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.

[antialiasis]

Please click the link in the first post or in my signature for the 3.5 version.

[demojames]

Awesome! I love this mod! My spam has gone from 3-5 a day to ZERO! NONE! NADA!

[a1whs.com]

To be frank i do not like it as it requires installation of another mod, can this be just a standalone mod not requiring installation of another 3rd party mod?

[Top Nurse]

Originally Posted by derfelix

Ok i looked a little into the multilingual support.. as I was not satisfied with the solution above. I am using the hack https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthread.php?t=98904 by JoergZ for translating customfields and i thought that i could use a few lines of code here. (actually it is a code snippet I posted in that thread to adapt his hack)

Thanks for the mini-hack

I think this may work better than my idea as I was just being lazy. Having the ability to using the vB language system to take care of the translation makes it look a lot more professional.

[antialiasis]

Originally Posted by a1whs.com

To be frank i do not like it as it requires installation of another mod, can this be just a standalone mod not requiring installation of another 3rd party mod?

Huh? You're reading something very wrong. You don't need to install anything except the core vBulletin software to use this.

[chkdgate]

Over the weekend a couple of spam emails went through so I added a couple more random questions. Should be good. MOTM for sure!

[clarkstoncracke]

Best PLUGIN EVER!

My large website went from 20-30 spammers a day to ZERO!

Thanks again!

If it continues to prevent spam, I may get to turn off new user validation! That would make my life so much better!

AND this took all of 20 seconds to install! Nice installer, great options.

[mrgrimes]

Originally Posted by antialiasis

I have figured out the Form Hack integration; see the newly-added integration.txt file.

Hi. I followed the instructions in integration.txt but on testing the form I got this error: 'Fatal error: Cannot redeclare trim_array() (previously declared in /var/www/citfou_vbulletin/global.php(356) : eval()'d code:43) in /var/www/citfou_vbulletin/includes/functions_newpost.php(360) : eval()'d code on line 13'
Any ideas?

[Eagle Creek]

Originally Posted by clarkstoncracke

Best PLUGIN EVER!

My large website went from 20-30 spammers a day to ZERO!


Thanks again!

If it continues to prevent spam, I may get to turn off new user validation! That would make my life so much better!


AND this took all of 20 seconds to install! Nice installer, great options.

Sweet huh! :up:

[derfelix]

Originally Posted by Top Nurse

Thanks for the mini-hack

I think this may work better than my idea as I was just being lazy. Having the ability to using the vB language system to take care of the translation makes it look a lot more professional.

well in your case it was ok.. but i installed russian, english and simple chinese so the users wouldn't understand the questions in the different languages and be afraid to answer..

still didn't test it on a live system though

Felix