Anti-Spam Options - Spambot Stopper - Prevent Spambots from Registering

What is it?
----------------------------
This mod rejects registrations where the form is filled out in less than a minimum time. You can configure one of the following actions to be taken when an automated registration is detected:

- Show a "No Permissions" page
- Display the "Successful Registration" message but without creating an account
- Redirect the user to any URL you choose
- Reload the registration page with an error message of your choosing

You can also provide a list of email addresses to be notified each time a registration is blocked.

Added for version 1.1.1: Time delay enforcer, maximum time option, time limits to cut down on email notifications, posting to a thread.

In the future, I'd like to add some simple logging and statistics, and a summary type of email notification (because people seem to quickly get tired of the single emails).

Note: I coded this myself from scratch, but I would like to acknowledge a couple of previous mods that used this same idea, by users Calorie and noppid, and maybe others. In any case, I believe this one adds some features that the others don't have.

Other advantages: no ads or links, no abuse of update notifications, no disappearing features, no threats to delete the mod (it will never be deleted, at least by me). Also, translations are allowed.

Installation:
----------------------------
1) If you have "Is Bot", "Stop the Registration Bots", "Spammers Suck!", or another mod that works on registration time, note any admincp settings for that mod then uninstall it.

2) Import the product XML file from the Product Manager.

3) Go to Settings > Options > Spambot Stopper Options and configure the desired settings.

4) IMPORTANT: try to register a new user to make sure that there are no problems with humans registering. If you want, you can also temporarily set the minimum time to a higher value (like 60 seconds) and test to see if the spammer rejection is working.



History:
----------------------------
1.1.1 (Feb 16, 2013)

• Added timer for enforcing minimum time
• Added maximum registration time limit
• Added time limits for email notifications
• Added posting notificatiosn to a thread

1.0.1 (Feb 01, 2013)

• Fixed bug
• Added check for fake timestamps

1.0 (Jan 31, 2013)

• Initial Release

[infnity8x3]

Works as intended. Caught about 5 within the hour.

I use Captcha with this mod because I know the only thing Captcha slows down is people. Bots fly past it in seconds, literally.

Thanks for this

[Max Taxable]

Originally Posted by infnity8x3

Works as intended. Caught about 5 within the hour.

I use Captcha with this mod because I know the only thing Captcha slows down is people. Bots fly past it in seconds, literally.

Thanks for this

It also, annoys them. But that's for another thread.

[ozzy47]

I would have to agree, captcha's are a thing of the past, and only annoy potential members. I don't use them, or questions and have no spam.

[Chadi]

I noticed that this conflicts in mobile skin. Even though my minimum seconds is set to 15, no matter how long I wait I still get the error "are you a spam bot" message, only in mobile registration process. Any fix?

[kh99]

Hmm...I'm afraid I don't know anything about the mobile stuff. Is it just a different style? Then I suppose the problem is that it's not inserting the right codes in the template. There's probably a way around that (like having an option to insert what's needed manually), but I haven't looked at this is a long time so I can't remember right now. I'll try to look at it soon (but I should warn you that I keep telling people that and I never manage to get any vb stuff done).

[kh99]

OK, I got curious and looked at it a little. It works by adding the extra form values to the $timezoneoptions variable, so as long as you have that in your style it should be OK.

But I was only guessing that that was the problem, it could be something else.

Edit: OK, Chadi, I looked at your site and I see that the mobile style doesn't have the option to select the timezone, so I guess that's the problem. RIght now it doesn't look like there's any way to add it manually because I'd have to register the variables to your template. But I can add an option to do that (and maybe it will solve some other people's problems as well).

[Chadi]

Originally Posted by kh99

OK, I got curious and looked at it a little. It works by adding the extra form values to the $timezoneoptions variable, so as long as you have that in your style it should be OK.

But I was only guessing that that was the problem, it could be something else.

Edit: OK, Chadi, I looked at your site and I see that the mobile style doesn't have the option to select the timezone, so I guess that's the problem. RIght now it doesn't look like there's any way to add it manually because I'd have to register the variables to your template. But I can add an option to do that (and maybe it will solve some other people's problems as well).

Please check again. It does (I restored original template). I only removed a few lines before to test it out to see if it would work. However, it doesn't even with that variable. So, what would I do from here to fix this?

Current mobile register template

{vb:stylevar htmldoctype}
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"<vb:if condition="$vboptions['enablefacebookconnect']"> xmlns:fb="http://www.facebook.com/2008/fbml"</vb:if> dir="{vb:stylevar textdirection}" lang="{vb:stylevar languagecode}" id="vbulletin_html">
<head>
    {vb:raw headinclude}
    <title>{vb:raw vboptions.bbtitle}</title>
    {vb:raw headinclude_bottom}
</head>
<body>

{vb:raw header}

{vb:raw navbar}

<div id="pagetitle" class="pagetitle ui-bar-b">
    <h1 class="pagetitle">{vb:rawphrase vbulletin_registration}</h1>
    <vb:if condition="$vboptions['usecoppa']"><p class="description">{vb:rawphrase step_2_of_2}</p></vb:if>
</div>

<vb:if condition="$vboptions['enablefacebookconnect']">
<form id="facebookassociateform" method="post" action="login.php?do=login" data-ajax="false">    
    <input type="hidden" name="do" value="login" />
    <input type="hidden" name="s" value="{vb:raw session.sessionhash}" />
    <input type="hidden" name="securitytoken" value="{vb:raw bbuserinfo.securitytoken}" />
    <input type="hidden" name="url" value="register.php" />
    <input type="hidden" id="vb_login_username" name="vb_login_username" />
    <input type="hidden" id="vb_login_password" name="vb_login_password" />
    <input type="hidden" name="cookieuser" id="cb_cookieuser" value="1" /> 
</form>
</vb:if>

<div data-role="content">
    <form id="registerform" action="register.php?do=addmember" name="register" method="post" class="vbform block" data-ajax="false">
        <h3>{vb:rawphrase register_at_x, {vb:raw vboptions.bbtitle}}</h3>
        
        <vb:if condition="$show['errors']">
            <h4 class="ui-bar ui-bar-e">{vb:rawphrase errors_occurred_during_registration}</h4>
            <div class="ui-body ui-body-e">
                <ul class="blockrow">
                    {vb:raw errorlist}
                </ul>
            </div>
        </vb:if>
    
        <vb:if condition="$show['coppa']">
            <p>{vb:rawphrase until_receive_signed_form}</p>
        </vb:if>
        
        <vb:if condition="$vboptions['enablefacebookconnect']">
            <h3 class="ui-bar ui-bar-d">{vb:rawphrase facebook_connect}</h3>
            <div id="fbregbox" class="fbregbox ui-br">
                <vb:if condition="$show['facebookuser']">
                    <img src="{vb:raw fbprofilepicurl}" title="{vb:var fbname}" alt="{vb:var fbname}" />
                    <a id="fb_reglogoutbtn" href="#"><img src="/images/mobile/facebook-mobile.png" alt="{vb:rawphrase logout_of_facebook}" width="244" /></a>
                    <br />
                    {vb:rawphrase welcome_x_link_y, {vb:var fbname}, {vb:raw fbprofileurl}}
                <vb:else />
                    <a id="fb_regloginbtn" href="#"><img src="/images/mobile/facebook-mobile.png" alt="{vb:rawphrase facebook_connect}" width="244" /></a>
                </vb:if>
            </div>
            
            <vb:if condition="$show['facebookuser']">
            <h4>{vb:rawphrase already_a_member}</h4>
            <p class="description">{vb:rawphrase associate_facebook_with_x_account, {vb:raw vboptions.bbtitle}}</p>
            <div data-role="fieldcontain">
                <label for="facebookusername">{vb:rawphrase username}:</label>
                <input type="text" class="textbox" name="facebookusername" id="facebookusername" maxlength="50" tabindex="1" value="" />
                <label for="facebookpassword">{vb:rawphrase password}:</label>
                <input type="password" class="textbox" name="facebookpassword" id="facebookpassword" maxlength="50" tabindex="1" />
                <input type="button" data-theme="a" name="facebookassociate" id="facebookassociate" value="{vb:rawphrase log_in}" tabindex="1" />
            </div>
            </vb:if>
            
            {vb:raw fbimportform}
        </vb:if>

        <h3 class="ui-bar ui-bar-d">{vb:rawphrase required_information}</h3>
        <div data-role="fieldcontain">
            <label for="regusername">{vb:rawphrase username}:</label>
            <input class="primary textbox" id="regusername" type="text" name="username" maxlength="{vb:raw vboptions.maxuserlength}" value="{vb:raw username}" tabindex="1" />
        </div>
            
        <div data-role="fieldcontain">
            <label for="password">{vb:rawphrase password}:</label>
            <input type="password" class="textbox" name="password" id="password" maxlength="50" value="{vb:raw password}" tabindex="1" />
            <label for="passwordconfirm">{vb:rawphrase confirm_password}:</label>
            <input type="password" class="textbox" name="passwordconfirm" id="passwordconfirm" maxlength="50" value="{vb:raw passwordconfirm}" tabindex="1" />
        </div>
        
        <div data-role="fieldcontain">
            <label for="email">{vb:rawphrase email_address}:</label>
            <input type="text" class="textbox" name="email" id="email" maxlength="50" value="{vb:raw email}" dir="ltr" tabindex="1" />
            <label for="emailconfirm">{vb:rawphrase confirm_email_address}:</label>
            <input type="text" class="textbox" name="emailconfirm" id="emailconfirm" maxlength="50" value="{vb:raw emailconfirm}" dir="ltr" tabindex="1" />
        </div>

        <vb:if condition="$show['coppa']">
        <div data-role="fieldcontain">
            <label for="parentemail">{vb:rawphrase parent_guardian_email}:</label>
            <input type="text" class="primary textbox" name="parentemail" id="parentemail" maxlength="50" value="{vb:raw parentemail}" dir="ltr" tabindex="1" />
        </div>
        </vb:if>
        
        {vb:raw human_verify}

        <vb:if condition="$show['customfields_profile']">
            <h3 class="ui-bar ui-bar-d">{vb:rawphrase additional_required_information_profile}</h3>
            {vb:raw customfields_profile}
            <vb:if condition="$show['birthday']">{vb:raw birthdayfields}</vb:if>
        </vb:if>

        <vb:if condition="$show['customfields_option']">
            <h3 class="ui-bar ui-bar-d">{vb:rawphrase additional_required_information_option}</h3>
            {vb:raw customfields_option}
        </vb:if>

        <h3 class="ui-bar ui-bar-d">{vb:rawphrase additional_information}</h3>
        <vb:if condition="$show['referrer']">
            <div data-role="fieldcontain">
                <label for="referrerfield_ctrl">{vb:rawphrase referrer}:</label>
                <input id="referrerfield_ctrl" type="text" class="primary textbox popupctrl" name="referrername" value="{vb:raw referrername}" tabindex="1" maxlength="{vb:raw vboptions.maxuserlength}" />
            </div>
        </vb:if>
        
        {vb:raw timezoneoptions}
        
        <div data-role="fieldcontain">
            <fieldset data-role="controlgroup">
            <legend>{vb:rawphrase receive_email}...</legend>
            <input type="checkbox" name="options[adminemail]" value="1" id="cb_adminemail" tabindex="1" {vb:raw checkedoff.adminemail} />
            <label for="cb_adminemail">{vb:rawphrase receive_email_from_bulletin_board_staff}</label>
            <vb:if condition="$show['email']">
                <input type="checkbox" name="options[showemail]" value="1" id="cb_showemail" tabindex="1" {vb:raw checkedoff.showemail} />
                <label for="cb_showemail">{vb:rawphrase receive_email_from_other_members}</label>
            </vb:if>
            </fieldset>
        </div>
        
        <vb:comment> For performance reason, (Too many form elements perform really bad on iOS), we disable additional information.
        
        {vb:raw customfields_other}
        
        </vb:comment>
        
        <div data-role="fieldcontain">
            <input type="checkbox" name="agree" id="cb_rules_agree" tabindex="1" value="1" /> 
            <label for="cb_rules_agree" class="full">{vb:rawphrase read_agree_abide_by_rules, {vb:raw vboptions.bbtitle}}</label>
            <a href="mobile.php?do=agreement" data-rel="dialog" data-transition="pop" data-role="button">{vb:rawphrase view_rules}</a>
        </div>
        
        <button type="submit" data-theme="a">{vb:rawphrase complete_registration}</button>

        <input type="hidden" name="s" value="{vb:raw session.sessionhash}" />
        <input type="hidden" name="securitytoken" value="{vb:raw bbuserinfo.securitytoken}" />
        <input type="hidden" name="do" value="addmember" />
        <input type="hidden" name="url" value="{vb:raw url}" />
        <input type="hidden" name="password_md5" />
        <input type="hidden" name="passwordconfirm_md5" />
        <vb:if condition="!$show['birthday']">
            <input type="hidden" name="day" value="{vb:raw day}" />
            <input type="hidden" name="month" value="{vb:raw month}" />
            <input type="hidden" name="year" value="{vb:raw year}" />
        </vb:if>
        <vb:if condition="$show['coppa']">
            <input type="hidden" name="coppauser" value="1" />
        </vb:if>
    </form>
</div>

{vb:raw footer}

</body>
</html>

[kh99]

OK, well I'm glad you responded before I added that option. But now I'm at a loss. I guess I could try to add some logging so I can actually help people who have problems instead of telling them "I don't know".

[Shanakar]

Installed on 4.2.2 PL1 Suite and it works perfectly! Thank you very much!

[markoroots]

Configuring inside the plugin also I can say that work perfectly on 4.2.2
Many thanks to the coder.
Very usefull.
I will mark immediately your mod.