Spam Decimator Version 1.0.5

First of all, credit for the idea goes to zsdave, with his Spam Killer 3000 hack (https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthread.php?t=76503)

That being said, this is a slightly more powerful 3.5 version of that rewritten from scratch.

Features Include:

-Ban a spammer with two clicks.

-Delete all threads by a user (soft or permanent, ACP configurable)

-Delete all posts by a user (again, soft or permanent, choice is yours)

-Permit or deny mod/super mod access through ACP

-Email the spammer saying pretty much haha, caught you sucker (default email can be configured using ACP)

-Email the webmaster informing him/her of the attack

-Option to move all soft deleted threads to a specified forum (for safe keeping in case IP addresses or whatnot are later needed for legal proceedings or whatever)

Most everything here works with vB native functions (i.e. delete_thread, etc.), so forum, thread, and post counters are automatically updated.

Install

Installing is quite simple. Simply upload the included files (three of them, decimator.php, includes/functions_decimator.php, and images/misc/spambutton.gif) preserving hierarchy, do precisely ONE template edit (a copy and paste job if there ever was one ), and import the product file, and voila! you're done and ready to take on any spammer who comes your way.

Other Stuff

**UPDATED!!!

Spam Decimator 2.0.0 is slated for a late June 2008 release, with a features list to follow.\

Spam Decimator 1.5.1 for 3.7.x is posted as a vB 3.7 add on.

Thanks to everyone here at vB.org for being a fine community to be a part of. Thanks to Marco for helping me out in one of the changed variables for 3.5 threads, really helped a lot . Thanks to my staff over at Pigskin Heaven for putting up with me while I was working on this.

That's basically it. Enjoy, and as always, click install

Changes:
1.0.1 - Fixed problems with xml product file, validated for use with vB 3.5 Gold release.

1.0.2 - Fixed mod/super mod access bug as well as fixed templates for non-vB default styles.

1.0.3 - Fixed all known remaining bugs, rewrote email system to properly parse emails using native vB functions.

1.0.4 - Attempted to fix bug I can't find...updated main template.

1.0.5 - Fixed no mod access bug.

-RD

[Protoman]

maybe in future versions it could delete all their PM's Sent/Received.. since that seems to be the new way people spam your forums.

[RaidenDAWG2]

Originally Posted by corollasbest

maybe in future versions it could delete all their PM's Sent/Received.. since that seems to be the new way people spam your forums.

Could definitely throw that in.

Didn't think of that initially because our site doesn't allow members to use PM's til they have a certain number of posts to prevent things like that.

-RD

[Michael Morris]

Maybe sections of this could be combined with vSpamScan.

While this is useful, it's reactive - VSpamScan is proactive and can tag and ban a spammer without moderator intervention (essentially banning them in 0 clicks).

Also, why not just send them to coventry (now that that is fixed)? They can post all they want - the joke's on them since their posts aren't seen.

[RaidenDAWG2]

First off, used in conjunction with your hack (which I admire BTW, nice work), the two working together would stop pretty much any conceivable attack.

However, there's situations where yours has gaps i.e. posters who drop in, post posts that have conceivably enough text to fool the SpamScan, leave a link, and leave. In that case, the moderators/admins would have this tool at their disposal for easy cleanup and banning of such spammers.

Also, say a spammer is basically just posting images (we've had this done before, the main reason I wrote this), which really might not pop up on SpamScan's radar. Take it from my fellow PSH admin Crunked, having a tool like this makes cleaning up a 60+ thread attack much easier.

Another thing this does is check IP addresses (which actually works quite well BTW, although I'm working on developing a more encompassing algorithm to catch similiar IP's as well as exact matches). Basically gives your staff a heads up on who else might be lurking around stirring up trouble.

Finally, sending them to coventry's a pretty good idea. I'll probably include that as an option next time around. I hadn't really given much thought to it because basically I didn't want to mess around with spammers sticking around and taking up valuable disk space and bandwidth.

-RD

[Michael Morris]

Agreed. Together they are pretty tight, and the nice thing about the new plug in system is the (I presume) can run at the same time without bothering each other.

vSpamScan checks the whole message for the domains - not just the URL's (It's actually more difficult from a coding perspective to stick to just the url's). For instance freewebs.com is on the blacklist. The program will score that whereever it shows up in the message - url tag, img tag, out in the open, it doesn matter.

Now admittedly it doesn't check signatures or PM's (I think - do those use the build_new_post function? If so it checks them cause that's where the hook is at)

Oh well. I probably will download this too for those cases when spam gets by the filter (though I've only had it happen once in 7 months and against 400 tries, which is a good record I think). Also you are right in that coventry posts take memory on the system even if they are unseen - but the main reason for vSpamScan's use of that system is for those occassions when the system scores a false positive. I've had 3 of those since I started with the prototype on 3.0.7 - and they can be a diplomatic pain.

[RaidenDAWG2]

Originally Posted by Michael Morris

Oh well. I probably will download this too for those cases when spam gets by the filter (though I've only had it happen once in 7 months and against 400 tries, which is a good record I think). Also you are right in that coventry posts take memory on the system even if they are unseen - but the main reason for vSpamScan's use of that system is for those occassions when the system scores a false positive. I've had 3 of those since I started with the prototype on 3.0.7 - and they can be a diplomatic pain.

Yeah, false positives are a pain (or in my case, accidental staff usage). Originally, this version was supposed to have an undo (i.e. go through and undelete all posts/threads with reason "deleted by SD" or something like that and unban user), but I couldn't get it working yet (it'll be in a future release).

-RD

[Brinnie]

Both together would be wicked.

[MentaL]

screens?

[Michael Morris]

Originally Posted by Brinnie

Both together would be wicked.

BTW, vSpamScan has been moved over to the plugin section since, as of its latest version, ftp access isn't required to install it.