Mini Mods - SpamBot Posting Protection

== What this Plugin does ==
The following product will place a hidden blank text box (humans can not see these text box, but Bots can) in your Register, Posting, Replying and Quick Reply forms. When the post is submitted there will be a check done on this hidden field to see if it was filled out. If a bot has filled in the hidden field the post will be rejected and a "Spam Message" will appear.
This is not hi-tech spam prevention, but does work pretty well and does not interfere with human posting in any way. Ive implement it on Forum Extension which i wrote for the MediaWiki system and it worked out pretty good.

== Theory behind the mod ==
Spam bots automatically fill in any blank text fields they "see".
By placing a text field in the posting form and then hiding it (via css, div hiding does not work that well) only bots can see the field, humans can not. So if the field is filled in during form submission it would have to be filled in by a bot and not a human since the human can not see the field. After the post is submitted it will be checked to see if the field is empty or not. If the field is empty the post will go through, if the field has info in it, the submission will die with a Spam Message (not that the bot will read this, but the message can also work as error control).

This mod was inspired by :
http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:SimpleAntiSpam

This product has been tested on:
vBulletin 3.6.5, 3.7.0


Installation:
Install the plugin via your AdminCP.
AdminCP -> Plugins & Products -> Manage Products -> [Add/Import Product]

There are four template edits which the plugin automatically does for you.
There is a "ReadMe" included which has the edits in there in case you want to know what they are.


Admin Options:
AdminCP ->vBulletin Options -> AWC's SpamBot Protection

• Test SpamBot Field
  This option will "un-hide" the text boxs so you can test.
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• Auto Ban Spammer
  When a spambot posts a thread or post they can be automatically banned to the group of your choice.
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• How to send Banned message (Admin, Mods, etc.) notifying a bot has been Banned.
  You can automatically send out a PM or Email to selected members notifying them a spambot has been banned.
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• What to Check
  You can turn On and Off what you would like the plugin to check, New Registration, New Threads or New Posts.
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• Move spam post
  Posts created by a spambot can be placed in a selected forum of your choice.

1.0 to 1.x Upgrade info:
If you have installed 1.0 and are upgrading to 1.x you will have to remove the template edits you made before (sorry about this, wont happen again ).
Search and remove the following from your templates:

PHP Code:

 $awc_bot_fields 


Plugin Version History:

Ver. 1.2 - Dec 25, 2008
- Added
-- AdminCP page
-- Test Option
-- Move spam post to selected forum
-- Redirect option for registration
-- PM or Email banned member name to selected members

- Changed
- How text field was added to Quick Reply (to make compatible with Vb 3.6.x)


Ver. 1.1 - Dec 22, 2008
- Changed to auto template edits
- Added new hidden field to Register form
- Added auto ban option


Ver. 1.0 - Dec 20, 2008
- Add 3 hidden fields (Quote, New Reply and New Thread) and check:
- Manual template edits


Heres the AdminCP section...



Its been a long time since ive dabbled with vbulletin so im sure there are other ways to implement this.

Any feed back would be great.
Enjoy.

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[iMisspell]

Originally Posted by SVTCobraLTD

Will be trying this on 3.6.X unless you know it doesnt work.

Just tested 1.1 with Vb 2.6.5 and the Quick Reply was the only thing which did not work; New Thread, Registration and New Reply (via clicking the New Reply link) all worked.

This will be fixed in 1.2
1.2 will be fully compatible with Vb 3.6.5 along with all the new feathers, including:
PMing or Emailing Banned member name (and what they posted) to selected forum members (via member ID's).

Will be uploading 1.2 in the next day or two.

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[iMisspell]

OK, heres 1.2 with all the options and suggestions which people have posted and a few more.

Currently the plugin has been tested on vB 3.6.5 and 3.7.0 and all options work fine.

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[pigpog]

Thank you very much for this. I have three other bot protections in place designed to stop them from registering in the first place, but should one get through they've then got yours to contend with. Good work!

[iMisspell]

Thanks pigpog.

This plugin also has a registration check (its simple, but should help), there is an option in the AdminCP where you can turn that check on or off.

If you have any suggestions for this plugin, please post.

Take care.

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[iMisspell]

Being theres been more then a few downloads and no complaints, guess thats good.

[moley]

thanks a lot, been getting swamped with them recently

[GoNz00]

fingers crossed this helps., i will check the ip's against the stop forum spam list i have as its to big to add to the banned ip's section

most seem to come from te far east so there easy to spot...

thanks for this, the simple ideas are often the best

[iMisspell]

Your welcome...
Best of luck.

[GoNz00]

had 1 since install, its helped a lot but not perfect, maybe it needs to appear as a required field to the bot ?

[iMisspell]

Originally Posted by GoNz00

had 1 since install, its helped a lot but not perfect, maybe it needs to appear as a required field to the bot ?

Glad to here its working for you.
In the AdminCP there is a 'Test' option which will make the "SpamBot Text Field" visable, you can test it out if you want.
Im sure there are bots out there which will get by this protection, like said above, its not hi-tech

Do you by change have this plugin set up so the spam post are filtered to a seperate forum, so you can see what has been blocked ?
Just wounding, i do not have vB installed anywhere that gets alot of traffic to test out how the plug-in works on a large scale.

Thanks again for your feed back.

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