Reduce Spam: Block Asia

By Brian Turner

As post spam continues to increase on UGC sites, blocking Asia could prove one of the simplest anti-spam options

Post spam is a time consuming annoyance for any webmaster running User Generate Content (UGC) sites.

The more popular and the larger the number of UGC sites you run, the more it becomes a very real management problem.

While blogs routinely suffer the problem from automated scripts, forums are more complex because of the human element.

I’ve previously posted tips on how to stop forum spam - but some always gets through.

This is especially the case where automated anti-spam scripts are used to fight spam bots - but can be circumvented by a more intelligent human spammer.

This is mainly driven by 2 main factors:

1. The boom in Indian cheap SEO which actively spam UGC sites and call it “link building”

2. Increasing numbers of webmasters in developing countries incentivised by the lure of affiliate income.

In either case, you end up with human users joining up who then post either spam advertising, junk posts for a signature link, or else simply promote their website in other ways at every opportunity.

It’s especially endemic with users from India, Pakistan, China, and the Philippines.

The solution I’ve started to implement is simple - block Asian IP addresses from accessing the forum in the first place.

You can block entire IP ranges directly in the vbulletin admin panel.

However, another solution is to simply upload a list to block in your .htaccess file in the UGC section folder, ie:

order allow,deny
deny from 58.
deny from 59.
deny from 60.
deny from 61.
deny from 112.
deny from 113.
deny from 114.
deny from 115.
deny from 116.
deny from 117.
deny from 118.
deny from 119.
deny from 120.
deny from 121.
deny from 122.
deny from 123.
deny from 124.
deny from 125.
deny from 126.
deny from 169.
deny from 202.
deny from 203.
deny from 210.
deny from 211.
deny from 218.
deny from 219.
deny from 220.
deny from 221.
deny from 222.
allow from all

Of course, such a block needs applying with care.

However, for many of my online communities, they are targeted specifically at UK or US audiences, and where these have particularly commercial value (ie, business or finance) the only Asian members are those attracted by spamming opportunities.

Therefore for these sites at least, blocking Asia will not affect the site’s normal functions, and will not adversely impact the community development.

But, in theory, it will do a lot to keep out the forum spamming scum.