[Syxguns]

A few more items to remember to do for your forums using GlowHost S-O-M.

Some of these are decisions based on each individual Admin, but these are the basics that I follow.

Remember: Bold is the title in S-O-M, also I'm not going in order for a reason that will be listed last.

Q: StopForumSpam: Query Connection Errors
A: Allow Registration

Why you may ask. If for some reason the StopForumSpam site is down, I do not want to block the registration of the user. As I will explain in just a little bit, they will be placed in auto-moderation anyway.

Q: Auto-Moderation: Enable
A: Yes
This is where your list of Bad Words, and New Member Group come in to play. It will be explained.

Q: Auto-Moderation: Post Action
A: Moderate Post
With this utility you have the option to ban the user, and remove the post before anyone other than Mods, and Admin can see it. It is located in the Moderation Tools under the Post called of course Spam-O-Matic!

Q: Auto-Moderation: Apply Auto-Moderation To Newbies only?
A: Yes
As stated earlier this will be explained and you MUST follow through for it to be effective.

Q: Auto-Moderation: Minimum Post Count
A: This depends on the Admin. I personally think that withing the first 3 posts that I will know if the member is a spammer or not. I set mine to 3, and for good reason that you will see here shortly.

Q: Auto-Moderation: Bad Words
A: Listed in my post above, just copy and paste

Q: Auto-Moderation: URL Count
A: You may set this to any number you desire. Remember that this only applies to your new user group that we have not mentioned yet. You may not want them to post any URL's so you may set it to 0.

Q: Easy Cleanup: Banned UserGroup ID
A: By default the Banned User ID in vB is 8.
I mention this only because a user created a new banned user group for this mod which is not necessary. Just use the default Banned User ID. If you want to double check you may select AdminCP > Usergroups > Manage Usergroups and you will see the ID next to Banned Users.

The rest of the questions are pretty much self explanatory, however, if you have a question feel free to ask. Now we are going to talk about creating a new usergroup. Instead of giving you a URL, I will just post the information here.

Q: Newbies Manager: Put New User Into Newbies Group?
A: Yes

Note: as you create a new usergroup remember that the next question is:
Q: Newbies Manager: Newbies Group ID
A: Only the creator of the group will know the ID.

Originally Posted by GlowHost

The Newbies Manager in GlowHost's Spam-O-Matic Spam Firewall for vBulletin forums is built into Spam-O-Matic so that new users who register on your forum are automatically placed into a usergroup that has less permissions than your regular "Registered Users" group.

You will need to create this usergroup on your own, and then supply Spam-O-Matc with the numerical ID of this usergroup so that Spam-O-Matic knows what group to put new users into.

Once these users have proven their trustworthiness on your forums, Spam-O-Matic can automatically promote them to the "Registered Users" group or any other group of your choice based on simple post-count rules. If you want a more advanced promotion system, you can use the one built into vBulletin and disable the simple promotion system built into Spam-O-Matic.

You are free to disable automatic promotions from Spam-O-Matic and vBulletin completely, and then move the users manually if you like.

CAUTION: When you make your "Newbies" Group, make sure to do the following:

A) Go to your vBulletin Admincp > Forums and Moderators > Forum Permissions and make sure to give your Newbies a lower set of permissions that your Registered Users. (For example, turn off signatures and image uploads)

B) Go to vBulletin Admincp > > Usergroups > Usergoup Manager and permission the usegroup with a lower set of permissions than your Registered Users.

If you fail to perform the above steps it is possible that you have allowed your Newbies to view your private forums or other privileged areas.

It is strongly suggested that you permission your Newbies group before enabling Newbies Manager in Spam-O-Matic.

If you have questions regarding the functionality of the Newbies Manager, please post in this thread.

After creating the usergroup take note of the ID and place it in S-O-M as stated above.

Feel free to ask question if you have any. Also remember that these are the types of settings that I use. Each person is going to have different perspectives. Only use this as a guide when getting your feet wet for the first time.