SN Posting clock

[shockall]

Has something happened to the time clock which registeres each SN'ers post or is everyone still in Hawaii. Or can't anyone sleep these days?

[WstateU]

Re: SN Posting clock

Has something happened to the time clock which registeres each SN'ers post or is everyone still in Hawaii. Or can't anyone sleep these days?

Funny you would say that... it took me over a week to re-adjust to Kansas time. :D

[RoyalShock]

Were you logged in when you were seeing the odd times? If so, check the time zone setting in your profile.

[ShockBand]

If you aren't logged in, the default system time zone is off in the middle of the Pacific. This thwarts 99% of the spambot registration attempts that we've been plagued with the past few months. As Royal stated, if the time is off when you are logged in, check the setting for time zone in your profile.

[Shock-Til-U-Drop]

If you aren't logged in, the default system time zone is off in the middle of the Pacific. This thwarts 99% of the spambot registration attempts that we've been plagued with the past few months. As Royal stated, if the time is off when you are logged in, check the setting for time zone in your profile.

Are you saying this is by design? Is this a fairly new thing? The time is correct when i'm logged in, but if i'm just browsing and not logged in, the time is way off. I don't recall that being the case in the recent past.

[ShockBand]

I did this back in early December, and it is completely by design. It has also stopped ALL of the spambot registrations I was having to deal with on a daily basis. The default time zone for those not logged in is about six hours behind Central time, placing it in one of the most uninhabited time zones in the world. Since the spambots just pick up the default time for registering, it keeps them out.

[shock-it-to-me]

I did this back in early December, and it is completely by design. It has also stopped ALL of the spambot registrations I was having to deal with on a daily basis. The default time zone for those not logged in is about six hours behind Central time, placing it in one of the most uninhabited time zones in the world. Since the spambots just pick up the default time for registering, it keeps them out.

Very crafty ShockBand.

[Kung Wu]

I did this back in early December, and it is completely by design. It has also stopped ALL of the spambot registrations I was having to deal with on a daily basis. The default time zone for those not logged in is about six hours behind Central time, placing it in one of the most uninhabited time zones in the world. Since the spambots just pick up the default time for registering, it keeps them out.

I don't get it, but I sure would like to. What do you mean they "pick up the default time zone for registering"? When they register, they use an obscure time zone, so you don't approve them?

[ShockBand]

No, the spambots just fill in the required fields automatically, and have long ago cracked the phpBB2 authorization number image thing, but don't change anything else. Therefore, they register using that GMT-12 timezone. I have code in the registration page that kills any registration wanting to use GMT-12. The down side is it may be keeping people from registering who aren't scrolling down and changing their timezone to something expected, like GMT-6 for CST.

[Kung Wu]

No, the spambots just fill in the required fields automatically, and have long ago cracked the phpBB2 authorization number image thing, but don't change anything else. Therefore, they register using that GMT-12 timezone. I have code in the registration page that kills any registration wanting to use GMT-12. The down side is it may be keeping people from registering who aren't scrolling down and changing their timezone to something expected, like GMT-6 for CST.

Ah that's exactly what I was wondering -- if you threw some additional code in to drop registrations with that timezone. And then also considered your downside. :D

You could throw a note at the top of the page saying if they don't set a proper timezone, their registration will be dropped.

[ShockBand]

No, the spambots just fill in the required fields automatically, and have long ago cracked the phpBB2 authorization number image thing, but don't change anything else. Therefore, they register using that GMT-12 timezone. I have code in the registration page that kills any registration wanting to use GMT-12. The down side is it may be keeping people from registering who aren't scrolling down and changing their timezone to something expected, like GMT-6 for CST.

Ah that's exactly what I was wondering -- if you threw some additional code in to drop registrations with that timezone. And then also considered your downside. :D

You could throw a note at the top of the page saying if they don't set a proper timezone, their registration will be dropped.

Its on the to-do list!

[owenc]

Another very successful technique is to add add an extra field to the form with a very common variable name and hide that field using CSS. Then if the field has anything in it you can just return success but not actually register them.

This is pretty common but we've not seen any bots picking up on it yet.