Miscellaneous Hacks - NoSpam! for vBulletin 3.7

NoSpam! is back and better than ever! The automatic template edits should be smoother than they were in the previous version, in addition to the 3.7 support. Please note that this version will ONLY work for vBulletin 3.7!

NoSpam! is a simple hack that allows the administrator to specify a number of easy questions, a random one of which must be answered correctly in order for a guest to be able to register, post, search or use the contact form. Because you create the questions and they are unique for each forum, it is impossible for a bot programmer to preprogram a bot to be able to answer them without adjusting the bot specifically to one, and thus you will be rid of all spam posted by CAPTCHA-evading advertisement programs.

This functionality was added by default in vBulletin 3.7's Q&A human verification system, so why use NoSpam! for 3.7 at all? There are a few reasons why one could prefer it:

- I have heard reports that vBulletin's default Q&A human verification is faulty and lets bots through. Truth to be told, I would not have publically released a 3.7 version if not for this. I don't quite see how this could happen and have not experienced it myself seeing as I don't use vBulletin's human verification, but if those reports are to be trusted, NoSpam! will do a better job of keeping the bots out.
- It is much easier to add questions and answers in NoSpam! en massé than in vBulletin's default system. If you want a great number of questions, vBulletin's built-in system takes terribly long to add them all in with quite a lot of page loads in between, while a fast typer can add several dozen questions to NoSpam! in a matter of minutes.
- If you have previously used NoSpam!, a simple copy-paste will get all your previous questions into NoSpam! for 3.7, while to get them into the built-in vBulletin system requires a converter.

If the reports of vBulletin's default human verification system failing are incorrect, I will freely admit that most people will do fine with the built-in system. But if you prefer this hack, by all means use it.

NoSpam! can be used with or without default vBulletin human verification. In this version, the automatic addition of the question into the templates should be flawless and not induce the often-reported problem where the question didn't appear in the previous version of the hack.

VERSION HISTORY:

4.0: Redid the automatic addition of questions to be smoother and more or less foolproof. Released for vBulletin 3.7.
3.0: Added functionality to allow users to specify which pages should use NoSpam!.
2.0: Extended the NoSpam! functionality to guest posts, guest searches and guest "Contact Us" in addition to registration.
1.1: Made template edit automatic (with thanks to Cole2026), added ability to have more than one answer to each question, and made answers case insensitive. To upgrade, I recommend undoing the template edit so you won't have to worry about it anymore (replace $nospamfield in the template register with $imagereg, or if you added $nospamfield above $imagereg, just remove $nospamfield altogether), and then reimport the product through the Admin CP (making sure that Allow Overwrite is set to On).
1.0: Initial release.

INSTALLATION:

1. Import product-nospam.xml through the Admin CP product manager.
2. Go to your vBulletin options in the Admin CP and select NoSpam! Settings. Once there, turn the system on and input your questions and answers according to the instructions there.

The system should now be functional and running.

UNINSTALLATION:

Just uninstall the product through the Admin CP.

SUPPORT:

Full support will be given in this thread. All suggestions are welcome.

Thank you and please click "Mark as Installed" if you like it.

[leftie]

Originally Posted by ascender

Am just trying to install this but its not showing up so am looking in the register template to see where I can add "$human_verify", but can't seem to find where to put it so it appears underneath the image verification bit.

Edit: Have found it, but the NoSpam! questions still aren't showing on the new user registration page. I'm running 3.7.3 Patch Level 1.

I have this problem too with 3.7.2pl1
Could another hack be affecting this? Could a manual installation get round this, if so does anyone want to show how.

[Levi75]

Originally Posted by ascender

Am just trying to install this but its not showing up so am looking in the register template to see where I can add "$human_verify", but can't seem to find where to put it so it appears underneath the image verification bit.

Edit: Have found it, but the NoSpam! questions still aren't showing on the new user registration page. I'm running 3.7.3 Patch Level 1.

Same problem here. Vb 3.7.3 PL1

[leftie]

Originally Posted by leftie

I have this problem too with 3.7.2pl1
Could another hack be affecting this? Could a manual installation get round this, if so does anyone want to show how.

Strange, i turned it off and then back on again and it started to work.

[Stanley Steamer]

Installed.:up:
The authoritys should go after the companys that are paying the spammers to advertise their junk.
They aren't hard to find, just read the spam posts and there they are.
Use a spambot, get fined a million dollars.
That will stop it.

[LadyBeth]

Hoooray!!!!! It's working!!!!! I hate spammers!

[-=Leb=-]

Hi There, You Saved The World lol.The spammer wont leave me .They are keep trying to register but they can't now Anyway, thx for the Awesome hack.
Installed and nominated

[saviola8x]

Thanks for share
ins!

[ArnyVee]

Originally Posted by barcena

I don't know what's going on lately w/ spams, i used to have the human verification and that was more than enough but now that's nothing.

Well, the link below and text that I'm quoting might answer your questions.

That's why I've never uninstalled this mod since I first added it to my forums. It's an essential piece of my forums to avoid spam.

http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/showp...5&postcount=97

It does appear that a certain spam program has released an update in the last few days that is able to decipher the image captchas of gmail, Invision, PHPBB, and vBulletin. Since gmail is broken, the script can automatically create email addresses for email verification.

The update for this program states that it hasn't broken recaptcha, but it is only a matter of time (short time at best) before it is broken as well.

To continue to devise an image captcha, that is increasingly difficult for humans to decipher, leads to a captcha that only a computer can decipher. This is why I built the image captcha to be configurable by the end user.

If you are using the image captcha, change the fonts and the backgrounds. In your forums/images/regimage directory, you will find a fonts/ and a backgrounds/ directory. Remove all of the default fonts in the fonts directory and add a collection of your own .ttf fonts. You can get freeware fonts all over the web. Pick some that are a bit strange but still readible and stick them in the directory. The backgrounds are 201x61 jpg images. Create your own, I suggest putting some text on them, that will really confuse the script, just do it so that when the captcha text is added to it by vBulletin, it doesn't confuse your registrees. The system will automatically use the fonts and images that you add to the appropriate directories.

When using the QA system, don't create questions like these:

What is 2 + 2?
Please enter the word "brown".

The nefarious script at work here can most likely handle those questions. You must ask a question that doesn't give the answer in the question. I suspect something like "If you have three apples and eat one, how many do you have left?" would work.

Adding required fields will also no longer work. The script can handle the "required field missing" errors and resubmit with those fields filled in.

[NavS]

isn't there a question answer option in 3.7.2? what difference does this one make?

[fly]

Originally Posted by NavS

isn't there a question answer option in 3.7.2? what difference does this one make?

Well, for one, you can't use it AND captcha...