How avoid spammers?

[Cirene]

Building an ASP.NET community site where people can post ads, messages,
etc...

Based on your experience do you have any suggestions on how to avoid
spammers (at least deter them)?

Ex: Should I try to get their IP address, if so how? How about image
verification? Does ASP.NET do that?

Thanks for your great suggestions?

 

[Cowboy \(Gregory A. Beamer\)]

Images are certainly one method. You can also do a CAPTCHA control that does
not require images. It really depends on how "secure" you need it.

I would not rely on IP addresses. YOu can certainly use them to ban people,
but many of the SPAMMERs know how to spoof. You have to remember that it is
their livelihood to get as many views as possible, by whatever means
possible. Send porn to children? Sure, perhaps a few will have a credit card
and be a typical boy. The point is that no matter what you do, you will have
some spammers that SPAM bot.

Overall, you will find that SPAMMERs focus on popular sites, so putting a
huge amount of work into a non-popular site can be overkill. If you have the
time and inclination, then go for it.

--
Gregory A. Beamer
MVP, MCP: +I, SE, SD, DBA

Subscribe to my blog
http://gregorybeamer.spaces.live.com/lists/feed.rss

or just read it:
http://gregorybeamer.spaces.live.com/

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| Think outside the box!
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[S.M. Altaf [MVP]]

1. Moderate all posts or at least each first new post from each new member
identified by their login, email address or whatever is applicable
2. Use CAPTCHA despite news articles about flaws in it
3. Ensure that there are no automated form submissions by checking the
referrer.


You did mention that people will be posting ads though; it'll be a little
hard to distinguish between legitimate ads and 'spam' ads without human
moderation on it. You could theoretically look for specific keywords, but
those can always be circumvented by anyone dedicated enough.

 

[Steve C. Orr [MCSD, MVP, CSM, ASP Insider]]

You can use this free CAPTCHA web control to help deter them:
http://SteveOrr.net/articles/CAPTCHASP.aspx

--
I hope this helps,
Steve C. Orr,
MCSD, MVP, CSM, ASPInsider
http://SteveOrr.net
http://iPhonePlaza.net