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.

[Expat]

They've defeated NoSpam! and now, unfortunately, it's worthless in its present form. Captcha works fine and is effetive, but you must have true type fonts enabled.

[Ev!L ErN!E]

Originally Posted by Expat

They've defeated NoSpam! and now, unfortunately, it's worthless in its present form. Captcha works fine and is effetive, but you must have true type fonts enabled.

thats not true... I have true type fonts enabled, and I have still been getting tons of bots registering our forum. They have gotten around NoSpam! and Captcha....

[SVTCobraLTD]

Installed on 3.6.11 and working

[ramyatest]

I have installed it and there is no questions are displaying in the registration page however i have posted the questions through admin panel...
I have installed in 3.7 and 3.8.1.
what should i do? Can anyone help me?

[arabsounds]

Originally Posted by ramyatest

I have installed it and there is no questions are displaying in the registration page however i have posted the questions through admin panel...
I have installed in 3.7 and 3.8.1.
what should i do? Can anyone help me?

same here!

[USAMustangs.com]

I get several spammers per day and this feature does nothing to slow them down. Any suggestions on a really good question and answer?

I've used simple math questions. e.g. What is 5+7?:12 or Please type "Boss302" into the following field.:Boss302

This is not working. Any suggestions? Also, most of my spammers register with the birthday of January 1, 1980

[snipeyhead]

Hey USA - I wrote an article on managing registration spam in vbulletin that you might find interesting, including some benchmarking:
http://www.snipe.net/2008/08/managin...-in-vbulletin/

[keress]

I really need a mod like this. Even with the Captcha I get an obnoxious among of spam and I was really hoping this would do the trick, but I've upgraded to 3.8, had a template written for it, and this doesn't appear to work with it. I installed it, did the set up, but it doesn't appear anywhere.

Thanks!

[Digital Jedi]

Originally Posted by USAMustangs.com

I get several spammers per day and this feature does nothing to slow them down. Any suggestions on a really good question and answer?

I've used simple math questions. e.g. What is 5+7?:12 or Please type "Boss302" into the following field.:Boss302

This is not working. Any suggestions? Also, most of my spammers register with the birthday of January 1, 1980

That's probably part of your problem. Math questions, or putting you answer into the question itself are easily bypassed by bots. You're giving the bot the answer. Questions need to be simple questions that a bot can't guess. Like "What color is the sky?" or (since you can use HTML in the questions) "What color is this picture?" Don't put the answer anywhere in your question or in your HTML and don't use math questions. Just use simple, first grade questions that don't have a lot of variable answers.

[beishe8]

Originally Posted by USAMustangs.com

I get several spammers per day and this feature does nothing to slow them down. Any suggestions on a really good question and answer?

Please complete the word in the sentence > The Capital City of the United Kingdom is Lo????
Answer:ndon
Please complete the word in the sentence > Australian native animal:kang????
Answer:aroo