vb.org Archive - Need Help Cleaning Old Forum

Hi folks,

I am in the process of cleaning up an old neglected vBulletin forum I used to run as a very active community.

I have already cleaned out 250,000 users awaiting email confirmation as they were all spam but the problem I seem to have is that the moment I open the forum to new registrations and enable the forum, I get a crazy number of bots register and start spamming like crazy.

I have recaptcha turned on for registration.

What are all the main suggestions for managing a vBulletin forum these days as I have not been using it for a couple of years now, is there anything out there that would make it easy for any spammers already registered on my forum and waiting to post?

I believe a lot of the spam bots have registered in the past before it was locked down enough and are now logging in when I enable the forum to spam like crazy.

I am using vBulletin 4.2.2 if that helps

Any help and assistance would be much appreciated!

X vBulletin 3.8.12 by vBS Debug Information
Template Usage: (1)ad_footer_end (1)ad_footer_start (1)ad_header_end (1)ad_header_logo (1)ad_navbar_below (1)footer (1)gobutton (1)header (1)headinclude (6)option (1)post_thanks_navbar_search (1)printthread (2)printthreadbit (1)spacer_close (1)spacer_open Phrase Groups Available: global postbit showthread	Included Files: ./printthread.php ./global.php ./includes/init.php ./includes/class_core.php ./includes/config.php ./includes/functions.php ./includes/class_hook.php ./includes/modsystem_functions.php ./includes/class_bbcode_alt.php ./includes/class_bbcode.php ./includes/functions_bigthree.php Hooks Called: init_startup init_startup_session_setup_start init_startup_session_setup_complete cache_permissions fetch_threadinfo_query fetch_threadinfo fetch_foruminfo style_fetch cache_templates global_start parse_templates global_setup_complete printthread_start bbcode_fetch_tags bbcode_create bbcode_parse_start bbcode_parse_complete_precache bbcode_parse_complete printthread_post printthread_complete
Messages:

X vBulletin 3.8.12 by vBS Debug Information

Page Generation 0.01025 seconds
Memory Usage 1,710KB
Queries Executed 10 (?)

More Information

Template Usage:

(1)ad_footer_end
(1)ad_footer_start
(1)ad_header_end
(1)ad_header_logo
(1)ad_navbar_below
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(1)gobutton
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(6)option
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Phrase Groups Available:

global
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./printthread.php
./global.php
./includes/init.php
./includes/class_core.php
./includes/config.php
./includes/functions.php
./includes/class_hook.php
./includes/modsystem_functions.php
./includes/class_bbcode_alt.php
./includes/class_bbcode.php
./includes/functions_bigthree.php

Hooks Called:

init_startup
init_startup_session_setup_start
init_startup_session_setup_complete
cache_permissions
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printthread_start
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Messages:

X vBulletin 3.8.12 by vBS Debug Information
Page Generation 0.01025 seconds Memory Usage 1,710KB Queries Executed 10 (?)
More Information
Template Usage: (1)ad_footer_end (1)ad_footer_start (1)ad_header_end (1)ad_header_logo (1)ad_navbar_below (1)footer (1)gobutton (1)header (1)headinclude (6)option (1)post_thanks_navbar_search (1)printthread (2)printthreadbit (1)spacer_close (1)spacer_open Phrase Groups Available: global postbit showthread	Included Files: ./printthread.php ./global.php ./includes/init.php ./includes/class_core.php ./includes/config.php ./includes/functions.php ./includes/class_hook.php ./includes/modsystem_functions.php ./includes/class_bbcode_alt.php ./includes/class_bbcode.php ./includes/functions_bigthree.php Hooks Called: init_startup init_startup_session_setup_start init_startup_session_setup_complete cache_permissions fetch_threadinfo_query fetch_threadinfo fetch_foruminfo style_fetch cache_templates global_start parse_templates global_setup_complete printthread_start bbcode_fetch_tags bbcode_create bbcode_parse_start bbcode_parse_complete_precache bbcode_parse_complete printthread_post printthread_complete
Messages: