No, I am not asking for help to get around IP bans LOL.
Here is my dilemma.
I am Moderator of a forum for a Book Fan site and I have a couple of questions about this.
We have recently begun dealing with a troll and unlike most trolls, he is persistent. We banned his username and the likes but he was able to come back and make multiple usernames(in the past 2 weeks, he has made 30) so we finally IP banned him
Problem Solved...or so we thought?
Apparently he is able to change his IP as much as he likes so even though we IP ban him, within 5 minutes he is able to come back instantly.
So he repeatedly comes back trolls and insults the members and members.
There is a new user who types with similar characteristics of the Troll, I mentioned about so we have suspicions but if the troll can change his IP we don't know if it is a harmless new person/coincidence or the actual troll.
Is there anything we can do to get around him changing his IP?
Also, is there a way we can still tell it is him even if he has changed the IP?
I had a younger brother who was a member of some game site and even though he changed the IP, somehow they could still tell he shared an IP address between user names.
change your registration settings to require a moderator to accept it. Now he cannot post until you physically click 'yes' to his registration. what forum software are you running, vB?
Another way around it is to do the following two things:
1. Save every single variation of a username he creates. most forum software allows you to reserve user names. Just reserve all the variations he uses and any further ones.
2. Create a word filter. Now this will affect everyone, but it will also have the unintended effect of lowering down any heated rhetoric on the site. basically put in any insulting or foul word you can think off (as well as alternate spellings of each (such as ASS, A>S>S>, A_S_S, etc.) and make your filter replace them with something ridiculous and humurous. For example, if the troll calls someone a 5hithead, have the forum change it to "poopie-noggin" or some other ridiculous alternative (I tend to favor insults a 5 year old could come up with). When they go on diatribes, filters like these take the bite right out f them. Eventually the trolls tire since their threads become ridiculous and people start laughing at them rather than get upset.
You can also record the IP addresses the troll is using, along with the times the posts from that IP are being made, and copies of the messages. use that information to file complaints with the ISPs that correspond to that troll. eventually the ISPs (assuming they are not a proxy specifically designed for this kind of use) will disconnect the account.
If they are changing the IP that fast then I would assume he/she is using a proxy. Something like Tor which can hide you behind several proxies thereby making it very difficult to block and/or trace.
Well, I am only a Moderator not the Admin(who runs it) so while I have more powers than the typical user it is a lot harder for me as Admin rarely gets on(And relies heavily on us Mods to actually run the site).
We do have filters against words. For instance today he got on and made fun of someone with Asperger's calling them reeetarded(yes i know i spelled it incorrectly). So when you say that word it automatically types durdle. However, all they have to do is break the censor by typing re.tarded or some variation. This goes with cuss words as well. Witch(replace the W with a B) turns into dog with fleas lol
AS far as his IPs, he brags about the fact that his router allows him multiple IPs as well as he did say he was using Proxies as well to use it.
I'd have figured he would have given up now(He perma banned early July) and it's now in August and is getting even worse(especially now that he is using proxy)
and a lot of our Mods are quitting and it's just starting to get to be a major hassle and stress for me a, 17 year old and contacting Admin is hard.
I figured this was the best place to look as Android users are some of the best tech geeks around
Sounds similar to my cable connection. I can have a switch right after the cable modem, then have a unique IP from the ISP sent to each of my routers. Renewing the IP address on each router is easy, although it could raise flags at his ISP if he is renewing consistently.
Did you happen to log all his IP information so far since they joined? Using their original nick check the logs. Do a nslookup and/or whois on each IP to see if there are any IPs that continually resolves to the same hostname. That might help narrow down his ISP. Like I mentioned before proxies, the good ones, use several different IPs between them and you. Finding the real one could be difficult.
Last edited by andruoid; August 2nd, 2011 at 01:49 AM.
I tried to contact Admin but i have not heard back from him.
One of my fellow Mods, said the board is
board3 Portal based on phpBB3 Portal
For now...we have removed the registration button so NO new members can register. It's just a temporary solution since this disables new members(non-trolls) the ability to register.
One relatively easy "universal" solution is making the forum invite only, but thats only assuming said troll doesn't have people already registered that would invite him.
One relatively easy "universal" solution is making the forum invite only, but thats only assuming said troll doesn't have people already registered that would invite him.
That is a good suggestion but I guess, wouldn't that also prevent fans from joining as well?
case in point you...if you wanted to join the site because you were a fan of the book series, "invite only' would not allow you to join UNLESS you knew someone who was already a member? Am I right?
That is a good suggestion but I guess, wouldn't that also prevent fans from joining as well?
case in point you...if you wanted to join the site because you were a fan of the book series, "invite only' would not allow you to join UNLESS you knew someone who was already a member? Am I right?
Yep, pretty much every "tried and true" solution has some sort of downside, banning his IP range (or his ISP completely) would probably be the method with the least downfalls.
Just keep expanding the filters. every time a new word gets through, just add it to the filter. eventually the troll will raise the bar so high for himself, he will make it impossible to troll.
Another solution would be to allow all to register, but can only post in one subforum. When the new person introduces themselves and makes a few posts without trolling, you can give them more forum access. That way, it doesn't muck up your current convos, either.
Another solution would be to allow all to register, but can only post in one subforum. When the new person introduces themselves and makes a few posts without trolling, you can give them more forum access. That way, it doesn't muck up your current convos, either.
This is the best solution. Keep them quarrantined until they prove to be useful members of the community, then open them up to the rest of the world.
Also, no offense, but who cares about some random "book fan" site enough to troll it with that kind of veracity? Seems kinda sad.
who cares about some random "book fan" site enough to troll it with that kind of veracity? Seems kinda sad.
The same could be said for some random "Android fan" site, yet you'd be surprised how much time and effort staff here have to spend in combating a handful of persistent troublemakers who return time after time. Maybe they see it as a game or challenge, or maybe they like stroking their egos while picking fights with random strangers.... who knows?
The same could be said for some random "Android fan" site, yet you'd be surprised how much time and effort staff here have to spend in combating a handful of persistent troublemakers who return time after time. Maybe they see it as a game or challenge, or maybe they like stroking their egos while picking fights with random strangers.... who knows?
One can only imagine. I've never understood what part of acting like an idiot is fun, that is of course assuming that they are acting.
The funniest solution I have heard/read to deal with problem members is to let them post, dont ban them or give them warnings or infractions, but make it so only they can see their own posts.
When no one else can see the posts but the troll, they get bored and wonder why they are getting no attention. Hopefully, they eventually givie up.
hmmmm...I wonder...
Wait guys, you can read this post right?
You see what I'm saying right?????? Right????? Guys????!?!?
One solution against trolls and spammers that a couple of forums I'm a member of use. That is to moderate and approve a new member's first few posts, like say 10. It's a lot more work for the mods though. Trolls can soon get bored when they find their posts don't appear.
Another solution would be to allow all to register, but can only post in one subforum. When the new person introduces themselves and makes a few posts without trolling, you can give them more forum access. That way, it doesn't muck up your current convos, either.
Yeah we have a section on the website where New Members introduce themselves.
We had already implemented the 10 posts rule where mods would have to approve all mods.
At first this worked fine...we have a bunch of Mods to help out.
But the problem came in when the troll would just pretend to be a regular new member.
Example:
LIKE OMG! I'm Micah and I am such a huge fan of this series. I live and die for these books.
So of course we are not going to be able to tell if they are a troll or a new member and once they get pass the restriction, they then began to troll.
But as of the past week or two, we have completely removed the registration button...temporarily so NO ONE can register, in hopes of deterring the troll.
So far things have calmed down BUT we have had a few issues. While we have prevented NEW usernames from being created...there still is the username the troll has made PRIOR to use removing registration which he uses from time and time again.
But things have gone back to normal....I'm just worried that he may end up coming back, once our guards are down and causing all sorts of hell.
I never get why people feel the need to create an account JUST to diss something.
If i was an IOS fanboy and hated Android(I'm not and I don't), I have a life and a busy one at that. I wouldn't sign up here just to post how much i hate Android. It's pathetic.
But a lot of our members are teens(I'm 17) so i guess the ignorance is also a mix of immaturity and lack of a life. Still pathetic tho.
LIKE OMG! I'm Micah and I am such a huge fan of this series. I live and die for these books.
All you can do is use logs and the Mod tools available to compare registration IPs with previously-created accounts and hope a link is obvious e.g. same ISP, similar usernames/email addresses/sigs etc.
Quote:
there still is the username the troll has made PRIOR to use removing registration which he uses from time and time again.
It hasn't been suspended, to prevent occurrence?
Quote:
But a lot of our members are teens(I'm 17) so i guess the ignorance is also a mix of immaturity and lack of a life. Still pathetic tho.
Age is no barrier to stupidity or malevolence, believe me. Our most persistent offenders are (supposedly) grown adults.
All you can do is use logs and the Mod tools available to compare registration IPs with previously-created accounts and hope a link is obvious e.g. same ISP, similar usernames/email addresses/sigs etc.
It hasn't been suspended, to prevent occurrence?
Age is no barrier to stupidity or malevolence, believe me. Our most persistent offenders are (supposedly) grown adults.
No, it's not a particular username. I have a suspicion that before we removed the registration button, that he and a few of his dumb friends may have made a few spare Usernames to troll with.
And I like how on AF, it says Probation or Banned below the person's name. It's like shaming them hahaha
Honestly I told them today that I am done with Moderating. Im still a regular member and all that Jazz but I'm through with that BS. I can't even enjoy talking to friends without constantly having to worry "What's he going to do next" or whatever.
To give background about the site, it's a fan site dedicated to a Young Adult Series of books called Gone by Michael Grant(if you have Kids, they should definitely read the books).
There is no age limit to join the site(most of us are all teens 12-18) and there are nearly 3000 members.
Basically he is trying to accuse us of cyberbullying and discrimination because some of the more vocal members got fed up with him and did threaten him or told him to die(again these are kids arguing with kids) and he basically is trying to force us into letting him do whatever he wants and not stopping him or the rest of his "Troll army" from doing it by saying that he has records of what people said to him.
I'm not sure if he has much of a case, as I am no judge or anything like that but his argument is
"I called people stupid and said they have no lives except in this site"
and they told me that were going to kill me or they wish i would die.
So i stepped down as a Mod and wiped my hands clean of it. College is about to start and I have a birthday coming up, I am trying to enjoy my time without the drama. It's just pathetic how some people(adult or child) behave these days.
A.)He is bluffing !!
B.)If he is not ,he has accepted the forum rules when he registered .Check the agreement and cross check his actions and YOUR POWERS
e.g The android forums Agreement
Forum Rules
Registration to this forum is free! We do insist that you abide by the rules and policies detailed below. If you agree to the terms, please check the 'I agree' checkbox and press the 'Register' button below. If you would like to cancel the registration, click here to return to the forums index.
Although the administrators and moderators of Android Forums will attempt to keep all objectionable messages off this forum, it is impossible for us to review all messages. All messages express the views of the author, and neither the owners of Android Forums, nor Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd. (developers of vBulletin) will be held responsible for the content of any message.
Anything you post within this system becomes the property of Android Forums and the administrative staff. This includes regular posts as well as Social Group postings (public and private) and the private messaging system.
By agreeing to these rules, you warrant that you will not post any messages that are obscene, vulgar, sexually-oriented, hateful, threatening, or otherwise violative of any laws. You agree to review the following additional guidelines before posting and know that anything you put into the system can be read by the administrative staff and becomes the property of Android Forums.
The owners of Android Forums reserve the right to remove, edit, move or close any thread for any reason.
What that means (in AF atleast)
A.)A Bully cant sue them for comments of other members.
B.)THey can smack the bully in whatever way you want.
C.)They also have right to remove any message .
MODS ARE SUPPOSED TO BE TRAINED IN ART OF WAAAGH ON MOUNTAINS OF FOBASAHHHTERI
What you can do
A .)Maintain a database of some his threads and alias .
B.)Threaten him instead .
C.)Say that you have recieved a Legal warning regarding that bully and soon the local authorities will act starting with ISP ban .
D.)Be creative !! What bullies lack is creativity
Know thy Powers !!! .
Last edited by Tresezk; August 20th, 2011 at 12:57 AM.
as of today, I am just a regular member. No Modly powers. I just could not deal with the stress. I feel bad for the rest of the Mods as well because now it's not just ONE or two of them, he has organized(Like i knew he would) more people to cause havoc and to annoy others.
I've been keeping logs because if they EVER come knocking on my door, i have logs of conversations, screenshots as well as emails that show that he is not a victim but an instigator.
I would say don't think anything of it, based on his past reputation of acting like an idiot, he's just continuing that trend.
Believe me when I say it takes them longer to make new accounts then it does for the mods to ban them. With the right amount of persistence he'll give up long before they do.
Idk...It started with his brother back in May and now we are almost into september and it's getting worse.
On the plus side now I am not REQUIRED to log in daily(us Mods are required to log in and police during "shifts"). So i can easily take time away from the site but i just feel bad for giving up but i never in my life realized how ignorant people can be till this happened.
Sad
But he seems to be organised and hell bent on havoc .
But as ToastPwnz mentioned he wont be persistent .
Reasons ....
You have locked the registrations and thereby locking his ability to create new aliases .he has to make maximum havoc with limited resources
He started talking about cyber-bullying .It means he has ran out of ideas (and probably aliases) and he wants more time on that particular alias .
It's just a ploy to throw the mods off-balance .
He and his gang are supposedly seasoned trolls .
But no one is that persistent .
From what I read,the admin is not that active member which is a minus .
That also gave those people (person) some extra boost.
Ask your fellow mods to be persistent against them .And all those legal threats are hog-wash (after reading the local newspaper).When he joined the forums he accepted the terms associated .He will be in bigger trouble in that case.
More ever .The power of a troll lies in his anonymity .If he serves a legal notice (which will be mega idiotic) his whole basis of trolling will be under a threat .And he wont be a Anonymous anymore !!
Last edited by Tresezk; August 20th, 2011 at 12:56 AM.
One problem I see right off is that the mods are given shifts. A good admin should promote people he knows will be active at different times during the day, at their leisure. That way theres almost always one mod on, and nobody feels pressured to "work".
Sad
But he seems to be organised and hell bent on havoc .
But as ToastPwnz mentioned he wont be persistent .
Reasons ....
You have locked the registrations and thereby locking his ability to create new aliases .he has to make maximum havoc with limited resources
He started talking about cyber-bullying .It means he has ran out of ideas (and probably aliases) and he wants more time on that particular alias .
It's just a ploy to throw the mods off-balance .
He and his gang are supposedly seasoned trolls .
But no one is that persistent .
From what I read,the admin is not that active member which is a minus .
That also gave those people (person) some extra boost.
Ask your fellow mods to be persistent against them .And all those legal threats are hog-wash (after reading the local newspaper).When he joined the forums he accepted the terms associated .He will be in bigger trouble in that case.
More ever .The power of a troll lies in his anonymity .If he serves a legal notice (which will be mega idiotic) his whole basis of trolling will be under a threat .And he wont be a Anonymous anymore !!
Well we did remove registration but we noticed that prior to removing registration , over the course of his 3 months of trolling, there have been a mass amount of people joining.
Now don't get me wrong. I love Gone. It's a great series. But Gone is no harry potter. It's not THAT popular...nor do I think ever will be that popular. So for us to have 200 new usernames over that span of time is a bit....suspect.
But we can't just go and ban every account because we don't know if it is a troll or not.
So the problem isn't so much him registering new accounts because we fixed that by removing it...The Problem is what about the other accounts he already made prior.
May 2011 we had like 2550 members, as of today we have 2800 members.
We've be banned a total of 54 accounts dedicated to him and his "troll army", what I and a lot of other people are worried about is how many more of those New users are apart of these groups of trolls....
and yes Admin sucks at coming on the site.
My question is this....
Android forums or any other forum basically is not held liable by whatever actions go on between two members.
example:
If someone here threatens my life, I can't sue AF because when I joined the rules stated they were not held liable for that stuff.
But can't legal action be taken against the individual involved?
Could he(or his parents) or any of the trolls take legal action against other members individually and not the site?
Not only has he created multiple user accounts ,as you said , the only thing he does only forum is insult other members .
The troll has mentioned "cyber bullying"
Cyber-bullying is "the use of information and communication technologies to support deliberate, repeated, and hostile behavior by an individual or group, that is intended to harm others".[1] As it has become more common in society, particularly among young people, legislation and awareness campaigns have arisen to combat it. Source :-Wiki
Ironically he is committing the aforesaid crime .
If other members had ganged up on him then he would have said to be bullied .
But HE himself is using the technology to harm the general decent nature of the forum .Not only is he persistent ,he is also organised in his manner .Which suggests this is not his first time .
Also he instigated the conversation.
That said other members should know by know
Trolls' power is in his animosity .If he ever takes legal action
The member 's computer ,the records of member's ISP and also the bully's computer and his records of ISP will be investigated . And by the sound of it the troll will be in big trouble .
Legality only comes into conversation when the troll truns out of ideas .Many trolls bluff that they are lawyers and they will sue everyone .
If he is old enough to insult ,he is old enough to face the consequences of his posts .
Only if by some reason the troll gets murdered ,the member who threatened him will be in trouble .
The Following User Says Thank You to Tresezk For This Useful Post:
I'm sorry to hear that it was causing you stress Micahdiablo, but if so then you're better off out of it. Nothing is more important than your own health.... or sanity.
We're very lucky here at AF. The staff team here is a close-knit group, making it easy to get second opinions and moral support so that we never feel isolated. The forum members here are also appreciative of what AF stands for, meaning that almost all potentially-problematic posts are quickly reported and thus acted on. Thanks to this we manage to keep on top of trouble..... it's a nice situation to be in.
The Following User Says Thank You to Slug For This Useful Post:
Yeah I like this site alot and the way it is ran(probably because it is ran buy adults).
Our site/forum was created and paid for by an adult(Admin) but he has sense basically
let kids manage and maintain over other kids and that in itself brings a lot of problems.
I am back as a Mod on my site full force and registration IS back.
I spoke with the troll personally via email. I figured out of all the mods, I am the least volatile and I won't insult him and asked him what i could do to mediate between him(And his immature friends) and the rest of the site.
He said that he has come up with yet another way to switch IPs and was going to continue doing so.
Is it possible for someone to get another router from their ISP company and does that give them a new pool of ip address to choose from?
The reason i ask is when he was directly using his regular router, no matter how many times he would unplug it and get a new ip we were able to match him.
so will this new router(from the same ISP company) make it harder to track him again?
He/they are probably using a program like Tor as I mentioned above. With that program you browse the net through various proxies (change networks) and hide behind a new IP on the fly.
If I was renewing my real IP all the time my ISP would contact me and wonder why.
The Following User Says Thank You to andruoid For This Useful Post:
A term used by vBulletin forum software to define its 'global ignore list'. Administrators of a forum can choose to put a user on this list. Their posts can be viewed by themselves, but all other users do not see their posts on the forum.
The Following 2 Users Say Thank You to BiggestManEver For This Useful Post:
The "ignored by everyone" approach sounds like the perfect weapon against a troll. It might take a bit of intense vigilance initially to make sure all his aliases are put on global ignore, but I can't imagine that even a hard-core troll will continue for too long when they're getting no response.
Whatever you do, don't contact him directly to mediate, scold, or anything. Being absolutely 100% ignored is the only response that'll work, and the twisted thrill he gets from making you add yet another name to global ignore can only keep him occupied for so long...
His threat of legal action from cyber-bullying is just absurd. He's the one making the effort to maintain contact, not anyone on your forum.
Does your forum require an email address and clicking on a confirmation link in an email to register? If not add that, it's a small and common enough inconvenience that legit users won't mind but he'll be forced to create new email address after new email address...
IP Bans...Please help
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