The Google Ban
 

The Google Ban
for vBulletin 2 (and soon vBulletin 3)
by Velocd

This hack, as well all my other vB2 hacks, I no longer provide support for (being I run vB3 and it's too much hassel to debug vB2). When vB3 Release Candidate comes out, by request I might convert some of my hacks.


Background

This hack is something I've recently been driven to create. For about the past two months a substantial unproportional amount of fans to this one anime called "Inu Yasha" have been coming to my forum and registering, but all these members are fans of the kiddy version of the show that airs on Cartoon Network.

At first it was no hassel, but then I (and the other normal users/moderators) decided it was enough when there were just too many zero-posters--the countless usernames with "inu yasha" in them, and the active users who seem to all share the trait of a spammer, annoying poster, and/or rule breaker.

At first I thought of using Filburts Ban by Referrer hack, but I didn't know any Inu Yasha forums that these punks were coming from. But, I have a "how did you hear about this place" profile field, and most of them heard about it off of google.

By suggestion of one of my members in the iRC chat the other day, he said it would be best to ban them right off of google.

The main importance of this hack and why it could be needed is that if you have one of the many spidered-hacks install, you know google and other search engines will spider your forum like crazy, but it isn't always to your permission of what keywords/content is going on google, and sometimes it might be something that could attract the opposite crowd


So, let me sum what this hack does.

I found out an easy way to grab the keywords from google using HTTP_REFERER, then compared them with my own created "search engine banned word" list. So, any guest who goes to your site off of a search query that contains those words will automatically be banned.

This hack also will work with searches on yahoo, altavista, alltheweb, and lycos. Probably even more, but not tested.

Make sure you modify the variables $bsistring, $message, and $searchtype.

Credits to Filb since I referenced to his "Ban by Referrer" in certain areas of my code. ;)

Conditionals

• Only guests are affected by this, and only guests that are not registered on your forum (meaning a user who was logged out). If you want to change the usergroups affected, you must change the part of the code which reads WHERE usergroupid IN (2,5,6,7)");
• There are two comparison types. Exact (option 0) and Similar (option 1).
  
  Exact:
  If exact is enabled, then a query through google that reads "stupid forums" would return true if one of the elements in your banned word list contained "stupid forums"
  
  Though, it would return false if one of the elements instead read "stupid forums with stupid people"
  
  Similar:
  If similar is enabled, then the first example of exact would return true, but also so would the second.

Screenshots?

Just imagine a guest (though, we really shouldn't call them a guest if you are intentionally trying to ban them, so how about enemy) getting a ban message when they arrive to your forum off of google, and how clueless they will look.

Here is an example of the email you will get:

Download the hack!

Remember to click install if you use this hack, and comments/questions/suggestions are always welcomed. ;)

Very nice concept Velocd. I may just install this :)

Ooh, I like this one. (Wish I could think of a reason we would use it.)

Nice idea, but maybe a tad paranoid;):p

Satan

Doen't get the point of this.
Why would I want to ban them?

If they search for something like "Loser forums" or "Rubbish forums", and your site comes up because of some smart alec, they are not likely to be coming to your board for any other reason than to trash it...

Satan

Oh, I get it. Are there many people who trash boards?

Fantastic idea Mike :)!

- miSt

great hack, sadly, i got no reason to install it but it's still a great hack

Some people will find no use to this, others will. If you know there is a group of people visiting your forums whom you dislike, and they are mainly finding it through google, you could do some undercover work to find the keywords they are using, and then ban those words.

I wouldn't call it paranoid when what you're trying to do is stop 5 spammers a day from joining your forum whom usually range from the age 9-15. It's annoying work for the moderators having to move threads to the right location/close them all the time, as well the members who follow the rules.