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.
  _
• Auto Ban Spammer
  When a spambot posts a thread or post they can be automatically banned to the group of your choice.
  _
• 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.
  _
• What to Check
  You can turn On and Off what you would like the plugin to check, New Registration, New Threads or New Posts.
  _
• 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.

_

[jamiedolan]

Originally Posted by iMisspell

- Redirect URL for registration check just in case the plugin gets a false read for what ever reason, the person can get in contact with the forums Admin (can't think why this would happen, but just to be safe).

This is happening to users that use a password manager / form filler.

[Lon]

Spambots are still able to bypass all defensed.

Also note that when I installed this add-on with 3.8.4 a day or two later when a spambot joined my forum started going coo coo and then I started getting warnings in my header as well as cookie issues.

No admin-cp no nothing, was forced to disable hooks and then determine the problem.

This is just a precaution because I see it's only for 3.7.

I love this Modification but do try it at your own risk above 3.7 :/