Miscellaneous Hacks - NoSpam! - an alternative to CAPTCHA images

This hack is for vBulletin 3.6.x. For 3.5.x, please use the one provided in this thread. If you are using 3.7.x, you must use the one in this thread.

This simple hack is meant as a replacement for the default CAPTCHA system in vBulletin. There are two main reasons one might want to do this: firstly, new technology is constantly being developed to crack CAPTCHA images and make spam accounts anyway, and secondly, the more secure the CAPTCHA, the more difficult it is for genuine users to tell what the numbers in the image are. There is also the issue of visually impaired users, and the fact that not all servers are capable of generating CAPTCHA images.

So what does this hack do instead? It asks a question. Any question you want. That's the best part: YOU make up the questions, which means that every forum is unique, which means that it is impossible for spambots to be simply programmed to bypass it at all forums with the hack installed. You can make one or many questions - if you make many, the hack will pick one at random when a guest attempts to register, search, post or send mail through the Contact Us form. Their input is compared with your specified answer, and voil?, if they get it right they're pretty much guaranteed to be human. If they get it wrong, they're given an error message.

It doesn't have to be a complicated question. Heck, you can just make it "Please type 'blah' into this box." Or you can go with inserting a simple image with HTML and ask what is shown on the image. Or you can ask them to tell you two plus two. It's up to you. In fact, this can also be used as a means of forcing people to read the rules by asking for a certain password found there, or if your forum focuses on a specialized subject, ask a question concerning the subject that all your genuine users will be able to answer, but a random troll or "CAPTCHA-sweatshop-reader" will be scratching their head over.

It's simple to install, too: just one product to import, and that's it.


VERSION HISTORY:

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:

Please download NoSpam!.zip, not product-nospam.xml, for the tested version. product.nospam.xml is NoSpam! 4.0 adapted blindly to 3.6, i.e. by editing the XML file for the 3.7 version without actually testing it on a 3.6 board. Theoretically it should work, but I cannot guarantee it at this time. If you download NoSpam!.zip and unzip it, it will contain another file called product.nospam.xml, which you should use.

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 here in this thread. All suggestions are welcome.

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


If NoSpam! is not working for you or you are looking for something a little different, you might want to check out Advanced Textual Confirmation.

[gobbly2100]

Oh WoW! This is amazing, I have not received even one little bit of spam on my fairly busy forum, great work! :up:

[Stifmeister2]

Originally Posted by ajenterp

Hi Guys...

Where do I put the file to import? I have it sitting on my desktop right now... do I have to place it in a certain folder before I import it through the Admin CP?

No you can just import it from your own desktop.

[axi]

Very very good hack, installed!

love the question scheme...

What colour is a pig?:Pink:black
What does water taste like:nothing
Are you a bot?:no

[antiekeradio]

make up your own questions...

if everyone starts copying questions from each other they get easier to guess.

[derfelix]

Originally Posted by antiekeradio

make up your own questions...

if everyone starts copying questions from each other they get easier to guess.

LOL
I thought the point was a bot cannot guess questions!!!

Lets make a competition... set up a testboard.. with really difficult questions.. the first one to be able to login wins

But more seriously...
I thought of another additional way to confuse bots...

I assume bots do not read css..
So this is what i plan:

somewhere on the page.. i add a captcha image and an input field..
all packed in a div.. with style: visibility:hidden
if anybody writes anything in this field .. he is automatically banned..

to register the "NoSpam" field is the only required..

is that a good or a bad idea?

Felix

[Cedric_FP]

Great hack. Installed. I've been having a huge problem with spammers recently.

[gopherhockey]

I apologize as I am sure this has already been asked and answered, but I couldn't find it...

Does this hack remove the emails that we would get as a spammer is attempting to register?

We get the new user emails regardless of whether the new user has completed the email verification. This means the spammers aren't getting in, but we do get spammed by their registrations.

We have a few custom fields that we have people fill out - they seem to be filled out in the same pattern by these spammers, so I can only assume this is a bot. (like the question Biography: always has the answer "Man")

I want to have something that will stop even the emails from attempted registrations.

[Jill]

I installed the No Spam program 3 days ago and since installing it "which was very very easy" I am delighted to say that I have had not 1 spammer. Before installing it I was losing control. No matter what I did I was getting 8-10 spam post per day.

Thank you! Thank you! Thank You!

Jill

[Rumplestiltskin]

I've had this installed for a wee while now, and the last 4 days or so have started getting spammers signing up again. Any ideas?

[DementedMindz]

yeah same here so I just blocked proxies from my site with a mod on here. think they found a way around it pretty fast