[websissy]

Tommyc, is there any possibility your site is running both this tool and either the ISBOT or the Stop the Registration Bots tools?

When I first installed vBSFS and ISBOT, I was seeing the same symptoms you describe on my site. The vBSFS log showed "registration allowed" but the user never showed up as a completed registration. After carefully checking a few of those users, I realized most of the ones that made it past vBSFS were being blocked by ISBOT because the user registered too fast. I was able to prove this because ISBOT always sent me a "Bot Registration was blocked" explanatory email when it blocked a registration and in each case where a "registration allowed" message was in the vBSFS log but the user never appeared in the vb_user table, I got an email from ISBOT explaining why the user was blocked. Furthermore when I looked at those "registration allowed" users based on the info vBSFS had recorded (username, email and IP address), there was always something about the user that would have caused me to block or remove them manually anyway.

For example, the same username, had been used in previous registrations that were blocked by vBSFS because either the email or IP was already in the vBSFS database even though the username was NOT. However, THIS TIME the bot managed to pick a combo of username, email and IP vBSFS didn't yet have on file and had thus managed to sneak past the vBSFS database tests. Yet after maneuvering past vBSFS the registration was blocked by ISBOT for the reason I mentioned earlier.

After a few days of that, I uninstalled ISBOT and installed "Stop The Registration Bots" instead. I did so because that tool has even more tricks in its bot-blocking reportoire (like hidden/required form fields with names that can easily be changed) that are designed to improve the tool's ability to thwart registration bots.

One thing I did notice, after changing from ISBOT to "Stop The Registration Bots" was I stopped getting the "Bot Registration was blocked" emails that were always sent by ISBOT. I haven't figured out why those emails are not being sent by "Stop The Registration Bots". It may be a bug in the addon that causes this, or the email may be getting blocked by my spam filters or maybe there's an email address issue. All I know is I'm not getting those emails the way I did with ISBOT. Yet, in every case where I've seen a "registration allowed" message in the vBSFS log but the user never appeared in the vb_user table; if I examine the vBSFS log's info carefully, I find either the username, email address (gawab.com or mail.ru, etc.) or IP address tells me the registrant is a bot I'd have manually deleted anyway. In short, though I didn't get the expected email I'm convinced "Stop The Registration Bots" based on the rules it uses.

If my hunch is right, the same thing may be happening to you. When vBSFS fails to detect the registrant as a bot and lets it pass, "Stop The Registration Bots" blocks it based on its design criteria.

That would explain why so many are seeing "Registration allowed" entries in the vBSFS log but can't find the users in vb_users.

Are you running "VBStopForumSpam" and "Stop The Registration Bots" too?

Thanks.