Moderators Functions - Akismet - spam detection

Akismet is an spam detection engine that is mostly used by blogs to check the comments for spam. But it can also be used for forum posts. It is not a definite protection against spam.

This plugin for vBulletin 3.6 will check every thread and reply if it is considered as spam. If it is spam it will put the offending thread or reply in the moderator queue.

In order to use Akismet you need to get a API key. You can get one by signing up on WordPress. The Akismet service is free for personal use. Check the Akismet website for more information.

This vBulletin plugin is available under the terms of the GNU Lesser Public License.

Installation instructions are available in the ZIP archive.

Features

• Scan for spam in new threads and post
• Scan content edits
• Automatically put identified spam in the moderation queue
• Report posts as spam or ham (individual post or through inline moderation)
• Limit spam detection to post count and user groups
• Extendable through hooks

Changelog
v1.3

• Added an akismet activity log in the admincp

v1.2

• Fixed an invalid URL issue when using cURL

v1.1

• Option to send parsed post data
• Option to send additional webserver request data for the initial spam check
• Removed product version query
• Added extra information when reporting a post
• Only check API key when entered in the vBulletin options, not for every Akismet request

v1.0

• Various bug fixes: report post submitted wrong data; few missing phrases
• More code documentation
• This plugin now exposes some hooks that others can use to extend the feature set. Like give users infractions when posts are considered spam.

v0.3

• Added options to exclude posts from checking based on user's postcount and usergroups
• Added mass reporting of ham/spam through the inline moderation system.
• Improvements of the internal code

v0.2

• Check spam status on edits
• Add report as ham/spam functionality (requires template edit)

[El_Muerte]

wow.. I really ++++ed up this release.. just to be sure I've double checked version 1.3.2, it installs correctly on a fresh vbulletin install.

[BadgerDog]

Installed v1.3.2 and tested....

No errors and I now have log entries.... :up:

I'll send via PM due to confidential data....

Thanks

Regards,
Badger

[El_Muerte]

great to hear it's starting to catch spam

[offline]

Awesome mod, I have used Aksimet spam detection on my 3.5vb and it has saved me from tons of spam. I am now up to date but I was wondering if I should tun on or off the send extra request information?

[yoyoyoyo]

Unfortunately I had to turn this off because many non-spam posts and threads were getting sent to the moderation queue. I looked to see what the posts had in common, or what would make them stand out as spam, and was unable to determine why they would be considered spam - no links posted, no strange keywords that migh seemingly be flagged for an odd reason, Would the extra request information help with this? Anything else I can do to make it less sensitive? I could turn off the "send posts/threads to moderation queue option, but then if I did that it seems it would make this hack kind of pointless.

[BobbyBig]

How about a Mod which exactly does the same but with Rules we can set ?
I am badly searching for that.

akisment doesnt seem to be effective enough for vbulletin.

[Hemanth]

How can I uninstall it from vB 3.6.5. It's not getting uninstalled and once enabled breaking the entire postings.. like duplicate posts, parse errors and even db errors.

Damn it.

[skippybosco]

Thank You. Working great on vB 3.6.8.

It seems that only the blog, user_ip and user_agent are required arguments for the API (note: not the actual message)

With that in mind, would it make sense to also use this to optionally check during the registration process as well?

I consistently see that the IP and/or email and name associated with flagged messages are associated with known spamming activities so there should be a fairly accurate hit ratio.

This would also save us the trouble of cleaning up the moderated posts and banning the users after the fact by either preventing them from signing up altogether or putting them in a n even more restrictive group.

[skippybosco]

A secondary suggestion would be utilizing this for checking Private Messages sent between users to prevent mis-use of bogus or compromised accounts.

[skippybosco]

For those looking for the registration checking functionality, I am investigating the use of the Check Proxy RBL on New User Registration mod as a temporary solution to limit the registration of SPAM users before they post/PM.

Still interested in seeing this functionality rolled into the Akismet as well as checking of PMs :-)