Anti-Spam Options - [GlowHost] Spam-O-Matic - Spam Firewall stops forum spam

If you install this mod, please mark this as "Installed."

VERSION 2.1.2 RELEASED 5/28/2013!


About Spam-O-Matic 2.x:
Spam-O-Matic 2.x (SOM) is a spam firewall for your vBulletin Forums version 4.x and later. It prevents known spammers from registering on your forums. If they can't register, they can't spam!

Languages Packs Available
English
German - Courtesy of Alex@bulletin (included in zip)
Romanian - Courtesy of Teascu Dorin's (included in zip)
Spanish - Courtesy of vbluis (included in zip)

How it Works
This data responsible for blocking user registrations comes from the stopforumspam.com (SFS) spammer database. After the user who is trying to register passes the built-in vBulletin registration checks which you have configured in your vBulletin settings, SOM then checks the SFS database to see if the IP, username, or email address that the user is trying to register with has been recently tagged as a known spam source on other forums around the Internet. Also can be configured to check the Akismet service for known comment spam.

This is without a doubt, one of the most important mods that you will be using on your forum.

Other Notable Stuff
It also does a ton of other cool stuff like moderating posts automatically if the post is found in the Akismet database, or if it contains words on your "Bad Words" keyword list which can be configured within the mod itself.

The mod WORKS with vBulletin's new Facebook integration.
This module works with all of the Facebook functions that are built into the vB4 series.
Similar mods do not handle Facebook integration completely.

This module has the ability to submit new spammer details to the StopForumSpam or Akismet databases automatically, all without any new templates or manual template modifications! :up:

This means other forums that are running Spam-O-Matic will not have the same spammer on their forums if you have (automatically) reported the spammer to the SFS database.

Just install the product in the product manager, upload a few files, configure the system and you are done. (Estimated time: 5-10 minutes)

What's new in 2.1.0:

• Fixed a problem with MySQL engine selection to make mod more compatible with different types of servers.
• When SOM "Newbies Group" is activated + vB's native option to "Verify Email address in Registration" is activated at the same time, "Users Awaiting Email Confirmation" must click the verification link to become a newbie.
• Added remove user, post, ban to user profile options in admincp under "Quick User Links"
• Added German Language Pack
• Optimized default settings to work with the needs of most forums
• Added a new coupon for GlowHost (available after you submit a spammer)
• Several other performance tuning options

Feature List:

• Optional Public Statistics. Show off to the world how many bad guys you have automatically prevented from posting junk on your forum.
• Auto-Moderation moderates posts that have links, bad words, and other configurable settings.
• Auto-Moderation ignores your RSS posts.
• Registration / Denial Logs available from Admincp > Statistics and Logs
• Optional "Newbies" Manager! After registration, newly registered users can be placed in a "Newbies" group which has more limited permissions as compared to your regular "Registered Users" group. Newbies will graduate to your Registered Users group based on your required post count settings.
• Auto-Submit Spammers from the moderation tools menu on each postbit.
• Remove Posts, threads, PMs, Calendar Events from your spammer in one easy wizard. No double logins needed.
• Shows other users who signed up with the same IP. (Sleeping Spammers)
• Optional Affiliate System
• ~50 customizable settings to fine-tune Spam-O-Matic to your exact needs.

A) StopForumSpam:
The StopForumSpam Module lets you:

• Check a registrant's IP address.
• Check a registrant's email address.
• Check a registrants Username.
• Disable or enable any of the above checks.
• Block and log, or, allow and log known spammers.
• All registration attempts are logged for your viewing pleasure.
• Several other performance tuning options

If a user (or bot) tries to register on your forum and they pass the built-in vBulletin registration system. (Human verification, email verification, etc), their registration details are then passed to the Spam-O-Matic firewall for further checking.

NOTE: You should use some sort of human verification checking in vBulletin's built-in options to limit the number of requests to the already heavily-loaded StopForumSpam database servers. This will also prevent additional load because SOM will not have to do anything if the bot/spammer fails preliminary registration validation which is built-into vBulletin itself.

It is completely invisible to humans who are registering that this process is taking place. Bots are stopped dead in their tracks.

If a spammer is able to sneak past the first line of defense, and manages to post, then there are secondary, tertiary, and, uh...4th level protections too!

B) Auto-Moderation:
Auto Moderation lets you:

• Define how many URLs a new member can post before being sent to moderation.
• Define keywords that will send a post to Auto-moderation (viagra, porn, more here)
• Define minimum post count to avoid Auto-moderation.
• Excludes admin and moderators from Auto-moderation.
• Completely disable Auto-moderation if you don't want it.

C) Akismet Service
Spammers that make it past the StopForumSpam and Auto-Moderation will be checked against the Akismet service. If they manage to make a post, and then are found on Akismet, they can be auto-moderated.

The Akismet settings let you:

• Set the number of posts that Akismet will check from each user. After this number is exceeded, Akismet checking will be disabled for that user.
• Auto-Submit spammers that post on your boards back to the Akismet service so that other forums and blogs do not do not receive the same spam.
• Completely disable the Akismet service.

D) Newbies Manager
Should you decide to enable this option, you can create a new usergroup and then tell Spam-O-Matic about it. Once SOM knows about this usergroup, and once enabled, all new users will be part of the Newbies group. The idea here is that you make a Newbies group that has limited forum permissions. For example, no signatures, no BB code, no images, and etc. This group is created completely in the vB admincp. Spam-O-Matic simply makes it the graduation process to the normal Registered Users group, automatic.
Learn More and Discuss the Newbies Manager here.

Punitive Actions:
If you find a spammer has made it past your 4 front-lines of defense, and has managed to post on your forum, then you can help the community...

The spammer's details can be sent to the Stop Forum Spam and Akismet databases automatically, preventing them from registering or posting on other forums. When other forums do the same, the protection is reciprocated.

Simply moderate a post and choose the option to "Delete Posts As Spam..." an then choose the option to "Ban User." Banning the user sends their details to either Akismet, StopForumSpam, (or both) depending on how you set it up.

API Keys:
API Keys are not required for this system to stop spammers on your forums. But you should obtain them so that your forum can contribute to the real-time block lists.

A StopForumSpam API key is required if you want to contribute to the StopForumSpam blacklists by adding your spammers to their database. By submitting spammers you help keep other forums and blogs clean.

An Akismet API key is required if you want to enable any Akismet auto-moderation features in this module. Akismet API key is not required for all Auto-Moderation functions.

You can obtain a Stop Forum Spam API key which is free from stopforumspam.com.

Get your StopForumSpam API Key Here

You can obtain an Akismet API key from Akismet.com.
Akismet offers free and paid API keys so choose your version based on your situation.

Get your Akismet API Key Here

Why it is better than the other anti-spam solutions on vBulletin.org:

• Works with all of vBulletin 4 functions including Facebook automatic registration.
• Report spammers that you find to the Stop Forum Spam Database.
• Report spammers that you find to the Akismet Database.
• Built-in Auto-moderation.
• Auto-moderation rules based on post count.
• Auto-moderation rules based keywords.
• Auto-moderation rules based Akismet results.
• Enable or disable any actions that you do not want.
• Customizable "Registration Rejected" message.
• Consolidates 4 popular methods of spam prevention into one product.
• No Manual Template Modifications!
• Lots of community support!

======================
Compatibility:
vBulletin 4.0.x

Server Requirements:
Curl or allow_url_fopen must be compiled/enabled into PHP. Ask your web host to enable curl or allow_url_fopen if it is not already available on your server's PHP configuration. (Or just host with GlowHost.com, where it already is

=====================
Donations:

If you like this mod, sure, you can donate!

Donations can be all sorts of things:
1) The "Give Thanks" option in your settings is an optional link back to GlowHost Web Hosting.
2) Tell your friends and others about this mod.
3) If you are in need of web hosting, please consider ordering it from the hosting and development professionals at GlowHost.com who were able to develop this mod to you.
4) Help others who are having trouble with this mod by posting tips and suggestions in this forum thread.
5) Cash! Use the "Support Developer" option on the top right of this page.

When you choose to donate, you are contributing to the product development, bug fixes and new releases for SOM and are helping to feed our hungry developers and their families! In other words, your donations helps to cover the time and money spent to develop this system.

The entire team at GlowHost thanks you for your help and support!

We hope you enjoy the mod! :up:

=====================
Installation:

1) Download the attached file
2) Mark As Installed
3) SOM 2.x does not support updates from the v1.x series.
When upgrading to version 2.x, please, be sure to remove any other existing version of SOM 1.x from the product manager before installing v2.x series. Also make sure to remove /forum/includes/xml/bitfield_glowhostspamomatic.xml from version 1 if you had it installed.

4) Extract the zip file, and view the readme file for the rest of the instructions.

=====================

Original concept credits go to the authors of vBStopForumSpam, MonkeyStop.

[GlowHost.com]

Originally Posted by VIPER-MAN

This is working somewhat but I am encountering the same problem others have mentioned .... it conflicts with the automatic RSS poster ... I have an ADMIN account (News) that automatically posts based on various RSS feeds ... SpamOMatic puts these threads in Moderation mode no matter what I try. The NEWS user has over 3,000 posts and my settings have the cut off at 6 posts so it should not be moderating this user.

My settings:
---------
vBulletin Spam Scanning: Disabled
Akismet: Disabled
Auto-Moderation: Enabled
Min Post Count: 6
Url Count: 0

It should be ignoring the NEWS user and it doesn't -- throws every RSS post in moderation. I've tried all variations with no luck ... any ideas? I don't want to uninstall as it really has curbed the spam registrants!!!

Thanks for the useful information.

Consider turning off auto-moderation for the time being and enjoy the reduced spammers on the board from the other features. I will look into why RSS is being ignored in the meantime.

[Iguana Goddess]

Originally Posted by GlowHost.com

Iguana Goddess, I have attached a version 1.2.7 here for you to see if it fixes your issue. If it doesn't, this feature may not work for you due to the older version of vB that you are running. Still wondering if your Moderation Tools option to Delete Posts As Spam is working for you.

If the attached gets rid of those errors and works, please let me know and I will make it an official release for the 3.x series of vB.

(fingers crossed)

No didn't work the errors are still there, thanks for trying though. I will just go back to an earlier version and manually submit which is good enough for me. It catches all the submitted spammers which makes myself and my staff members happy.

[sas forum]

Quick question for this mod.

I know we can go in an see the log of spammers that were denied registration because something came back in akismet or stopforumspam. I have tried to help keep SFS up to date by manually submitting data from those logs, but I am giving up on that as it takes way too long.

Is there any way to add an option where all registrations that are denied automatically get submitted to SFS? The mod already has our API key, and submitting the spammer data automatically would make sure that the SFS database is updated to show that the email, ip, username, is being used right now and with whatever frequency.

In stopforumspam, we have the ability to go in and delete spammers that we submitted if we find out it was a false positive, so automatically submitting the spam data when registration is denied seems like it would be a great addition.

Just a thought, this is a great mod, my favorite and most used for sure. This mod is actually so useful, that I would have paid money to get my hands on it.

Thanks for everything.

[djbaxter]

Originally Posted by sas forum

I know we can go in an see the log of spammers that were denied registration because something came back in akismet or stopforumspam. I have tried to help keep SFS up to date by manually submitting data from those logs, but I am giving up on that as it takes way too long.

Is there any way to add an option where all registrations that are denied automatically get submitted to SFS? The mod already has our API key, and submitting the spammer data automatically would make sure that the SFS database is updated to show that the email, ip, username, is being used right now and with whatever frequency.

You've been wasting your time. If the spammer is already in the rejected logs, then SFS already has them. You've been submitting duplicate information.

[BadgerDog]

Installed 1.27 yesterday ...

Submitted a test case (not in their database) by manual submission to StopForumSpam site at that time ....

As of today, it still hasn't appeared ... Wouldn't it be a good idea to have feedback to the manual submitter in the log or on the screen that this action has been accepted by their site etc.?

Second observation ...

Just had my first legitimate spam poster since 1.27 installed. They made one post which appeared as moderated, so I assume your Akismet check got them as I don't have the moderate posts enabled in your in 1.27? Anyway, I selected "delete as spam" and chose to ban the user as well as delete all their posts. When I submitted it, the screen cleared and some strange black (maybe dark gray) screen flashed by, one that has a lot of text on it, however the text was dark against the dark background, so I really couldn't read it except it was an entire screen full of data (looked like a forum display maybe?).

The screen returned to a readable format and I went to check the StopForumSpam site. The name of the user I banned was immediately there as the last name in my spammers listing, so, at least this test seemed to work, but the manual one hasn't so far ..

Hope this helps ...

Regards,
Badger

[cagbaazee]

Hi.. I have install it but cannot find where is it in my forum. Can u tell me where it is locate. Thanks

[GlowHost.com]

Originally Posted by BadgerDog

Installed 1.27 yesterday ...

Submitted a test case (not in their database) by manual submission to StopForumSpam site at that time ....

As of today, it still hasn't appeared ... Wouldn't it be a good idea to have feedback to the manual submitter in the log or on the screen that this action has been accepted by their site etc.?

Second observation ...

Just had my first legitimate spam poster since 1.27 installed. They made one post which appeared as moderated, so I assume your Akismet check got them as I don't have the moderate posts enabled in your in 1.27? Anyway, I selected "delete as spam" and chose to ban the user as well as delete all their posts. When I submitted it, the screen cleared and some strange black (maybe dark gray) screen flashed by, one that has a lot of text on it, however the text was dark against the dark background, so I really couldn't read it except it was an entire screen full of data (looked like a forum display maybe?).

The screen returned to a readable format and I went to check the StopForumSpam site. The name of the user I banned was immediately there as the last name in my spammers listing, so, at least this test seemed to work, but the manual one hasn't so far ..

Hope this helps ...

Regards,
Badger

I suggest using delete posts as spam until version 2 comes out which is a lot slicker than this version.

As for the logs and indication of submission success, it is also in version 2.

[sas forum]

Originally Posted by djbaxter

You've been wasting your time. If the spammer is already in the rejected logs, then SFS already has them. You've been submitting duplicate information.

I checked with SFS. If they are in there today, and I do not report them, then maybe tomorrow they will have been in there 11 days total (since last reported), with nobody reporting them because they are already in there.

If someone has their spam-o-matic to only go back 10 in the SFS DB, then this spammer would not have given a hit if the last submission was 11 days back (not within the 10 day window). If I had submitted them "yesterday", then they would have got a hit and I could have helped keep one spammer off someone elses site.

Not sure if that make sense, but eventually, if the spammers stop getting reported, based on how far you set the spam-o-matic to go back in the SFS DB, if they are never reported after the ifrst reporting, eventually they will not get a hit for someone. It is actually in everyone's best interest to report them even if they are already in there. This keeps their list up to date so they are still shown as "active".

Hope that made sense above.

[sas forum]

Originally Posted by cagbaazee

Hi.. I have install it but cannot find where is it in my forum. Can u tell me where it is locate. Thanks

Go to AdminCP / Settings / Options / then scroll through the list and look for Glowhost - Spam-o-matic.

You can also see the logs at AdminCP / Statistics and Logs / Glowhost-Spam-o-matic logs

[GlowHost.com]

Originally Posted by VIPER-MAN

This is working somewhat but I am encountering the same problem others have mentioned .... it conflicts with the automatic RSS poster ... I have an ADMIN account (News) that automatically posts based on various RSS feeds ... SpamOMatic puts these threads in Moderation mode no matter what I try. The NEWS user has over 3,000 posts and my settings have the cut off at 6 posts so it should not be moderating this user.

My settings:
---------
vBulletin Spam Scanning: Disabled
Akismet: Disabled
Auto-Moderation: Enabled
Min Post Count: 6
Url Count: 0

It should be ignoring the NEWS user and it doesn't -- throws every RSS post in moderation. I've tried all variations with no luck ... any ideas? I don't want to uninstall as it really has curbed the spam registrants!!!

By the way, if someone wants to show me this in action I might be able to find a fix for it faster if it is really an issue with Spam-O-Matic. I cannot duplicate it so if someone wants to let me login to their admincp to see the problem it might lead to an answer sooner. I need to be able to duplicate it in order to fix it.

Is there any way to add an option where all registrations that are denied automatically get submitted to SFS?

As another member mentioned there isn't much point to that, though your followup post makes sense in relation to keeping them active on the SFS list.

However the AIM is to report people who have actually posted spam on your boards, not to report the ones that tried to register using information already found in the SFS DB. That could lead to more false positives then needed especially in regards to IP addresses.

Originally Posted by sas forum

...this is a great mod, my favorite and most used for sure. This mod is actually so useful, that I would have paid money to get my hands on it.

Thanks for everything.

You are welcome You can still pay money if you like A nomination for MOTM would be good, we are starting to trail in the rankings!