SPAM IS NOW OUT OF CONTROL - I have a solution but need help implementing.

[mmllc]

I totally blame this on software like Xrumer or whatever new crapware is coming out helping these spammers spam en masse without regard for the forum alerting to them it is profitable to be low lives instead of trying to find a real job that pays them for an honest days work.

I would never complain without offering a solution to this problem and I have searched and searched and no one seems to be able to effectuate this very simple solution that I already have implemented to a certain degree; I need help finishing this off for all Vbulletin owners.

For about a year or so I have added into my registration process a question, in my case, "WHAT YEAR DID YOU START DOING XYZ?"

I've seen some websites ask, WHAT IS 12 + 13 = ?

Or what is the capital of Russia = ?

And based on the answer webasmters can easily tell if this registrant is a bot or human.

In my case, spam bots ALWAYS answer by repeating their NICKNAME instead of a year.

So the only recourse I could take based on this question being incorrect was to go into my SQL and sort them by those who do not answer with a year. The first time I did a mass pruning of these low lives through my SQL I simply zeroed in on them, and deleted the entire row of their USER entry. This seemed to do the trick except, I did not realize by deleting user 84888 would move user 84889 into its place, totally screwing with the "GOOD" members posts, and creating a big big problem. Of course this was the wrong way to go about it.

And mass pruning just simply does not do the trick, please don't suggest it either.

All I ask, which has been asked before and no one stood up to write something to finish this off, is that someone recommend simply that this CUSTOM USER FIELD with the question of WHAT YEAR DID YOU START be in a column during the List Users Awaiting Moderation page where we all can ACCEPT, DENY, or IGNORE new registrants.

I GUARANTEE you this will all but eliminate the SPAM BOT problem by allowing we honest webmasters to see before these fraudsters can join who answers this field as a human or a bot. I've tried to peek into the PHP and this type of programming is beyond me... trust me I have tried.

I'm not mad at vbulletin or anything, I love this software, I just can't put up with these spam bots a single more day. It's taking over my forum despite all the CAPTCHA mods and other preventative measures offered both here and on vbulletin.com.


So to sum up: How can we add a CUSTOM USER FIELD column to the USERS AWAITING MODERATION page, where we see USER NAME, EMAIL, IP ADDRESS already.

Thank you for your help.

-Mike