Tips for spam prevention in 4.x suite?

[AFemaleProdigy]

I have setup promotions in usergroups to try to stop newbies from posting spam. I use the default spam tools. But I am finding that there is still a lot of spam being posted. Expecially in the blog section. Does anyone have any suggestions on how to prevent spam posts? I'm wondering if there is anything I missed trying?

Thanks!

[HMBeaty]

I've started to get this as well. I'm going to see if I can alter this modification to work in blogs as well.

[Christos Teriakis]

If you know how to do it, the best and 100% method is to rename register.php to another filename (eg myregistration.php). Then you need to change 4 files (if I remember well), and update some links in the templates (eg the template that sends email confirmation, has a link to register.php). Difficult way, as it needs some knowledge, and also boring as you have to do these changes with any vB update. But works 100% for bots. Of course does not works when the spammers are humans.

An alternate way that I found very strong to restrict bots from registration is to use questions as antispam way. But of course not using just one question. At least 10 and all of them to have a long user input. eg Which is the 2nd month (March, April, May, February). If you're using (like in the example) numbers, avoid to set the correct answer on the same position. eg setting (March, February, May, April) is not a good way.

In my PHP scripts I'm using a jQuery plugin which works 100%, but it's difficult to integrade it someone to vB. It's a slider, where the user must click and drop it to the end to be able to activate the submit button.

Last trick is (I think that there is an Article by Calorie for it), to set a minimum time limit to post the form. Bots needs seconds to fill a form, while humans needs minutes.

Without any intention to drop your dreams, keep in mind that not all the spam post are from bots. There are humans who are doing it too, and get paid for it. I had online chat in my site, which has geoip location so I was able to "catch" in action some of them. Actually with one of them we started chating. His name is Alexei, comes from a small village in Ukraine, married with 3 kids. He found this way to increase his income. Profit? 20 cents per post.

Chris

[AFemaleProdigy]

HMBeaty: Let me know how that works out!

ChristTeris: 20 cents per post? Ugh! So annoying! I have been using vB for a very long time (many many years) and I used to be really good at preventing spam, but it just seems like they get smarter and smarter.

Those sound like very good tricks. I am able to make all of those edits you mentioned and will try it out. It sounds annoying to have to go through all that, but I guess we have to do what we have to do to stop them. Grrrrr!

Thanks so much for the info! I'm sure it will help me out a lot!!

--------------- Added [DATE]1325958120[/DATE] at [TIME]1325958120[/TIME] ---------------

Originally Posted by HMBeaty

I've started to get this as well. I'm going to see if I can alter this modification to work in blogs as well.

I just reviewed the mod you linked to. I actually already achieve the same thing by using user promotions. I have my new users set up so they are not allowed to post any links of any kind. They must go through multiple promotions by posting approved content before they are allowed to post links. However, these "lovely" people and bots still post garbage anyway and it gets sent to moderation. Then I find myself with this massive list of threads and posts that need to be moderated. Little of it gets seen by the public. It just ends up a mess for me to sort through. It is quite irritating.

[Christos Teriakis]

The problem is that, as I've understood all antispams are focusing in protecting and filtering thread posts. In my site, using combination of Questions and Akisnet, I had no problem in thread, but I had serious problem with spam posts in blogs, so finally I inactivated it.

[Macsee]

I too use user promotions. New users can't edit profiles, can't have a signature, can't do most things. Heavy restrictions. All their posts are moderated before going public.

I get 40-100 new accounts registering every day.

One thing I do differently to most forums is that I require every new user to make a top quality first post - "prove yourself or we'll kill your account". One liners, fluff etc., attract an immediate account deletion. No infractions! At regular intervals I also delete all zero post accounts. Idiots don't read the welcome email. Everybody else either does what is required ... or dies.

I get less than 10 spam posts per week. The rest of the forum is really thriving despite what may appear a less than friendly approach to new members. What's more, we're getting a steady flow of new members who can meet the quality standards.

[MrEyes]

One thing I have started to notice recently is spammers not posting in the forums but the blogs and more interestingly visitor messages.

It would be great if the inbuilt "delete as spam" functions gave the option to nuke everything a user has submitted regardless of the area.

[AFemaleProdigy]

It would be nice to have something like this updated and modified to include deletion of ALL content by a specific user...

https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthread.php?t=156444

I did start using a question/answer at sign up and it has made a big difference!

[jccatt]

I too had problems with mass bot forum registrations. I put in a question on registration and bam all gone.

[TheLastSuperman]

I have a great article coming up, pending approval at the moment but check back for it soon - https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthread.php?t=276547