Administrative and Maintenance Tools - MonkeyStop - Auto-Moderation of Spammer Keywords and URLs by postcount

Description
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A quick but effective hack that lets you set keywords that will flag posts and set as Moderated, requiring approval from a mod/supermod/admin before they're visible to users. You can also set the number of URLs to be allowed per post to stop flooding from spammers. Additionally, you can configure
the number of posts required to avoid the moderation, so the filter only effects new users to your forum.

Installation
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Import product-monkeystop.xml (ACP / vBulletin Options / Manage Products / [Add/Import Product])

Usage
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Configure the product in ACP / vBulletin Options / vBulletin Options / General Settings. (scroll to the bottom)
New threads and posts containing the offenses will automatically be moderated.
You can view moderated threads in ACP / Moderation / Moderate Threads. You should also see an icon in the thread postbit and forum display if the post is moderated (see screenshot).

Since most spammers register then spam your board while their post count is low, it may be effective to leave the default values (0 URLs allowed until post count is 3) or even up the post count requirement. If you wish to allow some links, change URLs to 1 or 2 for example.

!!! Warning !!!
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If you allow keyword auto-moderation, your users will receive an "Invalid Thread" message when they use a flagged word on new threads because it's a moderated thread. However this error can be customized here:
Admin Panel / Phrase Manager / phrase type: Error Messages / invalidid (page 15 or so of the errors)
I added:

<br/><br/>If you received this message immediately after posting a new thread, there's a good chance your message was flagged as spam. Please read this thread for more info.

... and supplied a link for my users explaining why their post was moderated.

Credits
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This is a hack of the "Auto Moderation by Keywords" mod by Andreas (https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/member.php?u=47102)
Thanks go out for his great mod -- if only I could PM or e-mail him to thank him directly! I only made minor changes to the mod to allow it to work with vBulletin 3.6.0 (by default it wouldn't work on new threads) and to auto-moderate posts URLs.
So give him credit if you think it's cool, but his PM box is full.
Dan "Tweak Monkey" Kennedy

History
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v1.0.1: Added minimum post count option
v1.0.0: Initial release

[RMS-Chef]

Thanks for this!

Two suggestions. First, a "per forum" setting would be nice as I am not using this for SPAM issues but to block certain content. I think this would be a workaround for the RSS issues as well since I think most people have a seperate forum just for importing RSS feeds.

Second, and this is a long shot, it would be nice to be able to enter boolean-like commands in the keyword field. Examples:
-Adding quotes to a keyword to match only that word. Currently entering the word BOX seems to trigger moderation with such words as BOXING.
-Being able to use the (-) modifier. Such as WORD1,WORD2,-WORD3 and if the thread contains WORD1 or WORD2 but also WORD3 it would not trigger moderation.

Working great as is though, thanks again.

[Ratchet]

not sure if this has been pointed out yet but one way around this for the spammer is to make a legitimate post with no keyword triggers, then edit it to add the spam.

[goteamsgo]

It sounds great. I may give it a try soon.

Any comments on server performance impact?

One nice thing might be an additional option to "Apply to the Following Usergroups." So we're not using any processing power on established members who are unlikely to spam.

[lukemax]

Wow, this is cool, can I install this now, (disable it) And enable it when I need it?

[Lionel]

I just had an issue where send to friend was being exploited by unregistered to send out spam. I now made it that only registered can use send to friend, but I know that these guys will register so they keep on spamming.

Is there a way to prevent people with the minimum post to use send to friend?

[Lionel]

I suppose I could squeeze an error message between

if ($this->registry->userinfo['posts'] < $this->registry->options['automodpostcount']) {

here

}

at the proper hook in send message????

[cgchris99]

I have the post count set to 5. And when I have new user, it automatically goes to moderated even if there are not "bad" keywords in the post?

Is this the way it is supposed to work? I thought if they had no bad keywords it would not be moderated?

Thanks for any advice

[kyrnel]

Issue: The product is working like it says, but I am running into trouble.

A legitimate thread was flagged, so I approved it, but later the poster edited the first post, so the post was flagged and went back into the moderation queue. I was not able to approve the post. Nothing I could do would remove the moderation on that post until I disabled the product.

Any ideas?

[cashpath]

Could someone tell me how to stop this from moderating RSS feeds? (The feeds are being posted by admin)

[Lionel]

I've set the number of posts to 3. Lately, they've been coming and posting like 8, 10 times in a row, therefore bypassing the safety after 3 post.

Right now, I've increase it to 10 posts which is not really fair for the good new member.

Is there a way to automatically ban based on time that posts were made? For example the guy comes and make 3 or more flagged posts in less than 10 minutes for example, then it's obvious it's a spammer trying to flood so we ban him.