave a message, just like voicemail on a phone. And if you've ever listened to voicemail, you'll know you will have some spam sometime. It's the same on guestbooks.

 

While I have to say I do not in any matter condone spamming, it happens. Guestbooks are intended for the public to write in. What they choose to write is up to them. You may intend it for creative comments, but do you tell them that? You have to set rules. If there are no rules, then there is full freedom.

 

A guestbook will always have spam and there is not much that can be done about it. It's the same wherever the public can go. And that's the reason I don't have a guestbook or blog. So why get annoyed? It happens everywhere. If you don't like it, don't have a guestbook!

 

Sorry, just had to get that off my chest. But it's true - the simplest way to stop spam is to have nothing for the people to spam in. And if you do need something for commenting, use a forum - much easier to control!

[Tourist 0]

I use a filter to restrict posting site address and few words (that is not acceptable to me) in chat room of my mobile site. I do not know will it be helpful to you or not, but you may try it. The system is very simple. Make a file for your restricted words (like http://, www., .com, .net, .org, etc) and set a function to check this file before posting your guest book. If the post contain any word that is restricted by you, display a message "Don’t try to spam, we don’t accept it".

[coolcat50 0]

Well, you could always use a randomized string or image as verification. I myself wrote a script that generates a 10 character long random string and inserts it into a variable. I can post it here if you like.

[icemath 0]

Well, this is a matter regarding both technique and non-technique. Before a message can be posted on your website, some technical measures can be taken to prevent huge-amount spams, as the GOOGLE mail group does to prevent most of the spam mails. While a message was left in your guest book, the question whether is is a spam is thoroughly determined by your own discretion. However, the GOOGLE mail spam-isolating technique is quite complicated, though some mails still received in INBOX, which most of us cannot completely use in our own websites. From this perspective, the most effective and ineffective way to keep such posts off is to delete them manually. Or perhaps you can add some key words into your codes as illegal words thus a submission with such words (spam in your view) will be terminated before its success.