This is an awesome plugin. Just by implementing it yesterday has trapped over 75 spammers. I love it. I'll definitely use it every time I install vBulletin for a forum. Excellent work.

any one had issues with the plug in stopping non-spammers? I had a complain from a user who couldn't register. I tried registering myself and couldn't do so. Then I disabled the IP check hoping that would work. That worked alright - I've had about 20+ spam registrations today :( Anyone have any idea how to fix that?

I tried again just now:

i have encountered the same thing as arsh - i had to completely uninstall the plugin in as it was preventing any users from registering even if their address/ip was not banned or part of the stopforumspam ips/addresses.

any idea on what has caused this?

Perhaps it's outdated lol

Working as it should, you need to read more about what the mod does.

If a person cant register, then check your logs and find out why. If theyre registering from AOL, then no surprise. Check the stopforumspam.com site for the users listing.

There is an option to set an expiry "timeout" - If you want people registering from old "expired as you say" addresses, then set the expiry period to 30 days.

No where does any spam / filtering system guarantee no "collateral damage"

You can disable fields that it tests on.

You can create the user manually in the admincp

You can tell the user that theyre coming from a spam friend ISP

You can uninstall the mod

Your config?

How about, I dont know, posting a log or something when you have an issue. I can not be expected to know your config or why something as vague as "why did it not work"

I just noticed all these registration attempts by goofy names, however not one has got through.

I use human verification ( a question that must be answered) so I don't think spam bots can get through that.

Just some advice for others.

They can't by themselves, however they can still capture the various questions and then a human can add them to the bot so next time they'll get through.

I like the idea that 0.7 an admin can submit the data of a spammer to the stopforumspam.com database via ACP.

Ideally also moderators should be able to add spammers to the database after banning them in vb ModCP.

The site that I have this plug-in installed on is a low-traffic, very specific board, and all registrations are moderated. Once a year, we turn off the moderation for a short burst of high traffic, but watch the registrations carefully. (running vBulletin 3.8.3)

The module works extremely well. As the StopForumSpam database builds, the number of registrations that get through continue to drop. I'm now seeing one every month or so that get through, and as many as a thousand that don't.

With that said, I would like to advise all of the folks that are installing this, and having difficulties, to please take the time to troubleshoot the problem, and provide some detail when you finally post here with problems.

I "hear" the frustration in Pedigree's "voice" when you come on here and say "it's broken...what's wrong with your program?" This is definitely a case of PEBKAC

Sorry...this isn't the place for me to sound off, but I'm a programmer too and have to deal with the same stuff...:( Pedigree, I give you two-thumbs-up! :up::up:

Yes thanks :)

Fustration, oh yes. The amount of PMs I get that are "I installed it and it doesnt work - why?" are increasing and they all come down to one of one things

1. The person hasnt read any of the documentation or used the "search" in this thread and have installed it incorrectly
2. Arent using the required version of mySQL, php or cURL.

and of course, expect the database to be 100% accurate, up to date and purged of old spammers. The later we are discussing but there is functionality in the mod to ignore old spammer fields.

I have had to uninstall it from 2 sites for blocking people registering after verifying the problem myself. Tried with 3 different email addresses and had others try also. All were using either ip providers email or yahoo, msn, etc.

Would you like to provide the usernames/ip/email addresses so that we can verify this?

Please people, you must understand this

The database WILL provide a tiny amount of false positives known as "back scatter"

Its the same as a spammer using your email address as the "from" source when spamming millions of people. You will get the bounces. Same thing here. If a forum spammer uses an IP address on an ISP that trunks everything out a proxy server (ie AOL) or from an IP address that you happened to have been assigned when you dialup, then that IP address is listed.

Simple solution

- Dont block on IP addresses.
- Configure the mod to IGNORE positive results older than 30 days.
- Set your forum NOT to block registrations if our database is not available

Functionality was been provided, please use it. Again, please dont just post "It stopped working" without providing logs or details, youll just get ignored. If you would like some help and support, its a two way street.

My ability of telepathy only works within 10 square miles....

We are very disappointed!

Thanks again for this great hack.

This works like a charm! Thanks so much for writing this.

It would be nice to see this checking against project honey pot as well.

I searched the thread but could find no clues.
If I get a 404 Not Found page when I click on the vbStopForumSpam Log in the A CP..
does it just mean that no spammer has signed in yet so that is why there is no page created therefore not found?

Thanks

website is

http://gaga.com/

I receive about 20 spam registrations per day between my two Vb installations despite all of the other spam prevention mods I have installed. I am installing this today and will report back on this mod in a couple of days.

Fingers crossed.

UPDATE..

There was afile missing from the install..

:erm:

Just in case someone wants to know, and you want to update your "works with" list, I'm running vBulletin 3.8.4 and vbStopForumSpam continues to work like a charm...

...and may all your babies be born naked.

After 3 days, this mod has stopped 105 SPAM registrations. I have not had one false positive that has been reported. This mod is great!!!!! Thanks and my donation is on the way!

fyi, I am using it successfully on 3.6.4 and 3.8.3.

ie you didnt upload the files?? :)

Thanks for the donation, I got it in my email today :) It will buy my baby son a new chew toy as hes gone through all of my whiteboard markers

Done, thanks for the update

just as a test, I disabled this mod to see if its really working. I got two spammer registered on my forum in the matter of 1 hour. Needless to say, I reenabled this mod :)

*kudos*

Excellent. Within 20 minutes of installing it caught one :)
One suggestion: In the vbStopForumSpam Logs, perhaps add a button to the side of it to submit the info to stopforumspam.com since sometimes only one of the flags match the database (and I'd like to help keep the SFS database as up to date as possible :))

We will see how this goes :) Because spam is horrible these days. Thanks for this mod.

Adding to my mental list of anti-spam tools.

You can do it from the user admincp, just not the logs, yet. Click on teh username in the logs and it will take you to the admincp (see the mod page for the extra bits on how to install this in the user admincp) I have the code in 0.7 but its very slow going at the moment

@pedigree: is now a good time to for the community to rally around a mass donation to you to motivate you to get 0.7 out the door?

I still say this is one of the most valuable modifications i have installed...:)

I have been using this, and I am impressed.

Mod of the Year for vBulletin, crowned :thumbsup: by vbfans.com

*awesome*

Oh I know, but if it blocks their registration I have to submit them manually (in case they changed one or two things to try and seem unique). I.e. I don't have a user panel for them :/
Looking forward to 0.7 ^_^

That would be nice. I got another two donations over the last couple of month, suprising given the slow progress on the 0.7. Bribing me, hmm, Ill just knuckle down more, release it and hope that ppl nominate it for mod of the month or year etc, so to get it some more coverage.

I might have to drop 3.6 support from it though, well, at least move some of its features to another page.

Coming from another vbModer, thats awesome praise :) thanks :D

We just instaled this on our spam ridden forum and it's too early to tell if it's helping yet (we sure hope so), meanwhile I'm studying the logs and noticing that 'Allowed Registrations' entries for same user is repeated hundred of times at different timestamps (differ a few secs between the entries)

What can this be and I'm afraid it will fill logs quickly

A number of things can case that, passing one test but failing another. I usually see this on sites when a spammer/spambot is trying to crack captcha.

Installed with 3.8.3 and it seems to be working well with my tests, and stopped a new spammer registration within 5 minutes of being installed!!

This means that its passed the VbStopForumSpam mod tests and failing at a vbulletin test. I know its annoying but I will attempt to do a log suppression. If anything, it alerts you to someone hammernig your board.