unwanted links... need a way to moderate links

[n25an]

I have a link directory... things have been going well but now I am getting unwanted russion and isreali link... any and everywhere. I need to push all new links through some kind of approval process before it hits my directory... In a nutshell my directory is being spammed... do you have any countermeasures that I can take...

[n25an]

{demo link no longer operational - removed} so you can see it in action. I delete 10 they come back with 50... I delete 50 they come back with 100... I am just about ready to scrap this directory and use another one but I feel some loyalty thats why I asked the question about links. I have disabled reciprocal link checking and something else so all links jump straight to the board.

[VSDan]

I see that you disabled the [Visual Confirmation] feature, which goes a long ways to prevent this sort of thing. All other scripts have similar issues, but the [Visual Confirmation] feature is the usual fix. Banning IPs is usually useless, as these people often use proxies. Can you not use [Visual Confirmation]? Another possible fix is a mod that requires the submitter to respond to an email before the link is accepted for review - [Email Confirmation]. I could write this.

[David]

Sometimes a solution is to change the link to your submit page. If we really wanted to make it more challenging, we could require email verification, but that would certainly involve more programming. I have same problem at www.businessplexus.com

[VSDan]

I have found the changing links to scripts that are being spammed, to be short-lived solutions and very time-consuming. I think that [Email Verification] would be fairly easy to implement:

1. Submit data written to new SQL field, like {temp_link}. So, if not confirmed, it is auto-deleted after 24 hours - and will not clog {link} field.

2. Email sent to submitter with confirmation link, pointing to new script like verify.php.

3. Submitter clicks on link in email, and verify.php moves data from {temp_link} field to {link} field.

Such a feature could be toggled on/off via admin. And, email template could be handled also via admin. So, one new script (verify.php - or incorporate into existing submit.php), and slight modification of submit.php - to push data to {temp_link} and send confirmation email if [Email Confirmation] enabled.

Only issue would be with submitters not receiving email - for example, antispam applications deleting the email.

[David]

I guess we could let them know that an email has been sent at least. That's great if you think it would be easy. My directory gets at least 200 submissions per day, and at least 75% is junk.

[VSDan]

Most servers (at least dedicated) should handle a few hundred emails per day. However, if it is built in to the phpLD admin that you can disable [Email Confirmation], then, at least, people have an option. Other than [Visual Confirmation], not much else you can do. Actually not true, there is another solution. You can have submitters go through an intermediary page that requires them to verify their submission. This would only require a quick edit of submit.php. BTW, my discussion has been focused on robot autosubmissions - and not manual junk submissions. But extra hoops to jump through can reduce the latter. I think the latter solution, I'm going to do - submitters have to verify their submission.

[n25an]

Content visible to registered users only.

I think this would be great. I would certainly appreciate it... but a mod that gives me the right to delete the offending links would be better. A mod that would put the links on hold until I decide to approve them or not would be better. This way I could bottleneck the issue and smother it at my own pace.

[suzkaw]

Also what about having like a bad word filter. For instance have a portion in administration where any links submitted with the terms you define are not added.

For example I may want to block all "poker" sites so any links containing that word shouldn't be added. Of course this is just another idea. ;)

[VSDan]

Good suggestion for David et al. However, note that bad word filters are easy to get around - as many spammers know how to do. Regex (regular expressions - functions that can be used for matching) are easy to defeat. For example:

p o k e r
p*o*k*e*r
PoOKER
p o k er

(to name just a few - have a look at some email spams to see how creative they are at defeating high-end antispam applications)

[suzkaw]

Yes but if you are searching the url as well they couldn't defeat it if the word was part of the domain name. So for instance {demo link removed - not working} might get through but it wouldn't actually go anywhere.

Now some links would not have the physical name in the url but I would say 80% of spammers have sites like my-great-poker-place.com or maybe mygreatsite.com/poker

[VSDan]

I agree, but all I'm saying is that it will be far from perfect. But coupled with the other verification systems, you should come pretty close =)

[minstrel]

Content visible to registered users only.

I think this would be great. I would certainly appreciate it... but a mod that gives me the right to delete the offending links would be better. A mod that would put the links on hold until I decide to approve them or not would be better. This way I could bottleneck the issue and smother it at my own pace.[/quote]
Am I missing something here? Isn't this the default?

ALL links submitted to my directory remain invisible to visitors until I have approved them. Isn't this what you get with a standard install?

[Ap0s7le]

lol minstrel, I'm sitting back thinking the same thing.

later

[n25an]

well, it probably is during this version but I built my directory on a much older version and I have resisted upgrading it for very good reasons. The chief reason being to put it simply I had a very difficult time installing it in the first place. Yesterday, I tried to do an upgrade to the latest version in an alternate subfolder. I found there were files missing. I tried the version just before that and couldn't open the admin page. And you guys wonder why I have resisted upgrading. To put it simply this software can get buggy. Its great when it works but hell when it doesn't. Now you guys mights say this should be default and that should be. Thats wonderful. Now for an intelligent statement, what piece of code makes it default. Exactly what controls the moding links routine? what files should I check? where might my error be? things of that nature.... and where can I find a decent readme to explain how the program works. nothing personal but I've downloaded smaller programs that have been better documented. As you can tell, I am pretty upset. So before I call someone the rear end of something I'll pose my question again. My directory installs all links once everything is filled out. I have disabled the section that checks for backlink to my site so all links go straight to the directory. Validation has never worked properly in my site. Most of my fixes I have had to either figure it out or search this forum. I am looking for a mod that disables all new entries until I get a chance to go over them. if this is default in the code. Can someone please tell me what files control it. I would dearly like to know. thank you...

[Ap0s7le]

I understand your frustration.

First off, what version are you running?

-Casey

[Ap0s7le]

Thank you for PMing me, I'll have a look and see what I can do.

-Casey