Miscellaneous Hacks - NoSpam! for vBulletin 3.7

NoSpam! is back and better than ever! The automatic template edits should be smoother than they were in the previous version, in addition to the 3.7 support. Please note that this version will ONLY work for vBulletin 3.7!

NoSpam! is a simple hack that allows the administrator to specify a number of easy questions, a random one of which must be answered correctly in order for a guest to be able to register, post, search or use the contact form. Because you create the questions and they are unique for each forum, it is impossible for a bot programmer to preprogram a bot to be able to answer them without adjusting the bot specifically to one, and thus you will be rid of all spam posted by CAPTCHA-evading advertisement programs.

This functionality was added by default in vBulletin 3.7's Q&A human verification system, so why use NoSpam! for 3.7 at all? There are a few reasons why one could prefer it:

- I have heard reports that vBulletin's default Q&A human verification is faulty and lets bots through. Truth to be told, I would not have publically released a 3.7 version if not for this. I don't quite see how this could happen and have not experienced it myself seeing as I don't use vBulletin's human verification, but if those reports are to be trusted, NoSpam! will do a better job of keeping the bots out.
- It is much easier to add questions and answers in NoSpam! en massé than in vBulletin's default system. If you want a great number of questions, vBulletin's built-in system takes terribly long to add them all in with quite a lot of page loads in between, while a fast typer can add several dozen questions to NoSpam! in a matter of minutes.
- If you have previously used NoSpam!, a simple copy-paste will get all your previous questions into NoSpam! for 3.7, while to get them into the built-in vBulletin system requires a converter.

If the reports of vBulletin's default human verification system failing are incorrect, I will freely admit that most people will do fine with the built-in system. But if you prefer this hack, by all means use it.

NoSpam! can be used with or without default vBulletin human verification. In this version, the automatic addition of the question into the templates should be flawless and not induce the often-reported problem where the question didn't appear in the previous version of the hack.

VERSION HISTORY:

4.0: Redid the automatic addition of questions to be smoother and more or less foolproof. Released for vBulletin 3.7.
3.0: Added functionality to allow users to specify which pages should use NoSpam!.
2.0: Extended the NoSpam! functionality to guest posts, guest searches and guest "Contact Us" in addition to registration.
1.1: Made template edit automatic (with thanks to Cole2026), added ability to have more than one answer to each question, and made answers case insensitive. To upgrade, I recommend undoing the template edit so you won't have to worry about it anymore (replace $nospamfield in the template register with $imagereg, or if you added $nospamfield above $imagereg, just remove $nospamfield altogether), and then reimport the product through the Admin CP (making sure that Allow Overwrite is set to On).
1.0: Initial release.

INSTALLATION:

1. Import product-nospam.xml through the Admin CP product manager.
2. Go to your vBulletin options in the Admin CP and select NoSpam! Settings. Once there, turn the system on and input your questions and answers according to the instructions there.

The system should now be functional and running.

UNINSTALLATION:

Just uninstall the product through the Admin CP.

SUPPORT:

Full support will be given in this thread. All suggestions are welcome.

Thank you and please click "Mark as Installed" if you like it.

[Digital Jedi]

Originally Posted by thesujit

Ooo .. its a bad thing for me Can you please let me know what I can follow then to solve this big issue which is happening for my forum now .

I am fully pissed off now..

I don't understand what your problem is.

[denman75]

its working great
using both captha and nospam
tnx

[rotor]

Installed and Voted mod of the month

I've got 3.7.4 installed and was getting a couple of spammers/bots registering every day .....

After installing this none ... now when I look at "Visitors to the Site" (Guest Tracking mod) I see a whole lot of visitors from the one IP that doesn't look like a bot or spider to me - just showing as a visitor but with multiple IP's around 94.102.60.162 ... any one know how to discern a visitor from a bot etc from the IP??


rotor

[The4um]

thank you, whe I updated my forum from 3.6 to 3.7 doesn't work anymore this hack in his previously version

[rotor]

Originally Posted by rotor

Installed and Voted mod of the month

I've got 3.7.4 installed and was getting a couple of spammers/bots registering every day .....

After installing this none ... now when I look at "Visitors to the Site" (Guest Tracking mod) I see a whole lot of visitors from the one IP that doesn't look like a bot or spider to me - just showing as a visitor but with multiple IP's around 94.102.60.162 ... any one know how to discern a visitor from a bot etc from the IP??


rotor

On one of my sites I'm getting lots of: Called with DO = 'editprofile' AND Called with DO = 'editpassword' all from the same IP range? Anyone have any idea what's going on ......

[GlamRockTalk]

This mod ROCKS!

Thanks antialiasis

[saxahan]

Thank you very much.

[onehost]

Originally Posted by Digital Jedi

NoSpam! is for the purposes of registration, not for posting within the forum.

maybe each forum should have its own NoSpam q/a for bots. I think this would eliminate 99.9% of bots altogether...even if the bot got in, with the multiple of q/a on each forum, I doubt the bot would get very far, it would just take a second for a human to pass, but a bot, and the q/a could be changed at anytime.....

[Digital Jedi]

Originally Posted by onehost

maybe each forum should have its own NoSpam q/a for bots. I think this would eliminate 99.9% of bots altogether...even if the bot got in, with the multiple of q/a on each forum, I doubt the bot would get very far, it would just take a second for a human to pass, but a bot, and the q/a could be changed at anytime.....

At some point, your going to pass an acceptable level of effort having to be taken by users who are not bots, just to deter those that are. I don't think I'd be alone in saying that making a set of security questions per forum would be taking security a little too far. Kind of like putting a coded key pad on every door of your house. Would it make it harder for thieves to get get to your valuables? Sure. But would you want to live in a house where you had to key a code every time you went from one room to the other?

[Bonemaro]

Installed. Thanks!