Why does vbulletin atract spam?

[dmknights]

are all emails that contain mail.ru spammers?

I think vbulletin should implement some kind of feature in the next release to cut out spammers

why you ask here then, you're on the modification forum, where features not implemented in vb are developed by 3rd party coders... so if it is asked here, it is sure not implemented in the core engine...

[dmknights]

Originally Posted by nexialys

why you ask here then, you're on the modification forum

Err , i think its YOU that is wrong!

As it clearly states, this is the:

General vBulletin Discussions

& 1 more thing, please do not go "off topic"

[Brandon Sheley]

Originally Posted by BlueNinjaGo

We have a custom question set up that they must answer...

Ever since then we haven't gotten one spam bot....

And block e-mail addresses like .ru and other popular spam bot e-mail addresses.

This is what I do as well on my forums, and we might get one spam post a month now. :up:
ten mins or work, will save you hours of hunting down spam on your boards.

ps.. nexi isn't going off topic, in fact he's trying to help you
You are asking for vBulletin to be built in with some mods, this would be best asked on the official site, not a modder site.. like Nexi suggested.

It's easy to prevent spam, it requires a "little" work from the admins.

off topic, me?!... you're kidding, right?!

ok, i talk about the website you're on... it is completely useless to require that Jelsoft add any feature to vBulletin if you are not at the Jelsoft website itself, you're on a fan site here... you will not touch any feeling from the company by posting here with your arguements.

go there: vBulletin Suggestions and Feedback

[R1lover]

All you need is e-mail verification and the question and answer... I have this setup on many many sites.... and there is not a spam issue on any of them.

The only spam that get's through is an actual person that post up crap.

The tools are there, you just have to use them. Stop complaining and start learning how to use what vBulletin has given us.

[TNCclubman]

Its like someone complaining they hate scuba diving because they cant hold their breath...

[kNeeLy]

Originally Posted by nexialys

activate email verification cut the spam from 95%... people don't use it because they hate to bother their members... sorry, but if you do not do the effort, you have spam anyway.

I've done this and ask a question. (Knocks on wood) I have had 2 spammers sign up, but not one post since the day I opened the site (almost 5 months ago).

I think setting up and customizing the vb is half the fun of owning one.

[Lynne]

Is Bot - it catches about 100 would-be-spammers a day for us. And then if we do happen to get a spammer, One-Touch Ban will get them. Seriously, we don't use email verification and we use standard Image Verification and hardly have any problem at all. If we do happen to see some sudden problem, I have all new users going into one group and promote them to another group after x days/posts. Right now, both groups have exactly the same permissions, but with a couple easy changes I can set the first group to be very restrictive (moderated, no PMing, no sigs, etc.).

[TigerC10]

Originally Posted by nexialys

activate email verification cut the spam from 95%... people don't use it because they hate to bother their members... sorry, but if you do not do the effort, you have spam anyway.

Well, vBulletin used to have a problem with the random code that was sent through e-mails for activation. It was actually a predictable number, I think this got fixed in 3.7.4 and 3.6.8 PL1. This made vBulletin slightly more susceptable to spambots.

Originally Posted by BlueNinjaGo

And block e-mail addresses like .ru and other popular spam bot e-mail addresses.

Originally Posted by dmknights

are all emails that contain mail.ru spammers?

A large number of .ru domain e-mail addresses are used for spam because the Russian internet/mail laws are far more relaxed than the rest of the world. Because it's out of the jurisdiction of the rest of the world, they pretty much can't be penalyzed for breaking any other country's laws.

It's sad, really, because one of my good friends is Russian and has a real .ru e-mail address because he's proud of being from Russia. However, half of the websites he visits block his e-mail address because of all of the spammers that use it.

Originally Posted by guile09

I just thnk vbulletin should ship with multiple lines of defense. As it is right now, you can choose 1 form of spam prevention. I want to make it harder for spammers to get in, and harder for them to spam if they do.

It does ship with multiple lines of defense.

1. E-mail activation prevents a large number of spambots from being able to activate and post ads.
2. Image Verification and reCAPTCHA is built into vBulletin, under the "Human Verification Options". Though, reCaptcha is better than the regular image verification.
3. Ability to ban known spam e-mail addresses (like @*.ru) from being able to register.

These methods are pretty reliable. But, the problem with including defense measures against spam, is that the spambot programmers will start attacking those lines of defense. If Jelsoft leaves the spam prevention mods as mods instead of including them in the product, then the programmers don't program for the mods in mind - and get foiled. Can you dig it?