I have just installed this on a bord i keep getting spam registrations onto; i had previously seen the API's on stopforumspam.com and wondered if anyone would ever implement it, of course someone has - GREAT WORK and i will see how this runs for me

C

I can confirm the latest release (.61) will work on 3.5.4 if you use the attached product XML file, which simply replaces the "select : pipe" sections with CDATA for select method code. Installed fine after that was edited. Installers should remember to refresh their ACP navigation window when they first install it so they can see the new log file menu item. This edit to the XML file should be forward-compatible.

Good job.

I can't tell you how much I appreciate this mod. In less than 24 hours, it has allowed only 2 legit registrations to go through while blocking 15 spammers. Thanks again.

Donation sent!

Awesome! Works very well on 3.8.0 for me.

Working great on 3.8.2
Thanks for a great mod!

I am using cURL (as it was set by default).

Over the last week or two, things seem to have returned to normal and I'm no longer getting time outs so I'm a happy camper :)
As I mentioned earlier, this mod has saved me heaps of work removing spammers manually. Great work.

We are getting multiple entries in the spam log. One accepted user has 25 entries!
We are also getting rejections due to 'Result on field username' ???

Any idea's?

Barry

Hey Barry,

This has been my experience with this Mod -

The "accepted" listings in the stopforumspam logs could be either that the user did not respond to the email you sent during the registration process (if you sent one), or that the user got past the SFS Mod, but got stopped by your settings in VBulletin. The .logs show all who try to register whether they were able to or not.

The "Rejections" due to result on field username means that the Mod is doing its thing, and catching the spammers, then preventing them from registering on your forum.

What happens is, recorded spammers are reported to StopForumSpam by their username, IP address, and email address (these are the field results), so when the Mod goes to the SFS site, the site relays varification back to yours.

So basically, the logs are letting you know who is caught, and who was allowed to register.

Hope this helps ...

Mary

P.S. This Mod is a really great one. Let it do its job, and you will be pleasently surprised at how many spammers it stops dead cold! ;)

Thanks for the prompt reply Mary. I understand the multiple logs now.

I am still a little concerned that it looks at user names as it is rejecting quite legitimate users on my site. I have just had a user rejected because his chosen username was Andrew? There are no other Andrew's on my site, the spam database does not find any issue with his IP or email Address.

Other than this its been a great tool.

EDIT: I have just found out that usernames can be removed from the search.

Regards

Barry

If a legitimate user re-submits the new user registration multiple times, it will show up in the log multiple times. For example, where they change a setting, or fail the CAPTCHA, or edit their email address, each time it is resubmitted, it shows up in the log.

You have to be careful of the username searches. StopForumSpam.com searches for partial matches to username searches, which can result in high false positives. Your user "Andrew" did return a hit on StopForumSpam.com, but it also turned up false positives for other usernames that include the phrase "andrew" in it, even email addresses. I would prefer StopForumSpam.com to modify their username searches to only return exact matches, otherwise the username search becomes nearly useless.

Thanks for your reply. I've learnt a lot about this tool today. I like the tool but I agree about modifying the username searches. My spam log has already rejected a few potential members.

Barry

When this mod searches their database, it's different than the general search on the website. I believe it already only searches for exact matches, whereas the search on their website always searches all fields.

Greetings all...

Interesting plug-in and have it running on AVSForum at this time.

Seeing we get 300+ new registrations a day on the site, I was wondering if their is a way to only log the rejections? You know, the log entries like "Result on field email - kokja@ua.fm - Spammer and rejected by policy"

Thank you kindly for your help and the very nice addition.

Probably, but it's a good thing to have both available. When looking at the logs, you can see where spammers attempt various login combos, and which ones get rejected vs. accepted.

Example: They're attempting to create a login by using a specific IP / username combo, but they keep changing the email address. 3 out of 30 email addresses aren't blocked, and all attempted within a 5 minute period. It's a safe bet those 3 are spammer accounts, and you can report them to the list.

How can one do that please ?

installed it and hoping it'll work.... anyway to test without being banned :}

the site does exact matches only but is case insenstive.

Spot on

again, as the thread is getting long and I know from these posts that people arent reading it in completion

vBulletin accepts the form, sanity checks it
Passes control to the mod. The mod does tests against the remote database and if all tests come back negative, passes control back to vBulletin for its checks, captcha, dup usernames etc.

If there are multiple logs, its because the mod has passed it and vbulletin has rejected it. There is nothing that I can do about other than attempt to supress duplicate log entries, but then you dont see the whole picture.

Look at the mod options

Thanks.

You can edit the php and comment out the line near the bottom that adds the log entries that you dont want to see.

Goto: -

AdminCP/vBulletinOptions/vbStopForumSpam

Barry

Thank you pedigree. My bigging thing right now seems to be with timeouts. Not a lot, but enough. We could be one that actually hits your 5000 a day based on our traffic. ;)

Easy enough to check. Go to the logs, enter in 5000, and check the date of the first and last entry on the page :)

1. Proposal: I am sure that there have to be three separate logs or any way to filter the logs in ACP:
   
   • Allowed Registrations
   • Disallowed Registrations
   • Registrations was not able to check (due to time out)
   
   As for now it is very hard to browse the log.
   
2. Proposal: Also it will be nice to have some calendar filter.
   So you can check only today registrations.

P.S. pedigree, the application is great! Thanks!

Just found this one in logs - a lot of them (name, IP, mail is changed):

Of course there is no such user on forum.
This means it was trying to brake captcha or some question.

Proposal: It will be nice if in next version (hope 0.7*) there will be a way to report such user directly from log with one click!!!

Logs like that are why I have other mods in place where a human can only click on the submit button every 15 seconds :)

Great Works a treat Thanks :) Marked as installed

So I installed it.. and in my products in only shows as version .6 and not .61?
Why is that?
I used the zip file and xml on top of this thread from today June 17..

So if I did this correctly...
If i currently have any new user to wait for me to accept them.. the spammers won't even get to the point where I can reject them from the "List Users Awaiting Moderation"?

Thanks

I am hoping this works :)

-Luis

You have the correct one. He just never updated the version number on the actual product :)


Correct.

How come I don't see the "Front-End Error Messages" in the Admin Control Panel / Languages & Phrases / Phrase Manager / ?

I tried to register an account in my forum using a spam email and it leads to the database error page instead of "registration denied" page like the picture above.

Have had this installed for 3 months and working fine. Then in the last week I had 3 people contact us saying their signup was rejected as spam. Haven't had any spam in ages, but not many new signups either.......

Edit: didn't upload XML etc. I uploaded it to forum root but the log doesn't appear under stats still.

I also tried it in admincp. And also did do=buildbitfields. Still no log, aarghh..

Figured it out. Move along. Nothing to see here.

I can't believe how many spammy registrations this thing is blocking. I think maybe 15 to 25 per day. Incredible!

Thanks :)

You havent installed it correctly then

What differentiates the search to do exact matches for just a username? Do you have a coding example?

mod search with

select where username = "username"

site searches with

select where field like *text*

Ahh, gotcha. Site is using SQL search structure... Thanks.

Most excellent! Thank you!

quick question does this work with 3.8.x or is it only for 3.6.x