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.

[King Justice]

Thank you! This is an awesome plugin - please keep up the great work!

[Basscat]

Originally Posted by KipLarson

Well, I actually posted a link to this on vbulletin.com about how I thought they should use something like this... of course I didn't say I came up with it... but I don't think they like being told that someone that doesn't work on the vBulletin team has come up with something that works better than anything they've come up with.

The stuff they recommend would require an admin to sit at his/her computer constantly to approve new members or not.

The image verification(CAPTCHA) is so difficult, even I struggle on it, and I have 20/20 vision. Based on the amount of posts on all of the forums reguarding spam, you would think they would add something like this to the software.

SPAM BOTS do not think. They process data! Thats what makes this mod so GREAT! There is NO data to process! It takes a human to answer the question.

I nominate this hack for MOTM!

[antialiasis]

To be honest, I understand the vBulletin developers in not wanting this an official feature. This is the kind of thing that works great as a modification, but not as an official feature - when you download forum software, you don't expect to be required to make up stupid questions in order to turn an important feature on, and since it is absolutely essential for NoSpam! to do its job correctly that it has no default questions and is entirely up to the user, this is an unsolvable problem.

Requiring creativity of the user just has an air of unprofessionalism to it, and although I personally am the type that really would do that sort of thing, I can perfectly understand that the vBulletin developers would not be too fond of the idea.

[Shanoon]

This is a godsend! Thanks so much I've installed it of course

[dzigns]

Triple A stuff, i love it and have installed it.

[imported_gc1]

Fantastic Mod (clicks install)

[imported_gc1]

Originally Posted by phill2003

Hi,


Could someone post directions to include this in the quickregister hack please.

This is a very good addition.

Anybody tried this yet? This is would be excellent

[antialiasis]

There is a solution for this in the 3.5 thread, which at a glance I can't see why wouldn't work just fine for 3.6 too (assuming the quickregister template is about the same). Ask if there's a problem, though.

[UphillRacers]

Very impressive.
Clean and functional.

Well done

[Caiman]

Ingenious Gone from being inundated with spammers, to having none- using simple maths that any human will be fine completing. Thank you, I'll be recommending this to everyone.