Anti-Spam Options - [GlowHost] Spam-O-Matic - Spam Firewall stops forum spam [Archive]

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GlowHost.com

08-04-2010, 10:00 PM

If you install this mod, please mark this as "Installed."

VERSION 2.1.2 RELEASED 5/28/2013!

About Spam-O-Matic 2.x:
Spam-O-Matic 2.x (SOM) is a spam firewall for your vBulletin Forums version 4.x and later. It prevents known spammers from registering on your forums. If they can't register, they can't spam!

Languages Packs Available
English
German - Courtesy of Alex@bulletin (included in zip)
Romanian - Courtesy of Teascu Dorin's (included in zip)
Spanish - Courtesy of vbluis (included in zip)

How it Works
This data responsible for blocking user registrations comes from the stopforumspam.com (SFS) spammer database. After the user who is trying to register passes the built-in vBulletin registration checks which you have configured in your vBulletin settings, SOM then checks the SFS database to see if the IP, username, or email address that the user is trying to register with has been recently tagged as a known spam source on other forums around the Internet. Also can be configured to check the Akismet service for known comment spam.

This is without a doubt, one of the most important mods that you will be using on your forum.

Other Notable Stuff
It also does a ton of other cool stuff like moderating posts automatically if the post is found in the Akismet database, or if it contains words on your "Bad Words" keyword list which can be configured within the mod itself.

The mod WORKS with vBulletin's new Facebook integration.
This module works with all of the Facebook functions that are built into the vB4 series.
Similar mods do not handle Facebook integration completely.

This module has the ability to submit new spammer details to the StopForumSpam or Akismet databases automatically, all without any new templates or manual template modifications! :up:

This means other forums that are running Spam-O-Matic will not have the same spammer on their forums if you have (automatically) reported the spammer to the SFS database.

Just install the product in the product manager, upload a few files, configure the system and you are done. (Estimated time: 5-10 minutes)

What's new in 2.1.0:

Fixed a problem with MySQL engine selection to make mod more compatible with different types of servers.
When SOM "Newbies Group" is activated + vB's native option to "Verify Email address in Registration" is activated at the same time, "Users Awaiting Email Confirmation" must click the verification link to become a newbie.
Added remove user, post, ban to user profile options in admincp under "Quick User Links"
Added German Language Pack
Optimized default settings to work with the needs of most forums
Added a new coupon for GlowHost (available after you submit a spammer)
Several other performance tuning options

Feature List:

Optional Public Statistics. Show off to the world how many bad guys you have automatically prevented from posting junk on your forum.
Auto-Moderation moderates posts that have links, bad words, and other configurable settings.
Auto-Moderation ignores your RSS posts.
Registration / Denial Logs available from Admincp > Statistics and Logs
Optional "Newbies" Manager! After registration, newly registered users can be placed in a "Newbies" group which has more limited permissions as compared to your regular "Registered Users" group. Newbies will graduate to your Registered Users group based on your required post count settings.
Auto-Submit Spammers from the moderation tools menu on each postbit.
Remove Posts, threads, PMs, Calendar Events from your spammer in one easy wizard. No double logins needed.
Shows other users who signed up with the same IP. (Sleeping Spammers)
Optional Affiliate System
~50 customizable settings to fine-tune Spam-O-Matic to your exact needs.

A) StopForumSpam:
The StopForumSpam Module lets you:

Check a registrant's IP address.
Check a registrant's email address.
Check a registrants Username.
Disable or enable any of the above checks.
Block and log, or, allow and log known spammers.
All registration attempts are logged for your viewing pleasure.
Several other performance tuning options

If a user (or bot) tries to register on your forum and they pass the built-in vBulletin registration system. (Human verification, email verification, etc), their registration details are then passed to the Spam-O-Matic firewall for further checking.

NOTE: You should use some sort of human verification checking in vBulletin's built-in options to limit the number of requests to the already heavily-loaded StopForumSpam database servers. This will also prevent additional load because SOM will not have to do anything if the bot/spammer fails preliminary registration validation which is built-into vBulletin itself.

It is completely invisible to humans who are registering that this process is taking place. Bots are stopped dead in their tracks.

If a spammer is able to sneak past the first line of defense, and manages to post, then there are secondary, tertiary, and, uh...4th level protections too!

B) Auto-Moderation:
Auto Moderation lets you:

Define how many URLs a new member can post before being sent to moderation.
Define keywords that will send a post to Auto-moderation (viagra, porn, more here (http://glowhost.com/forums/programming-talk/glowhost-spam-o-matic-bad-words-list-2372.html))
Define minimum post count to avoid Auto-moderation.
Excludes admin and moderators from Auto-moderation.
Completely disable Auto-moderation if you don't want it.

C) Akismet Service
Spammers that make it past the StopForumSpam and Auto-Moderation will be checked against the Akismet service. If they manage to make a post, and then are found on Akismet, they can be auto-moderated.

The Akismet settings let you:

Set the number of posts that Akismet will check from each user. After this number is exceeded, Akismet checking will be disabled for that user.
Auto-Submit spammers that post on your boards back to the Akismet service so that other forums and blogs do not do not receive the same spam.
Completely disable the Akismet service.

D) Newbies Manager
Should you decide to enable this option, you can create a new usergroup and then tell Spam-O-Matic about it. Once SOM knows about this usergroup, and once enabled, all new users will be part of the Newbies group. The idea here is that you make a Newbies group that has limited forum permissions. For example, no signatures, no BB code, no images, and etc. This group is created completely in the vB admincp. Spam-O-Matic simply makes it the graduation process to the normal Registered Users group, automatic.
Learn More and Discuss the Newbies Manager here. (http://glowhost.com/forums/programming-talk/spam-o-matic-newbies-manager-2382.html)

Punitive Actions:
If you find a spammer has made it past your 4 front-lines of defense, and has managed to post on your forum, then you can help the community...

The spammer's details can be sent to the Stop Forum Spam and Akismet databases automatically, preventing them from registering or posting on other forums. When other forums do the same, the protection is reciprocated.

Simply moderate a post and choose the option to "Delete Posts As Spam..." an then choose the option to "Ban User." Banning the user sends their details to either Akismet, StopForumSpam, (or both) depending on how you set it up.

API Keys:
API Keys are not required for this system to stop spammers on your forums. But you should obtain them so that your forum can contribute to the real-time block lists.

A StopForumSpam API key is required if you want to contribute to the StopForumSpam blacklists by adding your spammers to their database. By submitting spammers you help keep other forums and blogs clean.

An Akismet API key is required if you want to enable any Akismet auto-moderation features in this module. Akismet API key is not required for all Auto-Moderation functions.

You can obtain a Stop Forum Spam API key which is free from stopforumspam.com.

Get your StopForumSpam API Key Here (http://www.stopforumspam.com/signup)

You can obtain an Akismet API key from Akismet.com.
Akismet offers free and paid API keys so choose your version based on your situation.

Get your Akismet API Key Here (http://akismet.com/)

Why it is better than the other anti-spam solutions on vBulletin.org:

Works with all of vBulletin 4 functions including Facebook automatic registration.
Report spammers that you find to the Stop Forum Spam Database.
Report spammers that you find to the Akismet Database.
Built-in Auto-moderation.
Auto-moderation rules based on post count.
Auto-moderation rules based keywords.
Auto-moderation rules based Akismet results.
Enable or disable any actions that you do not want.
Customizable "Registration Rejected" message.
Consolidates 4 popular methods of spam prevention into one product.
No Manual Template Modifications!
Lots of community support!

======================
Compatibility:
vBulletin 4.0.x

Server Requirements:
Curl or allow_url_fopen must be compiled/enabled into PHP. Ask your web host to enable curl or allow_url_fopen if it is not already available on your server's PHP configuration. (Or just host with GlowHost.com, where it already is :)

=====================
Donations:

If you like this mod, sure, you can donate!

Donations can be all sorts of things:
1) The "Give Thanks" option in your settings is an optional link back to GlowHost Web Hosting.
2) Tell your friends and others about this mod.
3) If you are in need of web hosting, please consider ordering it from the hosting and development professionals at GlowHost.com (http://glowhost.com/script_hosting/vbulletin.html) who were able to develop this mod to you.
4) Help others who are having trouble with this mod by posting tips and suggestions in this forum thread.
5) Cash! Use the "Support Developer" option on the top right of this page.

When you choose to donate, you are contributing to the product development, bug fixes and new releases for SOM and are helping to feed our hungry developers and their families! In other words, your donations helps to cover the time and money spent to develop this system.

The entire team at GlowHost thanks you for your help and support!

We hope you enjoy the mod! :up:

=====================
Installation:

1) Download the attached file
2) Mark As Installed
3) SOM 2.x does not support updates from the v1.x series.
When upgrading to version 2.x, please, be sure to remove any other existing version of SOM 1.x from the product manager before installing v2.x series. Also make sure to remove /forum/includes/xml/bitfield_glowhostspamomatic.xml from version 1 if you had it installed.

4) Extract the zip file, and view the readme file for the rest of the instructions.

=====================

Original concept credits go to the authors of vBStopForumSpam, MonkeyStop.

GlowHost.com

08-05-2010, 01:36 PM

Q. Should I use vBulletin 4's built in Spam Management system?
A. You can do whatever you like, but we recommend disabling it. If you have this enabled and have problems, we won't be able to support you. Spam-O-Matic was built to run standalone from any other Spam prevention modules.

Q. Can you add something in the admincp so I can remove users from there too?
A. Yes we can and we did. it is now available in version 2.1+

Q. Does this mod work in vBulletin 3.x?
A. probably not. It might but its not recommended as we have not tested it and it was not built for vB3. There is an older version that works on vB3 here. https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthread.php?t=248470

Q. How come there are links to GlowHost.com on my public forum?
A. That would be because you did not use the settings to turn the "Give Thanks" link off.

You can disable the "Give Thanks" link if you do not want to help support this mod. Please keep in mind that this is a free mod and development and support for it does cost time and money. :)

We rely on your links to our site to help support development of this mod so we greatly appreciate your participation if you keep the "Give Thanks" link enabled. Linking to us ensures support and future (New and Improved!) releases. Yes, it is OK to link to us even if you use a different host. GlowHost has thousands of customers that link to other hosts. They pay for their hosting, they are free to link whatever they like. :)

It's a very small and unobtrusive link. Come on! Help us out and link us! (How is that for shameless self-promotion?)

...

sulasno

08-05-2010, 02:40 PM

tagged and thanks

djbaxter

08-05-2010, 02:50 PM

I'm unclear: Is this an adjunct to the Stop Forum Spam add-on? Or is it a replacement? i.e., to install this should the Stop Forum Spam add-on be disabled or uninstalled?

GlowHost.com

08-05-2010, 02:53 PM

I'm unclear: Is this an adjunct to the Stop Forum Spam add-on? Or is it a replacement? i.e., to install this should the Stop Forum Spam add-on be disabled or uninstalled?

This is a complete replacement. Your other StopForumSpam plugins may or may not work with this.

BadgerDog

08-05-2010, 09:24 PM

Reference this feature ...

New registrations are checked against the known spammer database at StopForumSpam.com. If the email, IP, or username exists in their database, the user (or bot as the case may be) is denied registration on your forums.

Using the StopForumSpam mod, we have found that blocking based upon IP address is a killer and a LOT of legitimate registrants were being blocked, so we turned OFF this option allowing the email address and user name to continue being checked.

Does your mod allow the same configuration options?

I can't really tell by your sample pic as the text is so small I can't read the AdminCP options ...

On a side note, this looks really interesting and could consolidate several methods we use now ... :)

Regards,
Badger

GlowHost.com

08-05-2010, 10:13 PM

Hello Badger,

Yes, it does what you want.

"Test the IP address against the StopForumSpam database:"

Select "Yes" or "No."

I will work on that screen shot as well, I agree.:up:

Problem is vbulletin.org has a max height of 768 px so I cant find a good way to put a screen shot of admin settings here without chopping the image into 3-4 pieces which is a bit sloppy. Best to just install the application, and check the settings yourself. :)

The simple answer is this mod has all of the same settings as the older mods, and some additions.

GlowHost.com

08-05-2010, 10:59 PM

Long day. I guess. Badger I have updated the previous post. What you want is included.

TsirhCitna

08-05-2010, 11:21 PM

djbaxter

08-05-2010, 11:52 PM

Using the StopForumSpam mod, we have found that blocking based upon IP address is a killer and a LOT of legitimate registrants were being blocked, so we turned OFF this option allowing the email address and user name to continue being checked.

I didn't find the IP address to be the problem but the name, so I have it check IP address and email but NOT name.

GlowHost.com

08-05-2010, 11:54 PM

Anyway to include the infraction system as well? I currently use the infraction system to move spammers to a usergroup that isn't banned users but a separate group that has no posting privileges. The spammers seem less likely to register again when they are still able to login even though they can not make any posts.

No, but that sounds like a waste of your time to me. Most spammers are bots so they probably care nothing about what group you put them in, and are even less likely to login or "see" that they can login but not post.

This module blocks bots which will be 80-99% of your spammers, then when you train your Spam-O-Matic Auto-Moderation to your specific needs, your auto-moderation filters will catch the human ones that are stupid enough to try and login to post. The spammers that get past those two checks are checked by Akismet. The ones that get past all of that are determined humans, lucky, or have new techniques. Those users should be reported so make sure to get your API keys.

I don't see much point in moving spammers to a special group. It wastes your time, it wastes database space, it wastes server resources, etc. The only upshot of doing that is to boost member count and that can be done in other ways if you want your boards to look like they have more members.

I may have overlooked something though. Let me know. :)

Alfa1

08-06-2010, 12:04 AM

Awesome! Can we have this for vb3.8.5?

GlowHost.com

08-06-2010, 12:30 AM

Awesome! Can we have this for vb3.8.5?

Hi Alfa,

It is untested on vB3. However, it probably works.

If you want to try, you need to download the zip file and edit the file called "product-glowhostspamomatic.xml" on line 12.

Find:
<dependency dependencytype="vbulletin" minversion="4.0.0" maxversion="" />

And replace with:

<dependency dependencytype="vbulletin" minversion="3.0.0" maxversion="" />

Then view the readme, follow the destructions and see how it goes.

If it works or doesn't, let us know. :)

In Omnibus

08-06-2010, 12:41 AM

Works well so far ... does conflict with Merge Double Posts Mod By Paul M

BadgerDog

08-06-2010, 09:16 AM

Hello Badger,

Yes, it does what you want.

"Test the IP address against the StopForumSpam database:"

Select "Yes" or "No."

Thanks ... :)

One more clarification as previously asked ...

Do you recommend either disabling or removing completely the current "StopForumSpam" mod and just using yours in lieu of it, as opposed to trying to run them concurrently?

Regards,
Badger

BadgerDog

08-06-2010, 09:18 AM

I didn't find the IP address to be the problem but the name, so I have it check IP address and email but NOT name.

We did for some reason....

Perhaps it was because a lot of spammers hitting us were using IP address blocks that were from AOL which use proxy for their members. We got a lot of complaints from AOL members who were legitimate but couldn't get on.

Regards,
Doug

BadgerDog

08-06-2010, 09:51 AM

By the way ....

Reported Conflicts:
The following conflicts have been reported. We have not tested them to be sure. If you run the mods in this list you may want to be aware that possible conflicts may arise.

Double Post Prevention by (Paul M)

We run this mod.....

Before we install yours, do you have any anecdotal feedback as to the nature of the conflict that occurs and how serious it is?

Thanks ... :)

Regards,
Badger

GlowHost.com

08-06-2010, 09:56 AM

Thanks ... :)

One more clarification as previously asked ...

Do you recommend either disabling or removing completely the current "StopForumSpam" mod and just using yours in lieu of it, as opposed to trying to run them concurrently?

Regards,
Badger

That's been answered in post #5 (https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showpost.php?p=2079634&postcount=5)

In other words, no I don't recommend running both since this does everything the old module does, assuming we are talking about the same thing when you say "current StopForumSpam mod"

giorgino

08-06-2010, 10:25 AM

Reported Conflicts:
The following conflicts have been reported. We have not tested them to be sure. If you run the mods in this list you may want to be aware that possible conflicts may arise.

Double Post Prevention by (Paul M)

We run this mod.....

me too :(

GlowHost.com

08-06-2010, 10:29 AM

Unfortunately I do not know if the conflict truly exists, or what the problems may be, it was reported earlier in this thread. If you can confirm it is a conflict and the nature of it, that would be good.

djbaxter

08-06-2010, 12:46 PM

I find it hard to understand HOW it could interfere with the double post prevention mod.

In Omnibus

08-06-2010, 01:23 PM

I was going to post the actual error but I had uninstalled the DoublePost Prevention mod.
I reinstalled the Double Post Prevention mod and now there is no error. Head scratcher.

GlowHost.com

08-06-2010, 03:05 PM

In that case, for the time being I have removed the compatibility problem from the list of known compatibility issues.

Currently, there are no known conflicts with other 3rd party mods.

BadgerDog

08-06-2010, 06:45 PM

Ok, let's give this a go ... ;)

Installed for testing with thanks ... :up:

DISABLED other mod titled vbStopForumSpam v.061 for duration of trial ....

Appreciate your efforts to consolidate the services and make the handling of spam easier. It's a similar approach to the old v3.6 One-touch Spam Ban & Cleanup Options mod, which we really loved using until the unfortunate demise of the author.

Will post and let everyone know how this testing goes ... :)

Regards,
Badger

BadgerDog

08-06-2010, 06:59 PM

First question ... :D

Auto Moderation lets you:

* Select which usergroups are eligible for auto-moderation (untrusted usergroups, for example: unregistered users), and which groups to skip (trusted usergroups, for example: registered users).

Where does one set the usergroups which are eligible for auto-moderation?

Thanks .. :)

Regards,
Badger

GlowHost.com

08-06-2010, 07:14 PM

BadgerDog

08-06-2010, 07:24 PM

vB Admin > Usergroups > Edit the Usergroup you want > Search the page for Akismet and you can enable Akismet auto moderation for that usergroup.

The other options on the main settings page are global to everyone except mods and admins.

Thanks .. :)

So, this entry shown in in the Usergroup AdminCP is for the auto moderation control of your mod, not a setting from vBulletin?

Regards,
Badger

ps: running well so far... bagged 10 spammers in less than an hour already. No errors and no conflicts noticed ... ;)

Gemma

08-06-2010, 07:51 PM

Thanks for this, installed and working perfectly :)

ianabblett

08-06-2010, 10:54 PM

Just installed. My first plug-in (new to vb)

one Q;
if I already have an Akismet key supplied under
vB Admin > Options > Spam Management

should I still supply it where your plugin asks for it?
should I delete it from the Spam Management section?

does it make a difference?
thanks

GlowHost.com

08-07-2010, 12:11 AM

Spam-O-Matic is untested with the built-in vBulletin Spam Management system.

Spam-O-Matic should be run standalone for best results.

BadgerDog

08-07-2010, 10:07 AM

Actually, if you want know the truth, I didn't even realize vB4 had any sort of Anti-Spam settings. Those controls are nice, but they lack a lot of important things...

I will investigate and see if they conflict or cause problems however.

In the meantime, if you would like to have the features of this mod, you should pretend the built-in vB spam options never existed, and just disable it....or, use the following defaults:

If you forgot what those were:
Anti-Spam Service: Disabled
vBulletin Anti-Spam Key: Blank
Spam Scanning Post Threshold: 0
Anti-Spam Data Storage Length (Days): 7

Whatever settings you have there are probably fine, even if enabled, but they are not tested with this mod so the straight answer is to keep the defaults or disable that section, and configure this mod as you see fit for your forums.

Interesting ... :)

Thanks for the update ....

Akismet direct support etc were added new in VB4 as options ...

Not knowing what you said above, we left VB's services ON and have been running them side by side after installing your mod, so far without a problem. Perhaps we'll leave then ON for now and see if there's any obvious conflicts and post here if we observe any.

Thanks again for your work... nice integration .... would love to see a ONE BUTTON option similar to mfyvie's old 3.6 One-touch Spam Ban and Cleanup (https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthread.php?t=156444). When trying to deal with spammers on a PDA or iPhone sitting in an airport, that one button approach in the spammer's profile that banned him, removed all his messages permanently and sent reports to stopforumspam database (with an optional add-on) was excellent. So, if you ever think about additional options, we'd sure appreciate that one. :up:

Regards,
Badger

giorgino

08-08-2010, 07:00 AM

Take a look here. One spammer first rejected, after allowed with same banned IP

BadgerDog

08-08-2010, 09:34 AM

Getting some odd behavior .... :confused:

Since installing this mod, I've found automated posts from two names that we use for posting information about classified ads (uses RSS function) and multiple user logins, are having their posts placed in moderation, which never happened before.

Both these users belong to the Admin user group and the only thing they have in common is their posts are generated automatically by either the RSS funciton in vBulletin 4 or by an add-on mod which creates a post in a forum advising moderators about people who are attempting duplicate logins and registrations.

Not sure why this mod would cause this, but perhaps it has something to do with the fact we're still running vBulletin's Akismet function in tandem with this mod? With just vBulletin's Akismet check running, we don't get this problem...

Regards,
Badger

Gemma

08-08-2010, 12:12 PM

BadgerDog

08-08-2010, 01:47 PM

Yeah I've just noticed that aswell. I was trying to figure out why my RSS feeds weren't posting :erm:

Yup .. :)

I've been looking at this further and this mod is definitely placing automated posts by Admins using both RSS and other mods into the moderation queue...

I wonder if there's a way to disable the "auto moderation" function in this mod, as we're not using it anyway, of course, assuming that it's the element of the mod causing the problem.

Regards,
Badger

GlowHost.com

08-08-2010, 07:20 PM

Akismet direct support etc were added new in VB4 as options ...

Not knowing what you said above, we left VB's services ON and have been running them side by side after installing your mod, so far without a problem. Perhaps we'll leave then ON for now and see if there's any obvious conflicts and post here if we observe any.

Not sure how that will work, our forums have the default vB stuff turned off and only run this mod. Seems like the built-in functions our similar but maybe a little less robust.

Thanks again for your work... nice integration .... would love to see a ONE BUTTON option similar to mfyvie's old 3.6 One-touch Spam Ban and Cleanup (https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthread.php?t=156444). When trying to deal with spammers on a PDA or iPhone sitting in an airport, that one button approach in the spammer's profile that banned him, removed all his messages permanently and sent reports to stopforumspam database (with an optional add-on) was excellent. So, if you ever think about additional options, we'd sure appreciate that one. :up:

Yes I would like to see that too and it is planned for a later version when we can figure out how to get it doen without manual template modifications.

GlowHost.com

08-08-2010, 07:32 PM

Giorgino, for the sometimes strange log-entries, we are looking into that.

Regarding RSS feeds being moderated, it shouldn't moderate them unless your RSS user does not have more than what you have configured in "Auto-Moderation: Minimum Post Count"

Are you saying your RSS user has more posts than the configured value and is also ADMIN and it is being moderated?

Yes, you could disable auto-moderation by setting the post count to 0.

BadgerDog

08-08-2010, 07:41 PM

Are you saying your RSS user has more posts than the configured value and is also ADMIN and it is being moderated?

In our case, yes... our RSS Poster name "Quartermaster Stores" has 120 posts and is classified as a usergroup Admin, yet it keeps putting that username's posts into the moderation queue. Also, our "Admin" username that auto posts in a mod forum inappropriate multiple logins has 18 posts and it puts his posts into the moderation queue as well.

Yes, you could disable auto-moderation by setting the post count to 0.

I will try that ...

Note: Just has a regular registered member (18 posts) have one of his posts placed in moderation queue and I've never seen that before. We had the Akismet setting (vBulletin's version) at 1, which according to their instructions means that shouldn't happen with their version. As I said, it never did previous to testing this mod. Let me set your auto-moderation to 0 and see what happens.

This setting controls how many of a user's posts will be scanned by the Anti-Spam Service. Once a user's post count exceeds this threshold, his or her posts will not be scanned for spam content. To always scan posts set this value to 0.

Regards,
Badger

Edit: Just checked and your auto-moderation count for URL's was already set to 0, but it still stopped the user with 18 posts? It's worth noting that user had 5 links to external images in his post that got moderated. The Auto-Moderation: Minimum Post Count was set to 1, so I just changed that one to 0. Does this help at all?

GlowHost.com

08-08-2010, 08:12 PM

BadgerDog

08-08-2010, 08:51 PM

Regarding your RSS, is that done through some plugin or is that done using vB's built in RSS?

As for auto-moderation of your guy with 18 posts, that may be a conflict with running vBs Akismet service in tandem with Spam_O-Matic which I don't recommend trying as it has not been tested.

This module was meant to run standalone from any other anti-spam.

Is there some reason to run both that I am not seeing?

It's vBulletin's standard RSS built into v4.0.4pl1. It's reading a standard v2 RSS feed and creating a post in a forum, using an Admin account.

After resetting your "Auto-Moderation: Minimum Post Count" which was set to 1 to 0, I note that a recent auto RSS post by the same Admin account posted successfully without being placed in moderation. Can I assume that's because by changing it to 0, the auto moderation function is now disabled?

Thanks for your help ... :)

Regards,
Badger

GlowHost.com

08-08-2010, 09:05 PM

I do not have any addons enabled on our boards except Spam-O-Matic.

I have disabled the vB built-in Spam settings.
I used the built-in RSS feed manager.

I then made a test as the default "admin" user as the RSS user.
I posted to both public and private boards.

My "Auto-Moderation: Minimum Post Count" is set to 6
My "Auto-Moderation: URL Count" is set to 0
(no URLs alowed if you do not have at least 6 posts, unless you are mod or admin in which case these settings are ignored)

Nothing was auto-moderated.

If you are still being auto-moderated perhaps it is based on keywords. I can't duplicate the problem.

TheLastSuperman

08-08-2010, 09:17 PM

Actually, if you want know the truth, I didn't even realize vB4 had any sort of Anti-Spam settings. Those controls are nice, but they lack a lot of important things...

I will investigate and see if they conflict or cause problems however.

In the meantime, if you would like to have the features of this mod, you should pretend the built-in vB spam options never existed, and just disable it....or, use the following defaults:

If you forgot what those were:
Anti-Spam Service: Disabled
vBulletin Anti-Spam Key: Blank
Spam Scanning Post Threshold: 0
Anti-Spam Data Storage Length (Days): 7

Whatever settings you have there are probably fine, even if enabled, but they are not tested with this mod so the straight answer is to keep the defaults or disable that section, and configure this mod as you see fit for your forums.

When you have more details that explain how to use it easily for everyone including what to disable and leave enabled that is vB default I might be back :p, I can understand how to make it work and know how to install but look at your three pages, perhaps clean up the first mod post and include known or common bugs and or what to disable etc so people will not need to scroll thorugh several pages to find or you say "That is covered in post #5" etc etc.

Long story short I cannot believe that you developed this mod without even looking into the pre-built functions... Now I've made an honest mistake before but imo you should have shown a way to increase the capabilities of the default functionality in vBulletin 4 or simply made an add-on that enhanced it all, not to be rude but that is IF you actually did your homework.

Just my 2 cents you can give me a refund later but for now keep it in case the next person needs a penny.

BadgerDog

08-08-2010, 09:49 PM

My "Auto-Moderation: Minimum Post Count" is set to 6
My "Auto-Moderation: URL Count" is set to 0
(no URLs alowed if you do not have at least 6 posts, unless you are mod or admin in which case these settings are ignored)

I'm not using ANY keywords ...

Now I'm confused again .... :D

So, based upon what you just posted, I did this ...

Auto-Moderation: URL Count (Set to 50)
The maximum number of URLs a user can post in a new thread or reply.

Auto-Moderation: Minimum Post Count (set to 0)
Minimum postcount required to avoid keyword and URL moderation. If user has a higher postcount than this number, their post will never be auto-moderated. This does not effect moderators and admins.

The mission is simple for me.. I just want the darn auto-moderation turned OFF, so there's no possibility for it to affect Admin usergroup RSS auto posters or any other auto poster.

I also want it to check Akismet for spammer's posts for the very first post only (any user group), just as it does now with the standard default vBulletin Akismet function. I assume this mod still does that, even with auto-moderation turned OFF?

Thanks for your help ... :)

Regards,
Badger

GlowHost.com

08-08-2010, 09:51 PM

GlowHost.com

08-08-2010, 10:12 PM

Badger,

To turn off auto-moderation, set Auto-Moderation: Minimum Post Count to 0. Nothing should be auto-moderated in this case.

I also want it to check Akismet for spammer's posts for the very first post only (any user group), just as it does now with the standard default vBulletin Akismet function. I assume this mod still does that, even with auto-moderation turned OFF?

Spam-O-Matic runs every post from every user through Akismet for every post always every time.

A future version may have an option to only check the first "x" posts that a user makes using the Akismet service.

You might be able to do what you want to do by disabling Akismet (remove your API key and/or set Akismet: Auto-submit from Moderation Tools to "No" in Spam-O-Matic and then using the vB Akismet services which better do what you are trying to accomplish.

BadgerDog

08-08-2010, 10:25 PM

Spam-O-Matic runs every post from every user through Akismet for every post always every time.

A future version may have an option to only check the first "x" posts that a user makes using the Akismet service.

You might be able to do what you want to do by disabling Akismet (remove your API key and/or set Akismet: Auto-submit from Moderation Tools to "No" in Spam-O-Matic and then using the vB Akismet services which better do what you are trying to accomplish.

Thanks ... :)

I think that's what's happening and why our registered member with 18 posts got stuck in moderation. Spam-O-Matic is checking every post through Akismet, instead of only checking the first post (that's when you nail spammers), which is the way we had the VBulletin Akismet set (stop checking after first post).

I'll turn OFF your Akismet and leave ON vBulletin's until you are able to add that option. I'll also continue testing for you ...

Regards,
Badger

TheLastSuperman

08-08-2010, 10:26 PM

OK Superman, here it is so you do not have to read 3 pages:

Disable the built in spam settings in vBulletin and use Spam-O-Matic instead.

There is not enough feedback yet to list "common" bugs or known issues, that is why I have reserved the first post for FAQ. This thread is here to find known issues, take feedback for enhancements, and bugs so they can be added to the main page.

There's enough confusion on the first three pages that need to be made very clear, you might think I'm being rude I just want everyone to actually benefit from your mod, if they can't understand something or become confused because it's not made clear in the actual Modification post then they will quit and not even try to install you should know this from being on here so long "Join Date: 22 Nov 2005".

Also, posting on page three will not save others from searching up until page three or backtracking if this ever reaches let's say page 40 etc so simply modify the modification info and put that bold text up there ;).

Ok back to work for me, you handle your mod, like I said I like the concept but was simply taken back reading your post about being unaware of the default settings especially since your a "Host" that most likely releases free mods to get more vBulletin clients.

GlowHost.com

08-08-2010, 10:53 PM

@Badger
Thanks for the feedback and testing :)

@Superman
Changed first page (again) the mod is only a few days old to for release to the public so yes the description being constantly updated. Hopefully the first page says everything there is to know now. FAQ also added.

Still waiting to here if there are other users that have RSS issues, I can't duplicate them. If you find a way to duplicate the problem with specific examples, let us know.

sas forum

08-09-2010, 02:33 AM

Quick question. I installed the mod and ran into users getting tagged by akismet checking every post. I will disable that feature after reading the previous posts.

I was looking at the logs and it lists like 116 entries. I just installed the mod today and I know I have never had 116 new registrations in one day. Where are all these log entries pulled from? I am just curious since I see a lot of usernames that say "Allowed registration" and I don't see them in my member list.
I did notice that some of the usernames are linked, which leads me to believe that those specific usernames are legit new registrations for my site.

Thanks for this mod. We are hoping it catches the spammers trying to register so we don't have to worry about them

GlowHost.com

08-09-2010, 07:32 AM

Yes, the linked users are the ones that were really allowed registration. There is a known issue with the logs making duplicate entries and sometimes saying "allowed registration" for users who were really not allowed.

It will be fixed in a later release, it is a cosmetic bug and not a functionality bug.

As for the high number of log entries, that is normal even without the dupes. There are lots of bots running around out there that get denied on the default human verification settings or just give up or die in the registration process. Spam-O-Matic tries to tag them all.

sas forum

08-09-2010, 08:01 AM

cfish

08-09-2010, 08:56 AM

Great mod, thank you - this will really help reduce spam.

I have 1 problem with it at the moment. When trying to ban a spammer, I get a 404 because (for security reasons) I changed the name of both modcp and admincp folders but your mod does not recognise this. As this is such a common situation, you really need to add those variables to the options page.

GlowHost.com

08-09-2010, 09:20 AM

wow, I forgot all about the bots not getting past the recaptcha stuff. Thanks for the info. I really like this mod. Good job and thank you for sharing.

Sure! glad you like it. Don't forget to give the mod a rating and vote it for MOTM :)

Great mod, thank you - this will really help reduce spam.

I have 1 problem with it at the moment. When trying to ban a spammer, I get a 404 because (for security reasons) I changed the name of both modcp and admincp folders but your mod does not recognise this. As this is such a common situation, you really need to add those variables to the options page.

I will put it on the list for possible enhancements if this is something that a lot of other people want. Though I think that if you ask around, the moving of those directories doesn't really do that much good and is more of a hassle than it is worth when dealing with administrative tasks such as mods and upgrades.

BadgerDog

08-09-2010, 03:34 PM

Ok, update ...

Still getting members placed in moderation and can't find a pattern as one had over 500 posts and the other just 2 posts. One thing in common was that they posted one (1) link in their post.

Settings in Spam-O-Matic as follows:

Auto-Moderation: URL Count = 0 (academic since according to previous instructions, the "Minimum Post Count" at 0 should turn OFF this function anyway)

Auto-Moderation: Minimum Post Count = 0

Akismet as handled by Spam-O-Matic was disabled ...

Vbulletin Akisment was left ON ....

So, before we un-install Spam-O-Matic and go back to vBStopForum mod which was working fine (even with vBulletin's Akismet running), we're going to turn vBulletin Akismet handling OFF completely and turn Spam-O-Matic Akismet handling ON, although checking every post of every user group is a waste of time most of the time (really needs that "above x posts not checked") function.

We've left the moderation settings at "0" and "0" ... hopefully disabled. ;)

Anyway, let's see what happens with this set-up, which is now mutually exclusive to the two Akismet handlers.

Thanks .. :)

Regards,
Badger

sas forum

08-09-2010, 04:34 PM

I also had the issue with legit members getting their posts put into moderation. We have had zero spammers make it to posting in 2 years with about 4400 members registered and a couple hundred thousand posts. Our big thing is catching them when they register and booting them before they do harm. That is why this mod rocks, it does a lot of the leg work for us.

We have a forum that is specific to a certain activity, so we added some mandatory fields in the registration that would be well known by people that would join up, but spammers just end up typing "test", "asdfg" or "Russia" or whatever. Combined with manually approving new registrations, this dropped our spammers to zero.

We disabled the checking of the posts in the forum because it is not really needed right now.

On a side note, we did find that a few years ago we had some spammers sign up and just start sending spam via private messages. We simply made it so new members with less than x posts cannot pm. once they hit the magic number the pms are turned on. When that first started, we found that we caught every spammer with the standard akismet anti-spam that came with vbulletin, and deleted them before they could do harm. This mod catches the spammers before we even have to deal with them. nice.

This is a nice mod.

cfish

08-09-2010, 05:35 PM

I will put it on the list for possible enhancements if this is something that a lot of other people want. Though I think that if you ask around, the moving of those directories doesn't really do that much good and is more of a hassle than it is worth when dealing with administrative tasks such as mods and upgrades.

I'm not talking about moving directories, I'm talking about the common practice of renaming them. This is supported as standard by vB. There is a setting in config.php that allows you to do this easily witout any upgrade hassle etc. It's a standard thing and this mod either needs to get the setting from the vB config file or if that's not possible, allow the admin to configure it on the options page. Any security conscious forum admin will do that as standard.

Extract from config.php:

// ****** PATH TO ADMIN & MODERATOR CONTROL PANELS ******
// This setting allows you to change the name of the folders that the admin and
// moderator control panels reside in. You may wish to do this for security purposes.
// Please note that if you change the name of the directory here, you will still need
// to manually change the name of the directory on the server.
$config['Misc']['admincpdir'] = '******';
$config['Misc']['modcpdir'] = '******';

GlowHost.com

08-09-2010, 05:53 PM

Sorry, I was thinking of the Linux commandline when I said "Move" which is the Windows equivalent of "Rename." I usually work in Linux so I got your idea and was talking using Linux speak, sorry for confusing you.

As I said we have it on the list, based on if many others need this we will consider it. AFAIK this "renaming" is not very popular, but we will see.

cfish

08-09-2010, 06:56 PM

As I said we have it on the list, based on if many others need this we will consider it. AFAIK this "renaming" is not very popular, but we will see.

OK. Can you give me a workaround in the meantime?

I found 2 instances of "modcp" in functions_vbghsfs.php on lines 290 and 534 and changed them to my own modcp name and although I no longer get a 404, neither the remove or ban actions will work. I get an uninformative message and when I click OK, nothing happens.

120598

GlowHost.com

08-09-2010, 07:18 PM

OK. Can you give me a workaround in the meantime?

I found 2 instances of "modcp" in functions_vbghsfs.php on lines 290 and 534 and changed them to my own modcp name and although I no longer get a 404, neither the remove or ban actions will work. I get an uninformative message and when I click OK, nothing happens.

Unfortunately I can't give you any workarounds at this time as we are busy working on other more pressing areas in the current version like improving the logs and improving the Akismet functionality.

Once we are done in those areas we can probably spend some time looking at your request, but these were not part our original plans so it will take some research for me to be able to give you a workaround., well, one that works properly anyways.

If I find a workaround, I will probably just include it in a future release instead of in a random post in this thread which will be unlikely to be read or found.

BadgerDog

08-10-2010, 10:37 AM

Ok, another update ...

Still getting members placed in moderation and can't find a pattern as one had over 644 posts and the other just 8 posts. The 644 post member placed a post with one (1) link in their post while the 8 post member just mad a regular post with nothing obvious that would trigger it being placed in moderation. :confused:

Settings in Spam-O-Matic as follows:

Auto-Moderation: URL Count = 0 (academic since according to previous instructions, the "Minimum Post Count" at 0 should turn OFF this function anyway)

Auto-Moderation: Minimum Post Count = 0

Akismet as handled by Spam-O-Matic is ENABLED with ID.

Vbulletin Akisment handling was OFF ...

Not sure what to do next, but as much as we think that this mod has nice potential and its author is making efforts to sort it out, we're going to have to un-install Spam-O-Matic and go back to vBStopForum mod which was working fine, even with vBulletin's Akismet running concurrently.

Perhaps we'll try it later on when the "kinks" have been worked out ...

Thanks for everyone's efforts ... :)

Regards,
Badger

GlowHost.com

08-10-2010, 10:50 AM

BadgerDog

08-10-2010, 11:02 AM

Not sure what you mean by "Akismet as handled by Spam-O-Matic is ENABLED with ID." sounds to me like you have some strange setup or the vB Akismet is conflicting.

If you want me to have a look PM me your admin logins so I can see what you have setup. I'd like to see the moderated posts as well.

I meant that I put in the field you provided my actual Akismet ID, which I thought you'd might want to be aware of for your trouble shooting. ;)

Running vb4.04pl1 with nothing odd about it other than pretty standard add-ons that I bet at least 50% of people here run as well .... and to reiterate, vBulletin's new Akismet "Anti-Spam" option was turned OFF in the recent testing as per your suggestion.

Have gone back to vBStopForum mod for now, as I can't afford to have 13,000+ members sending me emails at all hours of the day complaining about their posts being moderated when there's nothing wrong with them.

Will happily do more testing as future releases come out and more people post results, including any validated conflicts.

Thanks for your efforts .. :)

Regards,
Badger

GlowHost.com

08-10-2010, 11:32 AM

BadgerDog

08-10-2010, 11:48 AM

Sounds good. It sounds like your specific issue is related to Aisemet checking every single post. Akismet found something in their DB that triggered a flag to moderate the post.

This will be changed in the next version to be more flexible in regard to which posts to ignore.

I agree with you ... :)

In my opinion, checking every post of every user group is a waste of time most of the time and if you added an option to NOT check above x posts, it would solve this problem.

Regards,
Badger

cfish

08-11-2010, 08:03 PM

OK, so I set the folder names for modcp and admincp back to the default and tried using the options in the user manager but I get exactly the same problem. A strange alert box as shown in the image attached to my previous post and nothing happens. The mod does a fine job of preventing spammers from registering but it doesn't allow us to ban or remove users.

What am I doing wrong?

GlowHost.com

08-11-2010, 08:15 PM

That's the first I have heard of it.

Are you running any other mods?
Are you running the original mod or the one you modified?
Have you tried a different browser?

onehost

08-12-2010, 12:04 AM

Mod Installed Perfectly. Hopefully it can hold up to spammers now :)

onehost

08-12-2010, 04:43 AM

I need help with this mod...

a user signed up earlier on my forum today, then emailed me saying he signed up, got confirmed, but could not get on, I looked for the user up and down, and vb showed nothing, then i looked in spam-o-matic logs...and this is what it said...

Spammer Found and rejected.

I did not even get notified, nor did it place him in que for moderation..if the user tried to signup again, then it will just flag him again..

1 why did the mod not send him to que so i can decide if he deserves a ban?
2: why was i not notified at all?
3: if he does not appear in vb records, then how can I unban his IP from spam-o-matic
so the system does not flag him again? I see no record that he exists at all, yet he
can not signup or login...

This sucks..

wth..

GlowHost.com

08-12-2010, 08:09 AM

I need help with this mod...

...and this is what it said...

Spammer Found and rejected.

And did it tell you why he was found and rejected? (IP, Email, Username)

I did not even get notified, nor did it place him in que for moderation.

You will need to read the description of this mod more carefully.

1 )It does not email you each time it tags a spammer, your inbox would be flooded with junkmail from Spam-O-Matic. Instead it logs them.

2) It does not place users in a queue for moderation. It places posts in the moderation queue. If they are not registered, they can't be queued.

if the user tried to signup again, then it will just flag him again
Maybe, maybe not. It depends on the answer to my first question, why was he banned in the first place?

1 why did the mod not send him to que so i can decide if he deserves a ban?
2: why was i not notified at all?
3: if he does not appear in vb records, then how can I unban his IP from spam-o-matic
so the system does not flag him again? I see no record that he exists at all, yet he
can not signup or login...

1. There is no user moderation, there is post moderation.
2. Spam-O-Matic logs things, it does not email about them
3. You can't unban his IP from Spam-O-Matic because Spam-O-Matic is not where the "banned" IPs are stored. Those IPs are stored on StopForumSpam.com which is where Spam-O-Matic gets its data from. So if your user is tagged as a Spammer because of his IP then you can turn off IP checks or you can tun your cache down to something lower than the default 90 days.
[/QUOTE]

GlowHost.com

08-12-2010, 05:32 PM

Version 1.2 has been released with new goodies, primarily fixes and additional settings for Akismet and Auto-Moderation.

Enjoy!

Phalynx

08-12-2010, 05:59 PM

Installed! Thanks for sharing.

onehost

08-12-2010, 06:04 PM

And did it tell you why he was found and rejected? (IP, Email, Username)

You will need to read the description of this mod more carefully.

1 )It does not email you each time it tags a spammer, your inbox would be flooded with junkmail from Spam-O-Matic. Instead it logs them.

2) It does not place users in a queue for moderation. It places posts in the moderation queue. If they are not registered, they can't be queued.

Maybe, maybe not. It depends on the answer to my first question, why was he banned in the first place?

1. There is no user moderation, there is post moderation.
2. Spam-O-Matic logs things, it does not email about them
3. You can't unban his IP from Spam-O-Matic because Spam-O-Matic is not where the "banned" IPs are stored. Those IPs are stored on StopForumSpam.com which is where Spam-O-Matic gets its data from. So if your user is tagged as a Spammer because of his IP then you can turn off IP checks or you can tun your cache down to something lower than the default 90 days.
[/QUOTE]

You are asking me why your mod banned him, seriously? Was he in the spammer Database, and that was why he was rejected? He is helping me, so I knew he is not spamming my forum, soI am not sure what he does on other forums, but regardless, it flagged and rejected him instantly...We need a way to white list users that we know, what I do not need is a maybe or maybe not he will be flagged and rejected again, if it flags him again, I will disable the mod as useless..if it will not give users a chance to plea their case if they are flagged on mistake, or if they are rejected, at least throw the user into a user group for review and for them to have a way to at least contact admin just in case they may not be a spammer.

GlowHost.com

08-12-2010, 06:16 PM

You are asking me why your mod banned him, seriously?

What I wasn't asking for were rude remarks, threats or demands.

I am writing a program for you for FREE and was willing to help you for FREE to remedy your specific problem. Asking people for things nicely goes a long way.

I was asking what the log said was the specific reason for the ban.

Usergroups are coming in version 1.3 but you can get by without them if you look at the logs to see why they were banned (username, email, IP) and disable that check or turn the "StopForumSpam: Remote Expiry" down a bit to something like 10.

onehost

08-12-2010, 06:23 PM

I was not rude. I am telling you how it is.
What threat?
I am not demanding anything. You can surely do what you
want with the mod. I will run it or I won't.

Gemma

08-12-2010, 06:40 PM

Thanks for the update :)

Gemma

08-12-2010, 06:51 PM

I'm getting this error when making a new post after installing the update

Parse error: syntax error, unexpected T_BOOLEAN_OR in /home/xxxxxxx/public_html/includes/functions_newpost.php(433) : eval()'d code on line 29

Phalynx

08-12-2010, 06:53 PM

What about existing users? Are there any plans to check existing users against stopforumspam and offer the possibility to delete the users?

GlowHost.com

08-12-2010, 07:07 PM

Thanks for the update :)

Sure thing :)

I'm getting this error when making a new post after installing the update

Parse error: syntax error, unexpected T_BOOLEAN_OR in /home/xxxxxxx/public_html/includes/functions_newpost.php(433) : eval()'d code on line 29

Hmm, have you tried re-installing it? Do you have any other modules or manual template modifications running on your boards?

What about existing users? Are there any plans to check existing users against stopforumspam and offer the possibility to delete the users?

We considered that in the beginning but it presents some problems, especially on larger boards. StopForumSpam has a 5000 query per day limit, so we did not want to overload their servers. Boards that have more than 5000 members would have to setup a scheduled task and that could take a very long time to complete. The other issue as that most spammers are caught right away and rarely come back to do anything if they have not already done so in the short period of time after their registration.

Gemma

08-12-2010, 07:21 PM

Yes uninstalled and re-installed, same error. Got loads of mods and a few manual templates modifications.

I've gone back to v1.1.2 it works fine for me :)

Phalynx

08-12-2010, 08:07 PM

We considered that in the beginning but it presents some problems, especially on larger boards. StopForumSpam has a 5000 query per day limit, so we did not want to overload their servers. Boards that have more than 5000 members would have to setup a scheduled task and that could take a very long time to complete. The other issue as that most spammers are caught right away and rarely come back to do anything if they have not already done so in the short period of time after their registration.

Right now my boards exists since few years and your modification has just appeared. In the long timeframe there were many spam account. Some I deleted manually, some not. there are around 350 accounts which are suspected to be spam accounts. Deleting them manually would require much efforts. vBulletin does not offer automatic deletion of them.

Automatically scan and delete/ban accounts would be a real help with this. There are not only boards out there with over 5000 accounts. Just the effort to manually check them is huge.

Snookieboy

08-12-2010, 09:51 PM

A brilliant mod, which combines a few things like Keyword Checker and StopForumSpam into one, though I have found one major feature missing.

For the Keyword checking, the only option is Auto-moderation. Sadly with the amount of spam bots about that moderation queue can be over 100 long in the morning every day, with an old VB3.8 plugin we use to just deny anyone with less than 3 posts who hits a keyword, would it be possible in a future version to add the option to either send to moderation, or just stop the thread being posted?

Cheers all the same, a great addon :)

ifitsmedia

08-12-2010, 10:27 PM

Thanks for the update. This mod is awesome.

Phalynx

08-13-2010, 08:21 AM

Error with vBulletin 4.0.6 by creating an article:
PHP Parse error: parse error in \includes\class_dm_threadpost.php(1766) : eval()'d code on line 4

It's the hook threadfpdata_presave.

Gold Phan7om

08-13-2010, 08:44 AM

Can you fix this error:?

Parse error: syntax error, unexpected T_BOOLEAN_OR in /home/xxxx/public_html/includes/functions_newpost.php(433) : eval()'d code on line 29

Im getting it after posting.. Its causing me to double post.

GlowHost.com

08-13-2010, 10:17 AM

If you are getting this error:
Parse error: syntax error, unexpected T_BOOLEAN_OR in /home/xxxx/public_html/includes/functions_newpost.php(433) : eval()'d code on line 29 it would be nice to know version number of your vB.

GlowHost.com

08-13-2010, 10:22 AM

Error with vBulletin 4.0.6 by creating an article:
PHP Parse error: parse error in \includes\class_dm_threadpost.php(1766) : eval()'d code on line 4

It's the hook threadfpdata_presave.

Do you mean in the CMS, blog or in the forum? If you can give me details on what you do to get that error I will try to track it down on this side.

Phalynx

08-13-2010, 10:28 AM

Do you mean in the CMS, blog or in the forum? If you can give me details on what you do to get that error I will try to track it down on this side.

CMS Article. As I described I created a new article and clicked Save. The message appears and the article is not saved. If I disable your mod, it works.
I have also disabled automoderation, but this has no effect.

GlowHost.com

08-13-2010, 11:19 AM

Right now my boards exists since few years and your modification has just appeared. In the long timeframe there were many spam account. Some I deleted manually, some not. there are around 350 accounts which are suspected to be spam accounts. Deleting them manually would require much efforts. vBulletin does not offer automatic deletion of them.

Automatically scan and delete/ban accounts would be a real help with this. There are not only boards out there with over 5000 accounts. Just the effort to manually check them is huge.

I still don't see the point of it. How often do you see a 3 year old suspected bot resurface and start posting spam? Never I guess. You might as well keep those users and make your forums look like they have more members than they do.

I am not saying it isn't possible that your request will make it into this mod, but it is unlikely anytime soon.

GlowHost.com

08-13-2010, 11:23 AM

With an old VB3.8 plugin we use to just deny anyone with less than 3 posts who hits a keyword, would it be possible in a future version to add the option to either send to moderation, or just stop the thread being posted?

Cheers all the same, a great addon :)

Thanks.

Yes that is possible, do you have an example of the old mod so I can see how it was handled?

Phalynx

08-13-2010, 11:26 AM

I still don't see the point of it. How often do you see a 3 year old suspected bot resurface and start posting spam? Never I guess. You might as well keep those users and make your forums look like they have more members than they do.

I am not saying it isn't possible that your request will make it into this mod, but it is unlikely anytime soon.

We have such bots posting after years of silence. Also it does not make any sense to have dead accounts just to show more users. I love to keep my forums clean.

Anyway, if you don't implement such a thing, I will do it as I need it.

Phalynx

08-13-2010, 11:28 AM

Another thing:
In my Log Viewer there are entries with "No Username Submitted". They just have the eMail Address. How can that be?

GlowHost.com

08-13-2010, 11:37 AM

Another thing:
In my Log Viewer there are entries with "No Username Submitted". They just have the eMail Address. How can that be?

The logs are overly verbose in this version and so is the checking. We will probably disable that as in many cases it is just information for your viewing pleasure.

The reason you see no username or no email is because some bots do not provide those details, then Spam-O-Matic sends them to the vBulletin registration system (or bans them as the case may be) When they get to the vBulletin registration system they are eventually blocked for not having the required fields.

Phalynx

08-13-2010, 11:39 AM

Ok, in this case they were blocked due to eMail Address. Thanks for the info.

Jaxel

08-13-2010, 11:57 AM

bug...

Parse error: syntax error, unexpected T_BOOLEAN_OR in /xxxx/includes/functions_newpost.php(433) : eval()'d code on line 5

Only happens when a user clicks "Go Advanced" on the quick reply form. Does not happen when double clicking "Reply to Thread".

Gold Phan7om

08-13-2010, 01:03 PM

solboy

08-13-2010, 04:19 PM

I get this error when I try to delete a post as spam and ban the bot:

Fatal error: Using $this when not in object context in /home/website/public_html/includes/functions_vbghsfs.php on line 459

Even after I disabled and then uninstalled the plugin this error still exists.

solboy

08-14-2010, 03:58 AM

Im getting this error also when making new posts.

Parse error: syntax error, unexpected T_BOOLEAN_OR

GlowHost.com

08-14-2010, 09:54 AM

Gold Phan7om

08-14-2010, 10:17 AM

I can't dupe it. I need versions.

When you submit a bug report please give me a vB version number and precise and exact steps to reproduce the problem. Thanks. Also, include your browser version and name (IE, FF, Opera, etc).

Here, I will give a checklist:

1: vBulletin Version:
2: Browser:
3: Detailed description of the problem.

Gold Phan7om wins the prize so far for the most detailed report.

I asked vbulletin support about it and they said its most likely the 'newpost_process' hook.

May be a start?

solboy

08-14-2010, 01:40 PM

I can't dupe it. I need versions.

When you submit a bug report please give me a vB version number and precise and exact steps to reproduce the problem. Thanks. Also, include your browser version and name (IE, FF, Opera, etc).

Here, I will give a checklist:

1: vBulletin Version:
2: Browser:
3: Detailed description of the problem.

Gold Phan7om wins the prize so far for the most detailed report.

If you create a mod for vb 4.0 and users post an error in the same thread then it should be obvious which version they are using. The mod should work in all 4.0+ forums. No worries though. I found a way to remove the mod completly. You should test this thing out some more before offering it.

Phalynx

08-14-2010, 04:52 PM

PHP Parse error: parse error in \includes\functions_newpost.php (433) : eval()'d code on line 11

This happens by creating a new post within vBulletin 4.0.6 Suite.

I disable the hook newpost_process of you hack for now as it did double posts and print this message.

fluidswork

08-14-2010, 05:18 PM

Thanks very much for this mod ...

TheLastSuperman

08-14-2010, 05:25 PM

If you create a mod for vb 4.0 and users post an error in the same thread then it should be obvious which version they are using. The mod should work in all 4.0+ forums. No worries though. I found a way to remove the mod completly. You should test this thing out some more before offering it.

Well barring my previous comments... your statement is only half true... basically one of us can create a mod but if something default in vBulletin changes from one version to the next then the mod must be recoded. Otherwise since your half way there we could simply say well heck if that was the case nearly all 3.x mods should work on 4.x, it's only a one number difference! J/K of course as we all know syntax changes in the least took place lol so just bare in mind those things are needed when de-bugging. I do think though if your having to upgrade a mod for let's say 4.0.6 then you should leave the old .zip and specify which version of the mod works on which version of vBulletin unless the update remedies the errors in all current versions.

PHP Parse error: parse error in \includes\functions_newpost.php (433) : eval()'d code on line 11

This happens by creating a new post within vBulletin 4.0.6 Suite.

I disable the hook newpost_process of you hack for now as it did double posts and print this message.

See solboy, as Phalanx posted it's only 4.0.6 Suite for him, this might not be an issue on 4.0.5.

utahraves

08-14-2010, 10:17 PM

I am using 4.0.6 suite and experience this when replying to a thread:
I use Firefox 3.6.8

Parse error: syntax error, unexpected T_BOOLEAN_OR in /serverpath/includes/functions_newpost.php(433) : eval()'d code on line 31

Then creating a new thread I get:

Parse error: syntax error, unexpected T_BOOLEAN_OR in /serverpath/includes/functions_newpost.php(433) : eval()'d code on line 31

Parse error: syntax error, unexpected T_BOOLEAN_OR in /serverpath/includes/class_dm_threadpost.php(1766) : eval()'d code on line 4

Unable to add cookies, header already sent.
File: /serverpath/functions_newpost.php(433) : eval()'d code
Line: 31

Disabling until resolved.

Snookieboy

08-15-2010, 12:31 AM

Thanks.

Yes that is possible, do you have an example of the old mod so I can see how it was handled?

Yeah sure, the old mod we use to use on VB3.8 was:
https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthread.php?t=184757

Dude, thank you so much for considering this, if we can just get it to deny posts with an error message instead of sending to moderation, it would save having to go through a daily moderation queue of over 100 posts! :)

sas forum

08-15-2010, 03:20 PM

Fixed when I installed the V 1.2.2 Update. Thanks.

I am running VB 4.05 and installed the updated version of this mod this morning. I went to create a new thread and received an error which was not showing before the update.

Here is the info I received. I tried to create multiple threads and received the same error each time. I have disabled the product and I do not get the error anymore.

Hope this info helps if there is some sort of bug. I can turn it back on again and check other stuff if needed.

-------------------------------------------

Parse error: syntax error, unexpected T_BOOLEAN_OR in /home/domain/public_html/community/includes/functions_newpost.php(433) : eval()'d code on line 5

Parse error: syntax error, unexpected T_BOOLEAN_OR in /home/domain/public_html/community/includes/class_dm_threadpost.php(1795) : eval()'d code on line 4
Domain.com Message

Unable to add cookies, header already sent.
File: /home/domain/public_html/community/includes/functions_newpost.php(433) : eval()'d code
Line: 5

-------------------

Update. I guess I am not the only one that got the error. I just checked my emails and some members said they got the same error. They said the first time they went to post, they got a white screen with the above error. they hit the back button and submtited the post again, receiving the error again, but the post successfully posted.

-------------------

Fixed when I installed the V 1.2.2 Update. Thanks.

cfish

08-15-2010, 03:56 PM

I was hoping to upgrade to vB4.0.6 this weekend but I'm finding this product so useful that I'm delaying the upgrade until this issue is resolved.

Can you give us an idea how soon this will be done?

GlowHost.com

08-15-2010, 04:21 PM

Version 1.2.2 has been released.

* Log System Improvements
* Fixed a bug with facebook
* fixed a bug with advanced post
* Code Optimizations

sas forum

08-15-2010, 04:34 PM

Version 1.2.2 has been released.

* Log System Improvements
* Fixed a bug with facebook
* fixed a bug with advanced post
* Code Optimizations

FYI: Went to download, but it says "No files uploaded" where the donwload links would be.

GlowHost.com

08-15-2010, 04:48 PM

Try it now.

Gold Phan7om

08-15-2010, 05:23 PM

Thanks for the update! Now bots cant get in again :)

sas forum

08-15-2010, 07:29 PM

installed v 1.2.2 and did not receive the errors when posting that I had mentioned above. Thanks for the update and good job on the mod. It was killing me to disable this since we have had zero spam registrations since installing this.

cfish

08-16-2010, 07:33 AM

Thanks for the quick update. v1.2.2 now running with vB4.0.6 and no obvious problems.

However, will check and report back. ;)

GlowHost.com

08-16-2010, 01:29 PM

My understanding is that all the show-stopper bugs are fixed and from feedback, this should be running on all 4.x including the recently released vBulletin 4.0.6 as well as long as you are running the latest Spam-O-Matic version 1.2.2 as of this writing.

I am going to stop development on the 1.2 series unless any other show-stoppers pop up.

I am adding a section in the first post below the FAQ for consideration of additional features to make life easier. For now though this mod should keep the spammers off of your boards fairly well barring those of you that find conflicts with other mods.

cfish

08-16-2010, 04:54 PM

Could I add the following to the additional features list:

Ability to work with renamed admincp and modcp folders

Since this product is essentially a security aid, it should encourage (or at least enable) admins to add as much security to their site installations as possible and the renaming of those two folders is supported in vB as standard and is a sensible security precaution.

I have always renamed those folders but I have set them back to default just so that this product will run (yes, it's that useful). I don't mind admitting that I now feel a little vulnerable.

Although I'm no expert, I don't think this would be difficult to implement and it would make the product more robust i.e. it wouldn't fail to work if an admin has used the vB renaming feature.

Summary statistics

The log formatting in 1.2.2 is a big improvement but for those of us with busy boards it would be useful to have a summary of successful registrations and rejected registrations on a per day/week/month basis so that we can get an idea of spammer activity.

Excellent mod - should be core to vB.

GlowHost.com

08-16-2010, 05:28 PM

I have added a bit about admin and modcp directories to the known issues (also asking for feedback in that section) since I have not tested myself if this works or not and so far, you are only the first to report it.

I will move it to suggestions list as soon as we have more feedback on it. I don't want to spend a lot of time on it if its isolated to you or others do not need it. Lets see what people think and go from there.

sas forum

08-16-2010, 08:10 PM

Not sure if you are looking for a list of people that changed their admincp and modcp directory names, but I am one. If I am not mistaken, I think it was suggested in the installation instructions for VB, so I did it. Renaming them to the original names is probably an easy process....I am guessing just editing the lines in the config file??

On a different note, I installed the newest version of this mod last night on my 4.05 VB Forum and it fixed the problem when a user went to post a new thread and got an error. This morning I received a bunch of emails telling me of vb database errors, Here is some info and I am guessing it has something to do with this mod since it was listed in a few of the errors and all the errors have to do with addmember. I have not received these errors for the past few hours, so I am not sure if this was isolated to just this morning.

----------------

Invalid SQL:
INSERT HIGH_PRIORITY IGNORE INTO glowhostspamomatic_remotecache(`date`, `data`, `is_spambot`, `field`) VALUES (now(), "hfmjgs382", "0", "username");;

Followed by:

Invalid SQL:
SELECT DATEDIFF(NOW(), "2010-08-16 06:00:03") AS DAYS;

----------------

Invalid SQL:
INSERT HIGH_PRIORITY IGNORE INTO glowhostspamomatic_remotecache(`date`, `data`, `is_spambot`, `field`) VALUES (now(), "xmjbry", "0", "username");;

Followed by:

Invalid SQL:
SELECT DATEDIFF(NOW(), "2010-08-13 22:15:58") AS DAYS;

----------------

Invalid SQL:
INSERT HIGH_PRIORITY IGNORE INTO glowhostspamomatic_remotecache(`date`, `data`, `is_spambot`, `field`) VALUES (now(), "n42k21@yahoo.com", "0", "email");;

----------------

Invalid SQL:
INSERT HIGH_PRIORITY IGNORE INTO glowhostspamomatic_remotecache(`date`, `data`, `is_spambot`, `field`) VALUES (now(), "n42k21@yahoo.com", "0", "email");;

----------------

Invalid SQL:
INSERT HIGH_PRIORITY IGNORE INTO glowhostspamomatic_remotecache(`date`, `data`, `is_spambot`, `field`) VALUES (now(), "csuboh", "0", "username");;

----------------

I am not trying to sharpshoot this mod, I think it is great and an asset to us and our members. I just don't know if others may be receiving this error and wanted to bring it to your attention.

Thanks.

GlowHost.com

08-16-2010, 09:24 PM

Not sure if you are looking for a list of people that changed their admincp and modcp directory names, but I am one.

The main thing I am looking for is users who have:

1) A fresh, working vBulletin
2) Have decided to change modcp and admincp directories to something other than the default.
3) DO NOT RUN, OR HAVE NOT INSTALLED ANY OTHER ADDONS
4) Have installed the latest Spam-O-Matic.
5) Only have errors when Spam-O-Matic is enabled.

I am trying to confirm that as another poster has said that this mod simply does not work because of renaming these directoryies.

As for your SQL errors, have they gone away on their own?
Have to tried to completely uninstall and re-install this mod?
Also perhaps your database is corrupt? Have you tried to repair the affected tables?

In any of these cases a full uninstall and re-install should correct it, unless others have the same issue but its the first I have heard.

cfish

08-16-2010, 09:43 PM

Changing the names of the control panel folders is a recommended security precaution, see tip number 8 in this article (http://dev.geekpoint.net/articles/vbulletin/vbulletin-security-tips-i/)for another opinion on this.

As for testing, I can confirm that only some of the functions are broken when the folders are renamed, in general the processing of registrations continues unaffected but the mod and admin functions do not work.

GlowHost.com

08-16-2010, 10:11 PM

I can't really comment on the security issue, other than the following:

Everyone has their own opinion of what security "should be." There is almost always a trade-off for functionality vs. security and users have to decide where that line is on their own. Keeping the scripts up to date, maintaining an adequate server-side firewall, and strong passwords are generally good enough.

As a suggestion, ff you want to maintain functionality of this mod, other mods, make your upgrades easier for mods and the forum scripts themselves, and add another level of security by simply password protecting admincp and modcp using your web servers http_auth functions. Then keep modcp and admincp where they belong.

Now your crackers have to first guess your web authorization and secondly they have to get past your script authorization. It's unlikely.

Your bug comments are good to know cfish. In this case, hopefully you can wait until 2.x to get past these issues. Hopefully the trade off in reduced spam is worth it. In 2.x we will be removing those functions and making it one stop shopping from the postbit to delete, soft delete, ban etc so the need for admin or mod panels will be bypassed completely and productivity will be increased by just doing the dirty work on the front-end of the forum not the back.

zeropaid

08-17-2010, 01:08 AM

sas forum

08-17-2010, 03:23 AM

The main thing I am looking for is users who have:

1) A fresh, working vBulletin
2) Have decided to change modcp and admincp directories to something other than the default.
3) DO NOT RUN, OR HAVE NOT INSTALLED ANY OTHER ADDONS
4) Have installed the latest Spam-O-Matic.
5) Only have errors when Spam-O-Matic is enabled.

I deleted the mod, then changed my admin and mod directories to the original names that came with VB and reinstalled to see if i could take full advantage of this. I will let you know if i get anymore database errors. Thanks for the work on this.

cfish

08-18-2010, 12:18 PM

Delete Posts as Spam Issue

1: vBulletin Version: 4.0.6 Patch Level 1
2: Browser: FireFox 3.6.8
3: Detailed description of the problem.

When I choose to delete a thread as "spam" I can go all the way to the the final VB screen but then nothing is deleted... Not even the post.

The screen that I end on is the "add a spammer" screen which is lacking CSS code.

When I check my logs, the user info is submitted but threads/posts are not deleted.

Exactly the same setup and exactly the same problem. Looks like the CSS is missing because of a PHP fatal error:

Fatal error: Using $this when not in object context in /home/mydomain/public_html/forum/includes/functions_vbghsfs.php on line 438

Also, there seems to be something weird going on with the URLs on the Add a Spammer page. It appears to be a Stop-Forum-Spam page but all the URLs are local to my site. I guess that may be the source of the problem.

I would call this a "showstopper" because the only way of successfully using "delete as spam" is to turn off this product.

cfish

08-18-2010, 12:57 PM

Here you go: http://www.youtube.com/user/MrCADTutor#p/u/6/DvJV99T7cR0

This YouTube video illustrates the problem.

GlowHost.com

08-18-2010, 01:24 PM

Thanks for the video, but I cannot duplicate it. I am not running 4.0.6 PL1 yet I am still on 4.0.5

So something changed in 4.0.6 or there are other issues involved. I will test it when we upgrade our boards or am still waiting to hear if others have this on any version besides 4.0.6

bchertov

08-18-2010, 03:48 PM

Hi,

I'm still running 1.1.2 until 1.2.2 seems to have settled down.

I noticed an entry in the log citing an exiting user (a moderator!) who was probably doing some testing to reset her password via our VB 4.0.5 system password-reset-while-trying-to-login system ("forgot password").

The entry has her username, the email field is blank, message is a link that says " Found in Akismet Database. Held for moderation: " plus the first part of her post. Clicking on the link gives me an error "The requested URL /modcp/moderate.php was not found on this server." I have not renamed the moderator panel. I don't see any posts that need moderation (in the moderate posts admin panel).

What's happening???

GlowHost.com

08-18-2010, 04:05 PM

Possibly do to the logging fixes that were done in 1.2. I can't really support old versions those are EOL.

As for not using 1.2.2 you might consider installing 1.2.2 then enabling it, then disabling the old version....and see how it goes for you.

There are no issues that I can duplicate on the 4.x series. 4.0.6 is the only
version untested and I will get to that later today, but then, if 1.2.2 doesn't work on 4.0.6 then neither should 1.1.2 anyways.

If it does not work then simply uninstall the new version and re-enable the old version. Just make sure to make backups of the old version in case you need to reupload to revert some of the older files.

GlowHost.com

08-18-2010, 05:48 PM

Here you go: http://www.youtube.com/user/MrCADTutor#p/u/6/DvJV99T7cR0

This YouTube video illustrates the problem.

I have just installed 4.0.6 PL1 and cannot duplicate the problem. This would seem to indicate your installation is corrupt or you have a conflict with some other mod, likely some mod that requires a manual template edit.

You might viw the readme for this mod, completely uninstall, the re-install it first.

If that doesnt fix your issue I would look into what mods have manual template edits. If none of them do, that will make life easier because to test where the conflict lies, just temporarily disable all mods except Spam-O-Matic and then test it again. It should work. Then start enabling the other mods 1 by one until you find the conflict.

Snookieboy

08-18-2010, 11:33 PM

This mod was working perfectly for me on VB 4.0.6, until today when suddenly deleting spammers via the inline mod, caused the StopForumSpam Submit form to appear (usual behaviour) but after it submitting the spam, it didnt continue back to the Vbulletin forum and instead got stuck on the "Data Submitted" page. Anyone else just recently experienced this?

Edit/Update:
I turned off auto-submitting to StopForumSpam in the AdminCP options of this mod hoping it would be a work around until a solution could be found, however when I turn it off, I now just get a blank screen after clicking ban users (where it would normally submit the data). Disabling this mod fixes the problem

The weird thing is, I have been using this mod for a good few weeks now and its been brilliant, nothing has changed at all on the webserver, no new plugins.

Found this in the PHP Error Log:
[19-Aug-2010 01:38:13] PHP Fatal error: Using $this when not in object context in \includes\functions_vbghsfs.php on line 438

Could this be related?

GlowHost.com

08-19-2010, 12:31 AM

Snookieboy

08-19-2010, 08:53 AM

Well, if the mod didn't change, and was working fine before, and the forum didn't change, and was working fine before, and the server didn't change, but was working fine before....what changed? :)

Something has changed either in the codebase or on the server. Now we need to find out why that is because the problem you are having is likely the same reason as the others with the same error.

What happens with a fresh install of S-O-M? I'd like to know if the S-O-M code is being changed or if there is some other problem like a security hole in vB responsible.

Make sure to vies the readme for uninstall instructions before a re-install.

I really dunno dude, your Mod has been a big time favourite of mine and and really helped our spam problem, I did find a sort of solution. I downgraded to 1.1.2 and it all seems to be working.

I did find out that our server did change in one way, we did get a new ip for the web server, not that i doubt that would matter :S. But from watching that Youtube video from the guys posts above, it seems like I got the exact problem as him, except mine starting doing it randomly. Could it be a code change externally on Akismet or StopForumSpam, as the bug seems to happen when the data is submitted to them.

GlowHost.com

08-19-2010, 10:56 AM

Snookieboy

08-19-2010, 11:18 AM

That is interesting, perhaps there is some communication error between your server and the service. Have you tried to disable the:

"Akismet: Auto-submit from Moderation Tools"
and
"StopForumSpam: Auto-submit from Moderation Tools"

Options to see if that fixes things up?

I have, but then it just leads to blank white pages at the same stage when it use to submit the data. The weird thing is, it doesn't happen in 1.1.2 so its something that changed perhaps? I had 1.2.2 installed and it starting happening yesterday, I fully uninstalled and reinstalled 1.2.2 and the problem still happened, then I uninstalled again, and reinstalled 1.1.2 and the error has gone.

The error message is the only clue I have as to the problems in 1.2.2:
PHP Fatal error: Using $this when not in object context in \includes\functions_vbghsfs.php on line 438

intensecool

08-19-2010, 03:39 PM

I have, but then it just leads to blank white pages at the same stage when it use to submit the data. The weird thing is, it doesn't happen in 1.1.2 so its something that changed perhaps? I had 1.2.2 installed and it starting happening yesterday, I fully uninstalled and reinstalled 1.2.2 and the problem still happened, then I uninstalled again, and reinstalled 1.1.2 and the error has gone.

The error message is the only clue I have as to the problems in 1.2.2:
PHP Fatal error: Using $this when not in object context in \includes\functions_vbghsfs.php on line 438

I am getting same error on my side too.
What can be the issue here.

GlowHost.com

08-19-2010, 03:47 PM

Do you guys that have this error have cURL compiled into your server's PHP?

Snookieboy

08-19-2010, 04:35 PM

Do you guys that have this error have cURL compiled into your server's PHP?

I didnt compile into PHP as I used a Windows binary, however cURL support is enabled in phpinfo and works, though i've tried turning off and on the cURL option in the AdminCP settings for this modification, same bug regardless of cURL being or not.

GlowHost.com

08-19-2010, 07:08 PM

Version 1.2.3 is available which should solve this issue. Let me know how it goes.

kishorprins

08-19-2010, 08:07 PM

To update, do I overwrite the files?

GlowHost.com

08-19-2010, 08:18 PM

To update, do I overwrite the files?

1) Uninstall the product from the product manager.
2) View the Readme file for how to install the product.

That is the best option.

Snookieboy

08-19-2010, 11:15 PM

Version 1.2.3 is available which should solve this issue. Let me know how it goes.

I can confirm 1.2.3 solved the issue for me :) I take it you found out the cause in the end? Thank you very much for the fix :)

Any consideration to my previous begging/request for the option to just block posts that contain keywords instead of sending them to Moderation?

Thank you once again!!!! :)

GlowHost.com

08-19-2010, 11:35 PM

Sweeeeeeet!

That's great news.

Actually, yes, your suggestion is already on our bugtracker along with a few others. But I have to admit this version 1 mod took a lot longer and a lot more money than I anticipated to get it done right.

I am going to make sure that version 2 comes out... but it has 3 huge new features scheduled and I need a break before making a major version change. First I need to come up with the money, second I need to find the time to support everyone on a donated project like this.

I have a honeymoon (woohoo!) coming up and a business to run in the meantime. :)

What you guys and girls have now should get you by for quiet a while and significantly reduce the time you spend on cleaning up the baddies off your boards.

Hopefully that is all of the show-stoppers.

If you like this mod make sure to rate this mod, mark it as installed, and nominate us at some point for Mod of the month.

Surprisingly we have some low marks in the rating department. Some high ones would be good :)

GlowHost.com

08-19-2010, 11:37 PM

PS

Snookieboy I am taking your feature off of our bugtracker until you at least mark the mod as installed. :)

zeropaid

08-20-2010, 08:08 AM

The new version is working for me.

Snookieboy

08-20-2010, 09:52 AM

PS

Snookieboy I am taking your feature off of our bugtracker until you at least mark the mod as installed. :)

Such Blackmail! :P My other co-worker installed your mod originally on our board (whos now on holiday so I had to do the fixing) and I'm 100% sure hes marked you as installed, but seems you asked so nicely I've also ticked the box :P Giving you two installed ticks, for one actual install

What's the donation goal your hoping to achieve, and is there a price on the feature request?

GlowHost.com

08-20-2010, 08:35 PM

Such Blackmail! :P My other co-worker installed your mod originally on our board (whos now on holiday so I had to do the fixing) and I'm 100% sure hes marked you as installed, but seems you asked so nicely I've also ticked the box :P Giving you two installed ticks, for one actual install

What's the donation goal your hoping to achieve, and is there a price on the feature request?

Haha, thanks! I am sure you made up for one person that didn't mark it as installed :)

Our donation goal really is to just help get the GlowHost web hosting name out. Showing appreciation by signing up for our web hosting service is the biggest thanks we could hope for.

Speaking of which, I've made a coupon for members of this thread which will get you guys 3 free months of service to try us out. If you want it you can PM me. I am not sure if it is OK to post in this thread.

cfish

08-21-2010, 06:59 AM

Version 1.2.3 is available which should solve this issue. Let me know how it goes.

I can confirm that this version fixes the bug - thank you.

cfish

08-21-2010, 07:03 AM

Your bug comments are good to know cfish. In this case, hopefully you can wait until 2.x to get past these issues. Hopefully the trade off in reduced spam is worth it. In 2.x we will be removing those functions and making it one stop shopping from the postbit to delete, soft delete, ban etc so the need for admin or mod panels will be bypassed completely and productivity will be increased by just doing the dirty work on the front-end of the forum not the back.

I think that's a really good idea.

InsaneNutter

08-21-2010, 09:06 AM

PS

Snookieboy I am taking your feature off of our bugtracker until you at least mark the mod as installed. :)

I originally installed it, rated the mod 5 stars and marked it as installed ;)

TheSupportForum

08-21-2010, 11:49 PM

how do i add someone who becomes a spammer after joining, just like the orginal MOD for this when you go into a users account it allows you to add them to the list from the IP address they signed up for or the IP they spammed from

https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthread.php?t=230921&highlight=stopforumspam

this is a very importany feature this MOD had, you may want to contact them to find out how to add this section to user accoun information in admincp

howard007

08-23-2010, 02:43 AM

Can you add a whitelist feature for IP? VBSTOPSPAM doesn't have this and this would be a great feature and not sure why no one has it?

Thanks

bchertov

08-23-2010, 03:33 AM

I'm getting known user's posts (posts from well-established users on my board) being flagged for moderation because its "Found in akismet database".

i think there should be a setting for a minimum post count that defeats all spam checks, ie, if a user has posted more than x times, their posts are assumed to be not spam.

Jaxel

08-24-2010, 12:07 AM

I have NEVER had akismet supply a true positive match on anything. It has ALWAYS returned false positives. First thing I did was disable akismet with this mod.

BadgerDog

08-24-2010, 09:49 AM

i think there should be a setting for a minimum post count that defeats all spam checks, ie, if a user has posted more than x times, their posts are assumed to be not spam.

+1 ... :up:

Regards,
Badger

GlowHost.com

08-24-2010, 01:04 PM

I originally installed it, rated the mod 5 stars and marked it as installed ;)

Thanks!

how do i add someone who becomes a spammer after joining, just like the orginal MOD for this when you go into a users account it allows you to add them to the list from the IP address they signed up for or the IP they spammed from

this is a very importany feature this MOD had, you may want to contact them to find out how to add this section to user accoun information in admincp

Send me a screenshot of what you are talking about as its not immediately clear to me what the problem is.

If you delete the posts as spam, they can be automatically added to the list based on your settings.

Can you add a whitelist feature for IP? VBSTOPSPAM doesn't have this and this would be a great feature and not sure why no one has it?

Thanks

Its possible we can add it. I don't see how useful it would be though.

GlowHost.com

08-24-2010, 01:09 PM

i think there should be a setting for a minimum post count that defeats all spam checks, ie, if a user has posted more than x times, their posts are assumed to be not spam.

I agree. It will be an option in 2.x

GlowHost.com

08-24-2010, 02:35 PM

Yeah sure, the old mod we use to use on VB3.8 was:
https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthread.php?t=184757

Dude, thank you so much for considering this, if we can just get it to deny posts with an error message instead of sending to moderation, it would save having to go through a daily moderation queue of over 100 posts! :)

OK Snookieboy, version 1.2.4 was made especially for you. Hopefully that is what you were after. :D:D:D

Snookieboy

08-25-2010, 10:13 PM

OK Snookieboy, version 1.2.4 was made especially for you. Hopefully that is what you were after. :D:D:D

DUDE, I love you (in a totally non-man love way), gee thanks so much!!! :)

I tested it, and it worked!! And even better, I noticed you used a phrase so it was easy for me to edit the default text to:

Sorry, your post was denied because you are a new member, and are posting links to megaupload and/or other download sites which are typically used by spambots when posting illegal content or malicious files. Please re-submit your post without the URL by using your browsers back button. Alternatively, if you are posting good non-illegal content, you will need to have made at least 3 posts before your allowed to post download URL's.

Again, thank you so much.... Please share your donation goal so I can at least assist in some way :)

digicom

08-25-2010, 10:43 PM

Installed version 1.2.4 on vBulletin 3.8.6 P1 and working great
Much apprciated :up:

GlowHost.com

08-26-2010, 12:05 AM

DUDE, I love you (in a totally non-man love way), gee thanks so much!!! :)

Don't worry about it, life is too short even if you are into man-love. I am into spam-hate so at least we have something in common :)

I tested it, and it worked!! And even better, I noticed you used a phrase so it was easy for me to edit the default text to:

Word

Again, thank you so much.... Please share your donation goal so I can at least assist in some way :)

Just put the GlowHost name out, order hosting, join our $125 per sale affiliate program, or just tell your friends about this mod.

Anything you can do is great, Thanks.

BTW - Version 2 is the works now, We are running it on our forums and it is schweeeeeeeet!

Installed version 1.2.4 on vBulletin 3.8.6 P1 and working great
Much apprciated :up:

Great, thanks for the 411.

Not many people are reporting about earlier versions so that is great news. :) If there are any other reports, please tell!

Front Range 4x4

08-26-2010, 10:29 PM

Snookieboy

08-27-2010, 01:06 PM

GlowHost.com

08-27-2010, 03:55 PM

Just a quick question, you jokingly said 1.2.4 was made especially for me, but is that version features (the auto blocking instead of moderation option) continue you with all future releases, or do I have to beg for a special version of each release you make? ;)

Thank you once again :) Will make an article about your hosting on my forum at some point.

Actually, I wasn't joking. You made a good suggestion, so I added it for you, me and everyone else. It is part of the core now so it will always be part of the Spam-O-Matic system.

GlowHost.com

08-27-2010, 03:57 PM

PS

I appreciate the forum post. :)

BadgerDog

08-27-2010, 05:41 PM

Re-installed for testing ob v1.24 ... :)

Have temporarily disabled v.61 vbStopForumSpam mod and vBulletin's v4.04 built-in Akismet spam checking system...

Set threshold of post checking to 1, which hopefully will stop erroneous moderation of registered member's posts greater than 1, which was a problem under v1.12 of this mode...

Thanks for your efforts ... :)

Will post results ...

Regards,
Badger

Edit: same problem with v1.24 as with v1.12 and RSS posts. All are being moderated for an RSS user name poster that has far more than one post, therefore should not be moderated. Have now disabled "Auto Moderation" function of mod to see if that fixes RSS poster problem.

Iguana Goddess

08-29-2010, 02:56 PM

I am testing this out on 3.8.6 patch level 1. No issues installing, love the feature in the profile for submitting and banning. Will update if any conflicts arise.

howard007

08-31-2010, 03:47 AM

Any reason why you don't add a feature to whitelist IP's?

GlowHost.com

09-03-2010, 04:59 PM

This caught my eye after opening registration today and getting slammed with bogus registrations. I have a very small user base by design and did it all manually but decided to make it easier. Oops, that went bad. Just installed this and will see how it does.

Please mark it as installed. :)

Any reason why you don't add a feature to whitelist IP's?

Well, the main reason is I don't see a good reason for it. Can you tell me what you are trying to accomplish and why, and why you cannot do it with the current options? If it sounds good I can surely consider it.

Front Range 4x4

09-03-2010, 06:16 PM

Please mark it as installed. :)

Oops, thought I had.

*Installed* and an immediate drop of spam registrations followed. :D

GlowHost.com

09-03-2010, 06:25 PM

Oops, thought I had.

*Installed* and an immediate drop of spam registrations followed. :D

That is good news :)

Hey we got nominated for Mod of the Month!

Please vote for us if you like this mod. It will encourage release of version 2.0 :)

Vote by clicking 'Nominate for MOTM' link in the release notes at the top right of this thread - you can nominate as many as you like during the month.

giorgino

09-03-2010, 06:40 PM

That is good news :)

Hey we got nominated for Mod of the Month!

Please vote for us if you like this mod. It will encourage release of version 2.0 :)

Vote by clicking 'Nominate for MOTM' link in the release notes at the top right of this thread - you can nominate as many as you like during the month.

Done! ;) Great job!

tommac3

09-05-2010, 02:27 PM

Would there be any plans to also incorporate:
botscout

It seems that they already have vbulletin code ... it would be cool if this could be integrated into this plugin
http://www.botscout.com/

FleaBag

09-05-2010, 08:55 PM

Thanks, just installed this on my new board. Will see how it goes. :)

Iguana Goddess

09-06-2010, 12:26 AM

Seems like when I submit user info it's not getting to the stopforumspan site. I had some one register using an IP that I had submitted when they had registered earlier in the day.

DaneAU

09-06-2010, 02:45 AM

This is exactly what i was looking for, over the recent months i have been hammered by severe spam concerning pornography. It was so bad i have had to manually moderate new users and their initial posts. I am so thankful that something to combat this has come into play.

Thanks a million :up:

GlowHost.com

09-06-2010, 08:50 PM

Would there be any plans to also incorporate:
botscout

It seems that they already have vbulletin code ... it would be cool if this could be integrated into this plugin
http://www.botscout.com/

I was considering it actually, just depends on if users want it or not. I didn't see any great differences in the 2 systems.

Seems like when I submit user info it's not getting to the stopforumspan site. I had some one register using an IP that I had submitted when they had registered earlier in the day.

Do you have your API key and have it configured in Spam-O-Matic yet?

This is exactly what i was looking for, over the recent months i have been hammered by severe spam concerning pornography. It was so bad i have had to manually moderate new users and their initial posts. I am so thankful that something to combat this has come into play.

Thanks a million :up:

You are welcome :) Please vote for us for Mod of the Month if you like it.

Iguana Goddess

09-06-2010, 09:27 PM

Do you have your API key and have it configured in Spam-O-Matic yet?

Yes, and it was working then all of a sudden doesn't seem to be now.

GlowHost.com

09-06-2010, 09:32 PM

OK, I will check up on it. After your post I read that they recently updated their site and some things broke.

Maybe that is one of the things :) Thanks for the report.

Iguana Goddess

09-06-2010, 09:39 PM

OK, I will check up on it. After your post I read that they recently updated their site and some things broke.

Maybe that is one of the things :) Thanks for the report.

I was wondering if maybe that was the issue because I noticed that their lay out had changed. Thanks. Great hack when the site itself isn't glitching.

jezza101

09-07-2010, 07:15 AM

Just wanted to say thanks for a great mod. I wrote something like this for another CMS and was pleased to see someone has already done it for vb. These tools make all the difference to forum spam and make running a forum viable!

I tried to vote for MOTM but i get a permissions error when I try :(.
Edit: ah have to vote on front page poll - i get it!

Good work.

BadgerDog

09-07-2010, 10:23 AM

I think there's something wrong with either this mod, or StopForumSpam.Com ... :confused:

I'm not exactly sure what's wrong, but for over two years I've been reporting spammers there automatically from our site using the original vb StopForumSpam .61 add-on mod and the API key provided to me by that site.

I just tried to BAN a spammer using this latest revision of Spam-O-Matic and it now appears to no longer work automatically, yet I'm able to manually submit to "line by line" spammers (hand adding them) to the StopForumSpam site, which is really aggravating and not worth the effort.

Can anyone help or know what's going on?

Perhaps they are now only accepting automatic additions from their own add-on mod vbStopForumSpam and not this Spam-O-Matic one?

Thanks for any feedback ... :)

Regards,
Bagder

GlowHost.com

09-07-2010, 10:37 AM

Its a problem with the StopForumSpam site. They recently updated things and submissions to their DB are behaving strangely.

They important parts of this mod work which is looking up known spammers and blocking them. Once they fix their site, submissions should work again. We will look for a workaround in the mean time for those of you that want to report spammers, but the current problems with the stopforumspam submission process should not discourage you from usage of this mod because the primary goal is to block spammers, reporting them is secondary.

The original mod also currently has similar issues so I guess they did not simply block this mod.

This is a good reason to add in botscout as another poster has mentioned so that an alternative service can be used if one or the other is down.

Adding botscout may delay release of the 2.0 series which is being cleaned up for release now.

BadgerDog

09-07-2010, 10:49 AM

This is a good reason to add in botscout as another poster has mentioned so that an alternative service can be used if one or the other is down.

Adding botscout may delay release of the 2.0 series which is being cleaned up for release now.

That's probably a good idea in order to have a back up plan for auto adding of spammers.

The strength of this system (and mods that support it) is the team approach of all vBulletin sites using it and reporting spammers to a common database for the benefit of everyone. Having to manually hand add every spammer will discourage a lot of web masters from finding the time to do so and the content will be come stale and inevitably useless.

Thanks for your efforts ... :)

Regards,
Badger

GlowHost.com

09-07-2010, 10:53 AM

Sure :)

I definitely understand the importance of the contributions part. Without it, these mods would not be very useful. :) But for now most of us probably do not have time for manual submissions and can get by using the older results until fixes have been made.

We will be looking at what changed on SFS today and start work on the Botscout stuff.

Lazorbeam

09-07-2010, 11:48 AM

I installed the products, and get the following error after hitting the "post thread" button:

Warning: require_once(includes/functions_vbghsfs.php) [function.require-once]: failed to open stream: No such file or directory in [path]/includes/class_dm_user.php(1853) : eval()'d code on line 3

Fatal error: require_once() [function.require]: Failed opening required 'includes/functions_vbghsfs.php' (include_path='.:/usr/lib/php:/usr/local/lib/php') in /home/stormsp1/public_html/consortium/includes/class_dm_user.php(1853) : eval()'d code on line 3

Any idea? The error disappears when I disable the addon.

GlowHost.com

09-07-2010, 12:05 PM

I installed the products, and get the following error after hitting the "post thread" button:

Any idea? The error disappears when I disable the addon.

Yes, I have an idea. Did you upload functions_vbghsfs.php into your /includes folder per the installation instructions found in the readme file?

The error you sent says the file does not exist.

GlowHost.com

09-07-2010, 12:08 PM

That's probably a good idea in order to have a back up plan for auto adding of spammers.

Botscout isn't going to be a good alternative unfortunately. It only allows 20 queries per day.

GlowHost.com

09-07-2010, 03:36 PM

Seems like when I submit user info it's not getting to the stopforumspan site. I had some one register using an IP that I had submitted when they had registered earlier in the day.

and

I think there's something wrong with either this mod, or StopForumSpam.Com ...
Bagder

1.2.5 has been updated which should work with the new SFS web site.

Just wanted to say thanks for a great mod...

I tried to vote for MOTM but i get a permissions error when I try :(.
Edit: ah have to vote on front page poll - i get it!

You are welcome, thanks for the thanks! :)

Actually you are supposed to vote in the top right of the first post where it says Mod of the Month. Next to the "Mark As Installed" do-hicky.

That part gives you an error? The poll thing is just for a guess of who will win I believe :)

Lazorbeam

09-07-2010, 04:23 PM

Yes, I have an idea. Did you upload functions_vbghsfs.php into your /includes folder per the installation instructions found in the readme file?

The error you sent says the file does not exist.

Ah yes, this fixed my problem, thanks!

My mistake was putting the "upload" folder into my forum root, rather than opening the folder first.

BadgerDog

09-07-2010, 04:25 PM

Botscout isn't going to be a good alternative unfortunately. It only allows 20 queries per day.

That's a show stopper ... I don't think they'll last long as a site ... ;)

Upgraded to v1.25.. will advise ..

Regards,
Badger

BadgerDog

09-07-2010, 04:33 PM

Yes, I have an idea. Did you upload functions_vbghsfs.php into your /includes folder per the installation instructions found in the readme file?

The error you sent says the file does not exist.

Interesting ...

Referring to your comment to the other poster, I find no file in your download package called functions_vbghsfs.php?

In my v1.25 download package there is a file with a name that's close to it called functions_ghsom.php. (see pic)

Ironically, when I upload functions_ghsom.php to my /includes sub-directory, I can't find it after that in the /includes sub-directory, but there is one that appears called functions_vbghsfs.php... does my Unix platform do something to this filename?

Regards,
Badger

BadgerDog

09-07-2010, 04:57 PM

Update:

I'd recommend that before anyone installs v1.25 of this mod, they be prepared to step back to v1.24. Once 1.25 is installed, quickly check your "mark forums read" function.

As soon as we imported the v1.25 XML and began to use the forums, we noticed that the "Mark Forums Read" function was completely broken. When members would click on that vBulletin function, it would simply clear to a white screen" and say "done" in the browser.

Since the only thing we had done was upgrade from 1.24 to 1.25 of this mod, we immediately DISABLED this mod and the "mark read" vBulletin function started working fine again.

Regards,
Badger

Iguana Goddess

09-07-2010, 05:22 PM

and

1.2.5 has been updated which should work with the new SFS web site.

You are welcome, thanks for the thanks! :)

Actually you are supposed to vote in the top right of the first post where it says Mod of the Month. Next to the "Mark As Installed" do-hicky.

That part gives you an error? The poll thing is just for a guess of who will win I believe :)

Installed, will report any issues. Thanks :)

Lazorbeam

09-07-2010, 06:19 PM

DBs

09-08-2010, 10:59 AM

Have installed 1.2.5 and I still have a problem with submitting the data using the AdminCP. When i select Remove User, Remove Posts, Submit to SFS I click the submit button and it reloads the user information again.

GlowHost.com

09-08-2010, 11:37 AM

GlowHost.com

09-08-2010, 11:41 AM

BadgerDog

09-08-2010, 02:31 PM

BadgerDog

functions_vbghsfs.php is from easier versions of this mod.

functions_ghsom.php is the name of this file in 1.2.5+

Anyways, this information was for the other poster who didn't upload the file, so it should not affect you.

Understood ... so can I delete functions_vbghsfs.php from my server?

Follow up ... v1.25 is NOT sending information to ADD spammers to stopforumspam.com. I've tested it several times using the AdminCP function add-on panel you provide in the users screen and nothing ever arrives and is placed in their database.

I don't know if it works through the moderation "delete as spam" function as I haven't had a spammer get through to be able to post a message.

I am able to manually go to their site and add spammers to their database.

1.25 is working to analyze and stop spammers from registering ...

Regards,
Badger

TheRedGoat

09-08-2010, 03:29 PM

Ah yes, this fixed my problem, thanks!

My mistake was putting the "upload" folder into my forum root, rather than opening the folder first.

Thank you to you both. Had the same issue this morning. I dunno how I overlooked the file install.

Thanks for the quick fix!

~Brian

Jaxel

09-08-2010, 03:47 PM

I've decided to uninstall this mod. After looking at the logs for the past month, I have come to the following conclusions...

My forum rejects 9 out of 10 registration requests from spammers.
This mod is only responsible for ONE out of those 9 rejections.
The amount of false-positives is not worth the hassle.
Akismet has NEVER (and I mean NEVER) returned anything other than a false positive.

The other 8 of those 9 rejections were done using a custom profile field:

Simple Question: Are you a spam bot?
Default Value: Yes
Field Required: No, but display at registration
Regular Expression: [NOno]+
Its simple. When someone registers, right before the submit button is this question "Are you a spam bot?"; with the default being "Yes". Unless they change the answer to "no", they will be rejected. This simple thing is responsible for almost all of my spam rejections.

Any bots that do get through eventually get caught by this:
https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthread.php?t=248560

GlowHost.com

09-08-2010, 04:00 PM

Well, 1 is better than none I would say.

Why not just turn off the Akismet option if it doesn't work for your purposes? Is that the only thing giving false positives?

The question thing you have does work good and is a great thing unless everyone uses the same questions on their forums. The spambots can easily be trained to answer that type of question. The mods I have seen with such systems all have the same questions which sort of defeats the purpose.

GlowHost.com

09-08-2010, 04:18 PM

Understood ... so can I delete functions_vbghsfs.php from my server?

Yes unless you want to run version 1.2.4 or earlier.

Follow up ... v1.25 is NOT sending information to ADD spammers to stopforumspam.com. I've tested it several times using the AdminCP function add-on panel you provide in the users screen and nothing ever arrives and is placed in their database.

How are you checking that? The results do not appear on their site for quite a while after submission. Last we tested, it was something like an hour before you could see them when posting from the API. I guess they have a cron setup to save server resources.

Are your logs updated indicating the submission was successful? If yes, then they were submitted because that is a response from SFS indicating the successful submission.

Jaxel

09-08-2010, 04:20 PM

Iguana Goddess

09-08-2010, 04:41 PM

Anyone else?

Me too.

GlowHost.com

09-08-2010, 04:42 PM

I turned Akismet off a week after I installed this mod. The false positives I am talking about now are during registration when this mod rejects legitimate users. I get emails from users all the time who ask for help registering because they get rejected on some random ip check.

I see. Well, the 2 suggestions I have for that would be to:

1) Turn off the IP check
or
2) keep IP check on and turn "StopForumSpam: Remote Expiry" down to something less less, like 10 so that only newly found IPs are checked, instead of stuff from 3 months ago (90)

At the end of the day, if it is picking up their IPs spam did come from that IP at some point. Likely those who complain are in Internet cafes overseas where spammers like to play, which ends up getting everyone punished.

Might encourage them to find a more reliable ISP that better controls spam if that is the case.

On the other hand, if that IP has been playing nice lately, and you set a low threshold of 10 or so, it might help you and the users since that IP would be expired from results.

The email check is the most effective anyways, so simply turning off the IP check is probably best for your situation since your other registration checks seem to be strong enough for you.

Hope it helps, if not, I tried. :)

BadgerDog

09-08-2010, 07:52 PM

How are you checking that? The results do not appear on their site for quite a while after submission. Last we tested, it was something like an hour before you could see them when posting from the API. I guess they have a cron setup to save server resources.

Are your logs updated indicating the submission was successful? If yes, then they were submitted because that is a response from SFS indicating the successful submission.

It's been over 8 hours and the submissions we tested under 1.25 are still not appearing.

I can find no record of any submission in the user logs for either of the tests we conducted ...

Regards,
Badger

GlowHost.com

09-08-2010, 09:17 PM

It's been over 8 hours and the submissions we tested under 1.25 are still not appearing.

I can find no record of any submission in the user logs for either of the tests we conducted ...

Regards,
Badger

Can you try it using the moderation tool to delete posts as spam and see if it ends up in the logs and SFS DV? Perhaps there is a problem with the combination of options that you are choosing when submitting from the user profile in admincp.

I did find one bug there for another reported issue where a certain combination of options just reloaded the page, that is fixed but I would like to see if we can pinpoint your issue before making another release.

BadgerDog

09-09-2010, 01:11 PM

Can you try it using the moderation tool to delete posts as spam and see if it ends up in the logs and SFS DV? Perhaps there is a problem with the combination of options that you are choosing when submitting from the user profile in admincp.

I could, but I need a legitimate spammer to break through the defenses and post a thread that is spam, in order to be able to use 1.25 to delete it as spam and test it.

Will advise as soon as I have that set of circumstances ....

BTW, still no sign of the spammers I sent to StopForumSpam using the AdminCP add-on for user settings, so there must be a problem with that part of it ...

Regards,
Badger

GlowHost.com

09-09-2010, 01:24 PM

I suggest disabling email, username and IP checks for a while so that a spammer can get on your boards otherwise we may be waiting a while for one to get through the system.

DBs

09-09-2010, 02:11 PM

I did find one bug there for another reported issue where a certain combination of options just reloaded the page, that is fixed but I would like to see if we can pinpoint your issue before making another release.

Any chance you could release the fix for the problem that I am experiencing?

GlowHost.com

09-09-2010, 02:40 PM

Any chance you could release the fix for the problem that I am experiencing?

I'd like to patch them both at the same time and stop development of the 1.x tree.

The first reason being is I don't want to make a new release every day for minor issues that have workarounds (this one has a workaround, which is to delete posts as spam instead of using the user option in admincp)

The second reason being this function is deprecated in version 2.0 which we are in release candidate stages for version 2.0 already. I am trying not to back-pedal too much.

In 2.0 the function in the user profile has been removed in favor of an option on the moderator tools called "Spam-O-Matic" in the postbit which will take care of everything without having to login to admincp, find the user, select the options, and ban them which is a time consuming process.

Everything is done in one step from the post itself in version 2.

Iguana Goddess

09-09-2010, 04:18 PM

I suggest disabling email, username and IP checks for a while so that a spammer can get on your boards otherwise we may be waiting a while for one to get through the system.
I have been testing and spam info is not getting submitted through to sfs site. I have a person that registers daily that does nothing but spam peoples personal info all over the board. If I manually submit the info to the database it gets added, when I try to submit through my admincp it isn't successful. I submit and ban user no other options ticked.

GlowHost.com

09-09-2010, 04:27 PM

I understand and believe that condition is fixed in the next release.

The workaround I see for the time being, which no one has really answered yet, is what happens when you use the "Delete Posts As Spam" option? This should take care of the user and submit them as well.

Iguana Goddess

09-09-2010, 04:29 PM

sas forum

09-09-2010, 04:43 PM

The only problem I have had since the beginning is that in the log viewer, when a post is moderated, clicking on the link for the past takes me to domain.com/admincp verus domain.com/forum/admincp, so anything you can do when clicking on that link is useless unless you manually edit the link in the browser.

Could this possibly be the issue with submittig spammers via the admincp mentioned above, maybe it is referencing the wrong URL?

I run this mod on several forums and they all have the same issue with the incorrect URL.

Oh, I guess I should add that I have never been able to submit the data via the admincp and always figured it was just because of the bad url.

GlowHost.com

09-10-2010, 09:24 AM

1.2.6 is online. Fixes the bug with not being able to submit details to SFS from user profile in admincp.

Iguana Goddess

09-10-2010, 10:43 AM

I'm getting an error in the admin panel when I submit to SFS after updating to the newest version..

https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/external/2010/09/16.jpg

RCK08

09-10-2010, 11:00 AM

sas forum

09-10-2010, 08:44 PM

looking for help!! Ok so there was this MOD out there by a site called combatscripts.com, it was a tournament and ladder script, currently I'm using Banana's script, but this one , no offense, had a few more options I was looking for in a script..so gave it a day to look it over and now the combatscripts.com site is gone! had anyone on here heard of this site and or have any info if its gone for good or whatever, please message me back thank you! all the best...

I am not 100% positive, but I have a feeling that this is not the forum that you would want to post something about the mod you mentioned. This discussion is related to the Glowhost Spam-O-Matic mod. You may want to choose a forum from here (https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/index.php) that better suits your needs.

VIPER-MAN

09-10-2010, 11:18 PM

GlowHost.com

09-11-2010, 12:11 AM

I'm getting an error in the admin panel when I submit to SFS after updating to the newest version..

https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/external/2010/09/16.jpg

Iguana Goddess, I have attached a version 1.2.7 here for you to see if it fixes your issue. If it doesn't, this feature may not work for you due to the older version of vB that you are running. Still wondering if your Moderation Tools option to Delete Posts As Spam is working for you.

If the attached gets rid of those errors and works, please let me know and I will make it an official release for the 3.x series of vB.

(fingers crossed)

GlowHost.com

09-11-2010, 12:16 AM

Iguana Goddess

09-11-2010, 01:30 AM

Iguana Goddess, I have attached a version 1.2.7 here for you to see if it fixes your issue. If it doesn't, this feature may not work for you due to the older version of vB that you are running. Still wondering if your Moderation Tools option to Delete Posts As Spam is working for you.

If the attached gets rid of those errors and works, please let me know and I will make it an official release for the 3.x series of vB.

(fingers crossed)

No didn't work the errors are still there, thanks for trying though. I will just go back to an earlier version and manually submit which is good enough for me. It catches all the submitted spammers which makes myself and my staff members happy.

sas forum

09-12-2010, 03:20 AM

Quick question for this mod.

I know we can go in an see the log of spammers that were denied registration because something came back in akismet or stopforumspam. I have tried to help keep SFS up to date by manually submitting data from those logs, but I am giving up on that as it takes way too long.

Is there any way to add an option where all registrations that are denied automatically get submitted to SFS? The mod already has our API key, and submitting the spammer data automatically would make sure that the SFS database is updated to show that the email, ip, username, is being used right now and with whatever frequency.

In stopforumspam, we have the ability to go in and delete spammers that we submitted if we find out it was a false positive, so automatically submitting the spam data when registration is denied seems like it would be a great addition.

Just a thought, this is a great mod, my favorite and most used for sure. This mod is actually so useful, that I would have paid money to get my hands on it.

Thanks for everything.

djbaxter

09-12-2010, 09:31 AM

I know we can go in an see the log of spammers that were denied registration because something came back in akismet or stopforumspam. I have tried to help keep SFS up to date by manually submitting data from those logs, but I am giving up on that as it takes way too long.

Is there any way to add an option where all registrations that are denied automatically get submitted to SFS? The mod already has our API key, and submitting the spammer data automatically would make sure that the SFS database is updated to show that the email, ip, username, is being used right now and with whatever frequency.

You've been wasting your time. If the spammer is already in the rejected logs, then SFS already has them. You've been submitting duplicate information.

BadgerDog

09-12-2010, 10:14 AM

Installed 1.27 yesterday ...

Submitted a test case (not in their database) by manual submission to StopForumSpam site at that time ....

As of today, it still hasn't appeared ... Wouldn't it be a good idea to have feedback to the manual submitter in the log or on the screen that this action has been accepted by their site etc.?

Second observation ...

Just had my first legitimate spam poster since 1.27 installed. They made one post which appeared as moderated, so I assume your Akismet check got them as I don't have the moderate posts enabled in your in 1.27? Anyway, I selected "delete as spam" and chose to ban the user as well as delete all their posts. When I submitted it, the screen cleared and some strange black (maybe dark gray) screen flashed by, one that has a lot of text on it, however the text was dark against the dark background, so I really couldn't read it except it was an entire screen full of data (looked like a forum display maybe?).

The screen returned to a readable format and I went to check the StopForumSpam site. The name of the user I banned was immediately there as the last name in my spammers listing, so, at least this test seemed to work, but the manual one hasn't so far ..

Hope this helps ...

Regards,
Badger

cagbaazee

09-12-2010, 12:50 PM

Hi.. I have install it but cannot find where is it in my forum. Can u tell me where it is locate. Thanks

GlowHost.com

09-12-2010, 01:05 PM

sas forum

09-13-2010, 12:00 AM

You've been wasting your time. If the spammer is already in the rejected logs, then SFS already has them. You've been submitting duplicate information.

I checked with SFS. If they are in there today, and I do not report them, then maybe tomorrow they will have been in there 11 days total (since last reported), with nobody reporting them because they are already in there.

If someone has their spam-o-matic to only go back 10 in the SFS DB, then this spammer would not have given a hit if the last submission was 11 days back (not within the 10 day window). If I had submitted them "yesterday", then they would have got a hit and I could have helped keep one spammer off someone elses site.

Not sure if that make sense, but eventually, if the spammers stop getting reported, based on how far you set the spam-o-matic to go back in the SFS DB, if they are never reported after the ifrst reporting, eventually they will not get a hit for someone. It is actually in everyone's best interest to report them even if they are already in there. This keeps their list up to date so they are still shown as "active".

Hope that made sense above.

sas forum

09-13-2010, 02:04 AM

Hi.. I have install it but cannot find where is it in my forum. Can u tell me where it is locate. Thanks

Go to AdminCP / Settings / Options / then scroll through the list and look for Glowhost - Spam-o-matic.

You can also see the logs at AdminCP / Statistics and Logs / Glowhost-Spam-o-matic logs

GlowHost.com

09-13-2010, 11:43 AM

This is working somewhat but I am encountering the same problem others have mentioned .... it conflicts with the automatic RSS poster ... I have an ADMIN account (News) that automatically posts based on various RSS feeds ... SpamOMatic puts these threads in Moderation mode no matter what I try. The NEWS user has over 3,000 posts and my settings have the cut off at 6 posts so it should not be moderating this user.

My settings:
---------
vBulletin Spam Scanning: Disabled
Akismet: Disabled
Auto-Moderation: Enabled
Min Post Count: 6
Url Count: 0

It should be ignoring the NEWS user and it doesn't -- throws every RSS post in moderation. I've tried all variations with no luck ... any ideas? I don't want to uninstall as it really has curbed the spam registrants!!!

By the way, if someone wants to show me this in action I might be able to find a fix for it faster if it is really an issue with Spam-O-Matic. I cannot duplicate it so if someone wants to let me login to their admincp to see the problem it might lead to an answer sooner. I need to be able to duplicate it in order to fix it.

Is there any way to add an option where all registrations that are denied automatically get submitted to SFS?

As another member mentioned there isn't much point to that, though your followup post makes sense in relation to keeping them active on the SFS list.

However the AIM is to report people who have actually posted spam on your boards, not to report the ones that tried to register using information already found in the SFS DB. That could lead to more false positives then needed especially in regards to IP addresses.

...this is a great mod, my favorite and most used for sure. This mod is actually so useful, that I would have paid money to get my hands on it.

Thanks for everything.

You are welcome :) You can still pay money if you like :) A nomination for MOTM would be good, we are starting to trail in the rankings!

Alfa1

09-15-2010, 01:20 PM

Its nice to see 3 important hacks combined.
Is there any chance to also get:
- minimal registration speed check
- hidden registration fields (that only bots can see)

That would make this complete.

GlowHost.com

09-15-2010, 01:52 PM

Its possible.

I like the sound of the first one but am not sure how useful the second one would be since the spammers that code the bots are people, and they generally are going to want to see the fields that they are trying to defeat when they program their bots.

If a bot doesn't know what to put in a field, it will be bank, the same as a human who can't see the field. This might also cause accessibility problems for some people who rely on bots like screen-readers to do things for them.

Maybe I missed the concept of the second idea though.

Alfa1

09-15-2010, 02:53 PM

Many vb boards have mandatory custom profile fields. Spam bots need to fill these in to register. Every board has different custom fields, so spammers have little chance to anticipate. It would be easy to add invisible fields with standard names. If you add a hidden profile field named 'Interests' then chances are that a bot will recognize this and fill it in. There used to be a addon that did this, but cant find it ATM.

Two other suggestion that would make this anti-spam suite complete are:

Bad behaviour: http://www.bad-behavior.ioerror.us/documentation/how-it-works/
Option to disallow disposable email domains from registration. There is a list here (http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/showthread.php?297360-Single-use-and-Disposable-Email-Addresses-to-ban). People can easily add the list to the email ban list, but it would be far more useful to have a centrally updated list. (doesnt need to be updated more than once every few months) And most admins do not realize the problems that disposable email addresses pose.BTW: Many boards are getting a lot of profile spam these days. Does this addon deal with that or is that something that needs an additional solution?

GlowHost.com

09-15-2010, 03:34 PM

Thanks for the suggestions, it would be good to have a central DB of disable emails, I agree.

This does not deal with profile spam, or blog spam at the moment. Those are planned for a later release. The primary purpose is to block registrations of known-spammers, then moderate the ones that are able to sneak past so that they never get as far as being able to spam in the first place.

Alfa1

09-15-2010, 08:11 PM

then moderate the ones that are able to sneak past so that they never get as far as being able to spam in the first place.
Does that mean that you aim to add cookie based multiple account detection for banned accounts?

This addon works very well: Multiple Account Detection & Prevention (https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/misc.php?do=producthelp&pid=kiros_madp)
It seems a perfect combination with your addon. (as is vmail)

GlowHost.com

09-15-2010, 08:40 PM

Probably not. Only people use cookies and spammers are rarely people. The other thing is people can delete cookies.

What I meant was that if they get past the blacklist checks then in the current version if they do anything "spammy" they will generally be caught by auto-moderation and moderated.

In version 2 all new members are placed in a new usergroup which has (configurable) limited permissions. If they make it past X posts they will graduate to the standard registered users group. If they do anything spammy in either group they will be moderated, until they are no longer checked for automatic moderation based on your postcount settings.

Your spammer would have to be a very persistent and bored person to make it to the registered users group and if they are that much of a pain in the butt then banning their IP from your server is always an option. I think it would be a rare day.

Alfa1

09-15-2010, 09:20 PM

I do use a usergroup for new users, which they can only get out of if they receive 5 reputation points. That does work like a charm. Post count is something that spam bots seem to recognize, as they just start posting like crazy to get more than X posts. That caused me to put it the post count at 50. My staff catches them well before they can make that, as they are there around the clock.

I would expect that same about cookies, but I actually catch a very substantial number of spammers trough cookie. Happens every day.

Even after all of the above (including all of my suggestions and multiple account detection) we still get spammers, that try to circumvent the links block, in various creative ways. All these measures did get rid of 99% of all spam though, so its vital functionality for me.

To get an idea: I get 7.000 registrations attempts per month, of which 4.000 are successful and have confirmed their email and passed all spam checks. I have 3.000 banned members.

maidos

09-16-2010, 02:44 AM

a suggestion for spammers who already are a memebe on the board, how do you preven them, you know they dont only spam by posting thread but they also spam all members on pm with the llinks so how can this mod prevent further spam

GlowHost.com

09-16-2010, 04:46 PM

There is not much you can do about existing spammers with this mod. This mod prevents them from getting on the boards in the first place. You should probably install it now to prevent more bad guys from signing up, then start working on your existing spammers using alternative means.

onehost

09-17-2010, 02:19 AM

here is one.

I have people / spammers registering on my forum...but afterwood disappear
into nothingness, no trace of the members name or anything...

this is what i find in spam matic log:

Venusian Arts PUA Spam-O-Matic Tagged ip - 98.64.196.143 - Spammer Found but allowed

It says it has identified the spammer, but has allowed the spammer.

So i can not find any record of the member in non-validated to registered to banned,
the member record is just no where to be found....

on another signup attempt, I get this one:

No Username Submitted Spam-O-Matic Tagged email - (email) Spammer Found but allowed.

Whats going on?

ramtha

09-17-2010, 06:56 AM

thanks its strong to stop spam
but when i tried to update any username file in my forum i face this note :

Warning: session_start() [function.session-start]: Cannot send session cache limiter - headers already sent (output started at [path]/includes/adminfunctions.php:285) in [path]/includes/functions_ghsom.php on line 378

Fatal error: Call to a member function query() on a non-object in /home1/horannew/public_html/vb/includes/functions_ghsom.php on line 386

by the way : the note apear again when i sign out from forum !!!

any solutions plz ??

GlowHost.com

09-17-2010, 12:24 PM

I have people / spammers registering on my forum...but afterwood disappear
into nothingness, no trace of the members name or anything...

this is what i find in spam matic log:

Venusian Arts PUA Spam-O-Matic Tagged ip - 98.64.196.143 - Spammer Found but allowed

It says it has identified the spammer, but has allowed the spammer.

That is because you have:
StopForumSpam: Desired Action
Set to: Log and continue with registration.

So i can not find any record of the member in non-validated to registered to banned,
the member record is just no where to be found....

on another signup attempt, I get this one:

No Username Submitted Spam-O-Matic Tagged email - (email) Spammer Found but allowed.

Whats going on?

What is going on is that Spam-O-Matic detected bots and sent the to the vBulletin registration system. If you do not see them as registered users, the bots either failed on the vBulletin registration form, or did not click the email validation, etc.

Meaning they passed the Spam-O-Matic firewall and then where they went from there is anyone's guess.

GlowHost.com

09-17-2010, 01:22 PM

onehost

09-17-2010, 08:55 PM

That is because you have:
StopForumSpam: Desired Action
Set to: Log and continue with registration.

What is going on is that Spam-O-Matic detected bots and sent the to the vBulletin registration system. If you do not see them as registered users, the bots either failed on the vBulletin registration form, or did not click the email validation, etc.

Meaning they passed the Spam-O-Matic firewall and then where they went from there is anyone's guess.

I guess it is doing its job then...

I would prefer to have real visitors rather then spam traffic....

which do nothing for me...

I guess I can not complain, if I did have real traffic then they
would not be bothered much by spammers as it is doing its job.

ramtha

09-17-2010, 08:56 PM

Try running the 1.2.7 beta and see if it works for you. You can download it from this post.

https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showpost.php?p=2096486&postcount=220

Let me know how it goes.

thank u very much

its working :)

best regards

Alteran Ancient

09-18-2010, 02:04 PM

I get the following error...

Fatal error: Call to a member function query() on a non-object in /var/www/vhosts/xxxxxx/httpdocs/includes/functions_ghsom.php on line 386

Upgrading to 1.2.7 Beta does not seem to resolve it for me. Currently on vB 4.0.6

GlowHost.com

09-18-2010, 03:15 PM

For those of you that have not voted yet, now is the time!

https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthread.php?t=249712

Please vote for us for this months Mod Of The Month!

Snookieboy

09-19-2010, 05:29 PM

For those of you that have not voted yet, now is the time!

https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthread.php?t=249712

Please vote for us for this months Mod Of The Month!

I voted for you dude, your 2nd at the moment. I really hope it can move to 1st, because this is now so important for me when installing forums!!! Good luck. :)

6FRGaming

09-19-2010, 06:50 PM

I'm getting the same error:
/includes/functions_ghsom.php on line 386

Running 4.0.5

GlowHost.com

09-19-2010, 07:39 PM

I get the following error...

Upgrading to 1.2.7 Beta does not seem to resolve it for me. Currently on vB 4.0.6

I'm getting the same error:
/includes/functions_ghsom.php on line 386

Running 4.0.5

This doesn't seem to be a widespread problem which leads me to believe that you guys are running other mods perhaps. If I am correct in my guess, have you tried temporarily disabling the other mods one by one to see if the error goes away? That way we can find where the conflict might be.

Also 6FRGaming View Post that isn't the full error I guess. Do you have the full error?