Preventing SPAM - Bots and Humans [*Read the First Post!*]

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Preventing SPAM - Bots and Humans [*Read the First Post!*]

Post by Marshalrusty »

*Disclaimer* wrote: You are reading the 2nd version of "Preventing SPAM - Bots and Humans". The guide below will explain the various strategies available for fighting spam. Before replying with a question, please read this entire post. Comments regarding your experiences are of course welcome. Please note that questions that are already answered in the first post will be split off and locked to keep this topic brief.

If you have a question regarding a specific MOD, please ask it in that MOD's topic, not here.

Section 1: Introduction/FAQ
  • What is a spam bot?
    Simply put, a spam bot (with relation to phpBB) is a script that is able to register an account and/or post spam on your board.
    Image
  • Is spam a security threat?
    No. While spammers may seem like they are breaking through your defenses, they actually don't do anything that a regular users couldn't do (register, post, etc). Spam is therefore not a vulnerability and should not be considered as such.
  • How do they work?
    Spam bots do what they are programmed to do; nothing more. Not having the ability to adapt on the fly puts bots at a disadvantage when put against informed administrators such as yourself. The trick for dealing with bots is to stay one step ahead of their authors. Nearly all anti-spam MODs focus on changing the registration/posting form in order to prevent bots from being able to fill out the information properly.
  • Do bots fill in the form the same way humans do?
    No, the majority of bots submit their responses directly, without loading the form that you set up. What this means in practical terms is that changing only the HTML form will not do anything; you need to actually change how the passed information is interpreted (that means editing the .php files). If you encounter MODs that only edit HTML, they are pointless.
  • Should I ban bots by IP or email TLD (.ru, .info, etc.)?
    If your goal is to save time, this strategy will not help. IPs are often cycled and there are thousands of available proxies that can be found just by searching. By banning IPs, you will also end up banning legitimate users. As bots use a variety of TLDs for their email accounts (including .com, .org and .net), banning international ones like .ru may help slightly, but you will once again end up banning legitimate users (and won't ban nearly every bot). In short, you should focus on preventing as many bots as possible, while not causing legitimate users too much extra hassle.
  • What about human spammers?
    Fighting human spammers is more difficult than fighting bots. While bots will blindly attempt to register and post on every board possible, human spammers will want to make sure that their spam is actually being seen. The trick to fighting human spammers, therefore, is to remove any incentive they would have of targeting your board.
  • Will following this guide stop all spam?
    As I said above, human spammers are difficult to stop and some bots may be adapted to work on your site. Following this guide will, however, cause a significant decrease in the amount of spam starting from the very first day :)
Section 2: Strategies
  • Below are various methods for preventing both bot and human spammers. The descriptions are written in simple terms so that you can make an educated decision of which strategies to implement.
  • Updating to the latest version of phpBB
    Explanation: If you are not using the latest version of phpBB, then you need to update. Apart from increased security and bug fixes, phpBB 2.0.23 requires that the SID be passed in submitted forms. This means that older versions of spam bots will be blocked.
    Bottom line: You should always use the latest version of phpBB. If you're not, then the first thing you should do is update.
  • Guest posting
    Explanation: Enabling guest posting will render the majority of anti-spam MODs useless. If you absolutely must allow guests to post, then you should install something like the Visual Confirmation for Guests MOD by Kanuck which will require guests to pass a CAPTCHA before posting.
  • User activation
    What is it? The activation option in the administration panel => configuration allows you to determine how user activation should be handled.
    Image
    If set to 'none', users will be activated (and allowed to post) right after registering. If set to 'user', new members will be required to click a link sent via email to activate their accounts. If set to 'admin', administrators will be required to click a link sent via email each time a user registers.
    Target: Bots and humans
    Pros: It is already built into phpBB
    Cons: If set to 'admin', you will need to take the time to activate each new user.
    Bottom line: Unless you want to activate users manually, I suggest setting this option to 'user'. Setting it to 'none' will make it extra easy for both humans and bots to post spam on your board.
  • Visual Confirmation
    What is it? The Visual confirmation (or CAPTCHA) is a computer generated image with alphanumeric characters that the user is asked to enter into a text box. Here are two example images generated by the phpBB CAPTCHA:
    Image
    Image
    Target: Bots
    Pros: It is already built into phpBB
    Cons: Because phpBB is a popular piece of software, spammers have taken the time to break the standard CAPTCHA via OCR. More advanced spam bots are able to read the phpBB CAPTCHA.
    Bottom line: There are still plenty of bots that are unable to read the standard CAPTCHA. Unless you plan on installing a MOD that will change the standard CAPTCHA to a more complex version, you should leave the standard one enabled.
    Image
    You should note that as this feature was added in phpBB 2.0.11; templates made for earlier versions require 2 changes to support it. More on that here: Knowledge Base - Visual Confirmation and A full list of template changes since 2.0.11 and How to add Visual Confirmation to outdated templates.
  • Registration Auth Code (RAC) MOD
    What is it? This very simple MOD will require users to enter a code into a textbox during registration. The code is chosen by the administrator and can be placed just about anywhere for users to find (right on the registration page, in the description of the first forum, a separate topic, or just about anywhere else). The MOD can also be easily modified to ask a simple question, if you prefer that approach. Here are two examples:
    Image Image
    Target: Bots
    Pros: The MOD is extremely simple and takes less than 3 minutes to install. If spam bots are adapted to enter the correct code, all you need to do is change the code and/or the location where it is displayed to throw them off again.
    Cons: The MOD only targets bots; human spammers will be able to locate the code and register.
    Bottom line: As the majority of spam comes from bots, I strongly recommend this MOD. Assuming that you have taken the steps mentioned above, this should be the only anti-bot MOD you will need to install.
    Download: http://www.phpbb.com/community/viewtopi ... 6&t=552845
  • Hide user profiles, the memberlist and the groupcp from guests
    What is it? Self explanatory. There is no reason for guests to be able to view user profiles, the memberlist and the groupcp.
    Target: Mostly humans, but some bots as well
    Pros: By blocking guests from those pages, you also block search engine bots. If search engines cannot index the links spammers put in their profiles, they will be less likely to target your site. This is particularly true for human spammers who usually investigate sites before spamming. The MOD is simple and easy to install
    Cons: If you specifically want user profiles and the memberlist indexed by search engine bots, this may not be for you.
    Bottom line: If you don't have any specific reason to leave these sections of the board open to the public, I recommend making them only to registered users.
    Download: http://www.phpbb.com/community/viewtopic.php?t=213812
Section 3: Other anti-spam MODs
  1. Below are other anti-spam MODs that are available for phpBB 2.0.x. If what I have suggested above does not work, or you would like to try something else, you should consider looking at the MODs below.If you have never installed a MOD, you should check out the MOD installation tutorial. Always remember to make backups of any files you plan on editing (or just be like me and backup the whole directory).

    If you have a question regarding a specific MOD, please ask it in that MOD's topic, not here.
  2. Active members Only by defender-uk
    Extremely simple MOD that prevents inactive users from showing up in the memberlist.
  3. Anti-bot Guest Post Mod by otseng
    If you allow guests to post on your board, this MOD will help prevent SPAM by adding a drop down to the guest posting screen.
  4. AntiSpam Mod by deMone
    Prevents instant registrations by checking the amount of time it took to fill in the form.
  5. Block Open Proxy Registrants by TerraFrost
    Blocks those attempting to register from open proxies.
  6. Configure Member Profile Required Fields by ycl6
    Allows the admin to set which fields are required during registration.
  7. ConfusaBOT lite & ConfusaBOT ACP by espicom
    This simple MOD changes the registration form URL from "...profile.php?mode=register&agreed=true" to "...profile.php?mode=register&XXX=true", allowing you to define the XXX. This will stop bots that skip the agreement and go straight to the form. The ACP version allows you to change the agreed variable in the configuration section of the administration panel, while the lite version defines the variables in the constants.php file. Which you choose to use is completely up to you.
  8. Deter Comment Spam by TerraFrost
    Provides a deterrence to so-called comment spammers by adding rel="nofollow" tags on a conditional basis. For a further explanation, see the "Author comments" in the install.txt file.
  9. disable spambots by magenta
    Checks the amount of time it took to submit the registration form. If it is less than 5 seconds, the form cannot be submitted.
  10. Easy BotStopper by battye
    Removes the website field from the registration form (still available in user profiles). If a bot supplies this information anyway (via a separate script), the registration will be denied.
  11. Hide Zero Posters by TerraFrost
    This MOD will prevent users with 0 posts from showing up in the memberlist. This is a great tool for preventing human spammers.
  12. Note to Admin on Admin Activation by TerraFrost
    How do you know, when admin activation is enabled, whether or not the person who's just signed up for your board signed up just to spam it? Letting people justify their activation can help you decide exactly who should be activated and who shouldn't be.
  13. Textual Confirmation by olpa
    Textual Confirmation (TC) asks newly registering user a question. If the answer is wrong, TC rejects the registration. Also, TC notifies the forum admin and the community spam database. The administrator can edit the questions and answers in the Administration Panel.
  14. The humanizer by Underhill
    Adds the question 'Are you human?' to the registration form which must be answered for the registration to be processed. Since this isn't a standard phpBB question, most bots will not answer it.
  15. Redirect anonymous users to login by StefanKausL
    Will prevent guests from getting your members' contact information by disallowing guests to view the memberlist, groups, profiles, etc.
  16. Registration disable website signature by EXreaction
    Removes the signature and website fields from the registration form (still available in user profiles). If a bot supplies this information anyway (via a separate script), the registration will be denied. Also has an autoban feature.
  17. security_question by James N
    The mod asks a question that requires human thought to be put in to the answer. Both question and answer are configerable from the ACP. In addition the 'public profile' fields are hidded during registration to stop human spammers who never intend to confirm their membership leaving spam URL's.
  18. Spam Words by Joe Belmaati
    Allows you to specify words in the administration panel that are not allowed to be used in posts. When a user tried to use a forbidden word, an error will be displayed.
  19. User Shield by Wo1f
    Hides usernames and corresponding profile data from all except the Administrator until activated. Manage (activate or delete) non-activated members from the memberlist.
  20. Visual Confirmation (CAPTCHA) by Ptirhiik
    This mod changes the CAPTCHA to a more solid one, even if GD is not available. It comes with random fonts, random colors, random sizes, random angles,noisy background with lines without GD, with lines and circles with GD, random chars in background, random pics in background with GD, etc.
  21. Visual Confirmation for Guests by Kanuck
    Adds the visual confirmation to the posting page for guests. If you enable guest posting, you can use this MOD to prevent spammers from having a field day.
  22. Anti Bot Question by MagMo
    This MOD replaces the standard visual confirmation with a question selected at random from a pool. You may add custom questions to the pool, which makes this MOD very dynamic.
    ** This MOD has not been validated by the phpBB MOD team.
  23. Antispam for all fields by Ramon Fincken
    This MOD uses the word replacement list to check all profile fields (website, interests, etc.) as well as the posting field. An extensive bad word list is provided. Also checks remote websites for bad words. Admin panel settings.
    ** This MOD has not been validated by the phpBB MOD team.
  24. Anti-spam bots registration by RevJim & Anti-Spam ACP by EXreaction
    Both of these MODs disable the signature and website fields for users with less than X posts. The ACP version by EXreaction adds configurable options to the administration panel.
    ** This MOD has not been validated by the phpBB MOD team.
  25. Raven's Antispam by romans1423
    Raven's Antispam is a lean but effective solution for preventing spam registrations and posts, ported to phpBB from a Wordpress plugin of the same name. By requiring an installation-unique variable to be filled out (automatically, if JavaScript is enabled), bots are simply blocked. Raven's Antispam does not require any database modifications or admin panel configuration.
    ** This MOD has not been validated by the phpBB MOD team.
  26. Registration Auth Code (RAC) by Marshalrusty
    This MOD will require users to enter an auth code during registration, which can be defined by the administrator.
    ** This MOD has not been validated by the phpBB MOD team.
  27. Unique Registration Hash by pentapenguin
    This MOD changes the "agreed=true" part of the registration form to a unique identifier to help stop spam bots from registering.
    ** This MOD has not been validated by the phpBB MOD team.
Section 4: Miscellaneous
  1. SPAM removal tools
    Admin Toolkit (mirror) - Allows you to mass delete users. Users should never be deleted straight from the database using tools such as phpMyAdmin.

    Translations
    Dutch: http://www.phpbb.nl/viewtopic.php?t=31511
    Dutch: http://www.phpbbservice.nl/viewtopic.php?t=2
    Español: http://www.tomatoma.ws/foros/viewtopic.php?t=10201

    Other anti-SPAM topics
  2. Fight the spam registration bots! by espicom
  3. Anti-Spam Thread! by EXreaction
  1. PM me if you:
  2. are the author of one of the MODs above and are not happy with my description (I will be happy to use yours as long as it isn't too long).
  3. know of a SPAM prevention MOD that belongs on the list above (I purposely didn't include some MODs).
  4. found a mistake in the article above.
  5. have something else that would best be said in private.
    Please make all other comments directly in this thread. Feedback is always appreciated :)
Changelog
1184853810 - Updated various things; added some MODs
1182314028 - Updated article to version 2
8 entries from 1155596825 to 1170909699 excluded to reduce length
Last edited by Marshalrusty on Thu Feb 08, 2007 4:45 am, edited 13 times in total.
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Post by Techie-Micheal »

I'll expand this more later, but here's the start.

MODs and techniques that require user interaction are great. They can be pretty effective, but the come at a price. Not all users are going to want to open a new window to search for the registration code before they click the register link. Not all users are going to want to sit there and answer "Is this an emu or a lobster?" Simple, sure, but that takes more time to register, and less time for a user to give up and leave. Generally when I register on a site, it is because I see a topic or topics that I like and want to participate in. I don't have a lot of time to sit there to determine if I am hearing an s or a c on an audio confirmation.
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Post by alvo »

The first post here covers all the current anti-spam tools, but may seem a bit daunting for those first trying to solve their spam problem because of the large number of options to choose from. To stop spam bots you'll need to install a mod. If you want keep your forum tidy after the spammers you may want to install a couple more.

Stop the Spam Bots 100%
This is possible and quite easy to do. If you understand what they can and cannot do, you can utilize that information to present a challenge that people can easily solve but they can't. The visual conformation that comes with phpBB uses an approach that's doomed to failure on two counts. First it presents a challenge with the answer, and secondly it uses pattern recognition as the challenge presented. I generated several CAPTCHA images from phpBB and saved them as files. Then I opened the files with the OCR software that came bundled free with my $30 scanner and found it was able to read the CAPTCHAs 100% correctly most of the time. Attempts have been made to make CAPTCHAs that scripts can't read, but the problem is the more difficult it is for a script to read it, the more difficult it is for a person to do so as well. If people have difficulty in reading the challenge you present, they won't be able to resgiser and you don't want to make things difficult for your users, just for the bots.

What bots can't do is rational thinking. People do this extremely well and that's the key to stopping bots. The most straightforward way to implement this is to ask a question that requires thinking to answer. What is the color of milk?, for instance, is a simple question that's easy to answer for a person; impossible for a bot unless it's already had the question/answer combination programmed into it. Not only that, but unlike CAPTCHAs that rely on pattern recognition, blind and visually impaired people can solve these challenges.

The best implementation of this will ask a question, chosen at random, from a pool of questions written by each forum administrator. This way the possible question/answer combinations are endless and getting past them by bots would require more time and effort than simply having a person manually register and post to each forum, so they should be effective for quite some time to come. A lesser implementation will ask the same question each time. If a spammer grabs that question and associates it to your site they will be able to return and register or post as often as they want until you change the question. Although it may be unlikely they will do that, it is still a possibility. Any questions written should be answered by something other than yes or no as programming a bot to supply either as an answer for any unknown question will be successful half the time when encountering a question with those possibilities as an answer.

Mods that implement this type of challenge are Anti Bot Question (the one I use), Textural Confirmation, Security Question (asks only a single, unchanging question), Registration Auth Code (RAC) (asks only a single, unchanging question) and The Humanizer (not recommended because it asks a single, unchanging question with a yes or no answer). Adding one of the first two mods on the list will give you the best shield against bots; the Security Question and RAC mods somewhat less because of the single question, but one of these four is the minimum that's needed to stop the onslaught of spam, however you may wish to spend a few minutes more and make the spammers job harder and less rewarding.

The goal of registration spam is to get the spammers web site posted in as many places on the internet as possible to improve their search engine result rankings. For that reason many register and then never post. Their links, however, will show up if you look at the member list, something that is accessible to search engines. The cleanest way to stop this abuse is to simply not show the user information of people that have registered, but never posted. Mods that do this are Hide Zero Posters and Active Members Only.

Since registering and a single post now will put a spam link up on the web you might consider restricting web links to members that have posted a certain number of times. This works as a reward for people that actively use your forum and discourage spammers. Mods that will let you do this are Anti Spam Bot Registration and Anti Spam ACP. In addition the Security Question hides the URL field upon registration.

Spam bot scripts, in addition to registering and/or posting, are also written to spider the web as search engines do and find forums to spam. The do this by looking for things that are common to all forums, so changing a couple of things will make your forums invisible to many of the spam bots. In the case of phpBB there are at least two things they look for. One is the Powered by phpBB tag time at the bottom. Since this is a nice thing to leave as thanks for using the script for free and because it's required to be there if you want support from the phpBB forums, the task here is to leave it visible to people, but obscured to the spam bots. Changing it to am image or obscuring it with HTML comment tags (i.e. something like: Po<!--engt-->we<!--dkjhy-->red b<!--wodnted-->y ph<!--khiuyu7-->pB<!--zpfleg-->B) is enough to work. One other thing that is looked for is the memberlist. Changing the name of it from memberlist.php to something else, unique to your site, will prevent them from finding you this way.

To sum everything up, at a minimum add a challenge that spam bots can't solve. If you want to do more (either now or at a later time), optionally add a mod to hide the information of people that haven't posted. Even more? Hide the URL field until people have posted a required amount of times. And if you want to do the most, also change the things that bots use to find you. Finally re-read the first post before posting a question here as it answers most of the things that people have asked before about other options, especially ones that don't effectively work (like IP or email domain banning).
Last edited by alvo on Sun Jun 24, 2007 7:45 pm, edited 4 times in total.
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Post by olpa »

Textual Confirmation
What is it? Textual Confirmation (TC) asks newly registering user a question. If the answer is wrong, TC rejects the registration. Also, TC notifies the forum admin and the community spam database. The administrator can edit the questions and answers in the Administration Panel.
Screenshots (click to view a larger image):
1. The registration page with the Textual Confirmation question
2. Graceful rejection of registration
3. Admin interface
Image Image Image
Alternatives: Registration Auth Code, Anti Bot Question
Target: Bots
Pros:
* Installation time is less than 3 minutes or just few clicks with EasyMOD.
* Edit the questions and answers in the Administration Panel.
* Notification e-mails feed your curiosity and morale.
* Translated to 10+ languages, and counting.
* This MOD has been validated by the phpBB MOD team.
Cons:
* Humans can register
* You need to sponsor the author to switch off the notification e-mails
Bottom line: From testimonials: One of the best Mods for phpBB ... Keep up the great work! ... Lovely mod! Thanks! ... THE most valuable mod I have installed ... EXCELLENT MOD!!! ... Thank you very much!!! ...
Download: http://www.phpbb.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=472940 or directly from the home page: http://bbantispam.com/tc/TextualConfirmation.zip.


========================================================================


Links Rejector
What is it? Unregistered users can't post contact information. That's all. The approach works because spammers always submit links, otherwise there is no reason to spam. Therefore, no links allowed -- no spam.
** This MOD has not been validated by the phpBB MOD team.
Screenshot (click to view a larger image):
Image
Target: Humans
Pros:
* No false matches for texts like "test.comm"
* Allows links to the site where forum is located -- great for support forums.
* Can be used as a word censor, even for registered users.
* Installation time is less than 1 minute or just few clicks with EasyMOD. No database required.
* Notification e-mails feed your curiosity and morale.
Cons:
* You need to sponsor the author to switch off the notification e-mails
Bottom line: Thanks to Links Rejector, you can switch ON guest postings. Therefore, your forum will be more active. Links Rejector is a second layer of protection after Textual Confirmation or a similar MOD.
Download: http://www.phpbb.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=386557 or directly from the home page: http://bbantispam.com/lr/LinksRejector.zip.

==========================================================================

For Section 3: Other anti-spam MODs:

Advanced Textual Confirmation (ATC)
What is it? When some one submits data, ATC asks a question and waits for the correct answer. Once it's provided, the request is accepted. Bots are not intelligent, they can't answer, and therefore the spam bot requests are rejected.
Screenshots: See home page
Target: Bots
Pros:
* Long-term protection. Security by idea, not by obscurity. Spammers can't overcome the idea.
* User-friendly.
— Your visitors aren't irritated by the protection.
— No more fuzzy unreadable CAPTCHAs.
* Easy installation and maintenance.
— Few, if any, changes are required.
— No database required, no GD libraries required.
* Translated to several languages
Cons:
* Humans can pass
* Commercial tool (but can be used for free with unimportant restrictions)
Download: http://bbantispam.com/atc/AdvancedTextu ... mation.zip
Installation instructions: phpBB2, phpBB3

==========================================================================

There is also my phpBB Antispam HOWTO, you can copy-paste what you like.
Last edited by olpa on Thu Jun 21, 2007 3:40 am, edited 3 times in total.
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Post by ChrisRLG »

Stop Registrations
What are the best methods to stop spammers from registering at your site in the first place. Here is my view.

a. Install a MOD that is unique to your site. This does mean that it will take more work for you to do the scripting yourself, but no spammer is going to go to the length of coding a tool just for your site - so should make you perfectly safe from registrations - unless you are a huge site where it might still be something that a spammer coding their tools decided its still worth the effort.

b. Install a MOD from the list in this topic - or even two of them. They are tried and tested to work, and are adaptable enough to make them almost unique to your site. Not quite as good as option a. but almost as good.
Last edited by ChrisRLG on Wed Jun 20, 2007 7:43 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Preventing SPAM - Bots and Humans [*Read the First Post!*]

Post by Marshalrusty »

As this topic was once again getting rather lengthy, I have split off the questions. If you need to refer to them, you can find them here: http://www.phpbb.com/community/viewtopi ... 1&t=634255

I would once again like to remind everyone that support for the MODs listed in this topic should be sought in the MODs' respective topics, not here.
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Re: Preventing SPAM - Bots and Humans [*Read the First Post!*]

Post by gomaria »

Wondering where I could find someone to install a MOD on my PHP BB. I'd like the one that has them answer a question. And fixing or changing code is not something I want to learn how to do.


Also the link to this part of the FAQ for this question does not work. I would like to be able to delete the 7 jerks, so far, who have found my new board after just 15 days. I presume I'll get more so being able to delte a bunch of them at a time would be really good.

------------------------
Section 4: Miscellaneous

SPAM removal tools
Admin Toolkit (mirror) - Allows you to mass delete users. Users should never be deleted straight from the database using tools such as phpMyAdmin.

Link is broken
------------------------
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Re: Preventing SPAM - Bots and Humans [*Read the First Post!*]

Post by James N »

the link to the admin toolkit in my sig should be OK. And my anti spam MOD in my sig asks a question on registration
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Re: Preventing SPAM - Bots and Humans [*Read the First Post!*]

Post by gomaria »

James...

Do you know someone who could do it for me? OR else I'd have to go to elance to find someone.
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Re: Preventing SPAM - Bots and Humans [*Read the First Post!*]

Post by karlsemple »

gomaria wrote:James...

Do you know someone who could do it for me? OR else I'd have to go to elance to find someone.

As per the board rules this is not the place to recruit people to work on your board or site, thanks :)
Image
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Re: Preventing SPAM - Bots and Humans [*Read the First Post!*]

Post by gomaria »

Sorry, I forgot. I'm just frustrated at these spam jerks.
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Re: Preventing SPAM - Bots and Humans [*Read the First Post!*]

Post by newtonviet »

Thanks for good suggestion.
gomaria
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Re: Preventing SPAM - Bots and Humans [*Read the First Post!*]

Post by gomaria »

Ok. I got the toolkit up and working on my site. Great MOD.

So if I can do it, everyone who knows how to FTP can do it :)
jeanvallery
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Re: Preventing SPAM - Bots and Humans [*Read the First Post!*]

Post by jeanvallery »

Yes all of those are great. However I don't want people posting their profiles and website links until I approve them. I moderate a messageboard ( <spam link removed : ChrisRLG> ) that doesn't prevent registerations and posting and the amount of registarations by porn,drug sale attempts has reached into the hundreds. My message board will need to be serious discussion and not filled with member registerations that want to sell crud.( <spam link removed : ChrisRLG> ) currently there is 7 such crud registrations and I need to find a method that works for me.
So if anyone can assist me in creating a method to pre screen profile registrations lets get this done.
Last edited by ChrisRLG on Thu Dec 27, 2007 8:01 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Reason: <spam links removed : ChrisRLG>
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ric323
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Re: Preventing SPAM - Bots and Humans [*Read the First Post!*]

Post by ric323 »

jeanvallery wrote:Yes all of those are great. However I don't want people posting their profiles and website links until I approve them. I moderate a messageboard ( <spam link removed : ChrisRLG> ) that doesn't prevent registerations and posting and the amount of registarations by porn,drug sale attempts has reached into the hundreds. My message board will need to be serious discussion and not filled with member registerations that want to sell crud.( <spam link removed : ChrisRLG> ) currently there is 7 such crud registrations and I need to find a method that works for me.
So if anyone can assist me in creating a method to pre screen profile registrations lets get this done.
Why can't you use the methods already posted (particularly the RAC MOD), which stop SPAMbots registering in the first place? That is the whole point of the first post in this topic.
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