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Spambots / spammers, ban or delete?

Nebulous's iconNebulous

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Do you think spambot / spammer accounts should be banned or their accounts deleted entirely?
 
It's been a long time since I modded or admin'ed a forum and I believe the software is more resistant to spam etc. these days but back then if you didn't delete the beggars ASAP your threads could very quickly become completely clogged with their trash.
 
It's been a long time since I modded or admin'ed a forum and I believe the software is more resistant to spam etc. these days but back then if you didn't delete the beggars ASAP your threads could very quickly become completely clogged with their trash.

Haven’t seen a spambot yet since we reopened *knock on wood*
Back in the day they were such a pain! I used to delete their accounts and ban the email/IP.
 
I don't often get spam bots anymore, the only time I would were on my old forums running phpBB back in the day. (In the early to mid 10's, not earlier. xD) I think nowdays software such as Xenforo does a great job at preventing spambots from joining. Plus I don't think there's much forum spam going on anymore, I feel like most spammers moved to social media.
 
I don't often get spam bots anymore, the only time I would were on my old forums running phpBB back in the day. (In the early to mid 10's, not earlier. xD) I think nowdays software such as Xenforo does a great job at preventing spambots from joining. Plus I don't think there's much forum spam going on anymore, I feel like most spammers moved to social media.

I wonder if the free softwares like MyBB and the like are as good as keeping out spambots as XF?
XenForo should making keeping the spambots out a priority, after all what are we paying all this money for? Lol
 
I used ip ban lists back in the day. Yes xenforo has a solid foundation when it comes to spam. They allow you to report it to them also I believe
 
I used ip ban lists back in the day. Yes xenforo has a solid foundation when it comes to spam. They allow you to report it to them also I believe

I believe XF is hooked up with some anti-spam databases and automatically weeds out all the reported spam bots out there.
 
I would probably ban them considering deleting them I think they could re-register unless you banned their email or IP address. Deleting them might muck up your member count somehow too on some forum software.
 
Most forums just ban them and archive their posts and delete their account and posts later on.
 
I usually banned bots and deleted their garbage with one notable exception where I just banned the bot while leaving their account intact because that bot kept rejoining the board over and over again as it had remade its account at least four times after the initial deletion before I just gave up deleting it and just banned the account instead. I recall seeing it in the active members list quite regularly though it could not do anything because it was banned. As for spammers, I usually banned them after their attack but one who made threats to spam and never went through with it well I chose a different approach then your typical ban and delete approach...


I thought this would be good for a laugh or two.
 
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