Preventing Spam in 3.0.5 and Lower [*Read First Post*]

Silverback420 · Post by **Silverback420** » Wed Jul 15, 2009 2:39 pm

I want to enable the custom profile field on my forum, its version 3.0.5

I have read through all the pages but it doesnt seem as simple as it could be with all the changes etc.

Ive read that you have to edit the code so if the user enters the wrong number, drop down box etc, they dont get the correct code etc.

whats the easiest custom profile field to set up? and ideally how..

Id like to have a sentence possible saying something like whats the middle word in (blah blah blah) and have the user write the middle word into a box, obviously the words wont be blah lol

Also is there any easy way to make sure it doesnt come up in view source? Not sure if bots even would do this but just trying to stop spam as much as possible.

So far Im only using CAPTCHA
email confirmation & post queing though would like to do more.

Thank you

Post by **Mick** » Wed Jul 15, 2009 6:58 pm

Silverback420 wrote:I want to enable the custom profile field on my forum, its version 3.0.5
I have read through all the pages but it doesnt seem as simple as it could be with all the changes etc.

It really isn't difficult if you follow it exactly as it shows.

Silverback420 wrote:Ive read that you have to edit the code so if the user enters the wrong number, drop down box etc, they dont get the correct code etc.

That's correct but it's not code you edit it's changes in the ACP.

Silverback420 wrote:whats the easiest custom profile field to set up? and ideally how..

Both the numbers and the dropdown box are simple changes.
[HOW] Like in the article: Knowledge Base - Custom Profile Fields as an Anti-Spammer Tool

The setup for the visual side of things is slightly different in 3.0.5 so use these settings instead of the ones shown for previous versions: http://www.phpbb.com/community/viewtopi ... 5#p9778455

Silverback420 wrote:Id like to have a sentence possible saying something like whats the middle word in (blah blah blah) and have the user write the middle word into a box, obviously the words wont be blah lol

If you follow the KB article it gives you exactly that and 'blah blah blah' isn't bad

Silverback420 wrote:Also is there any easy way to make sure it doesnt come up in view source? Not sure if bots even would do this but just trying to stop spam as much as possible.

I'm not sure what you mean by that, are you saying you don't want spam bots looking at your board code? If that is the case, they can't anyway.

Silverback420 wrote:So far Im only using CAPTCHA
email confirmation & post queing though would like to do more.

I've ONLY been using the numbers, dropdown box and CAPTCHA on all versions since early this year and not had one successful spam bot hit since. It really does work and well worth the 'effort'.

Silverback420 · Post by **Silverback420** » Thu Jul 16, 2009 10:12 am

lol cheers for that but that page has instructions for making a drop down box or a number method, im not 100% sure how I do for words... i.e. whats the middle word in this sentence, or am i missing something?

Silverback420 · Post by **Silverback420** » Thu Jul 16, 2009 10:17 am

I want it to disaply a message like...

Whats the middle word in this sentence?

"Free Computer Tricks"

So the user would enter the word, computer, ideally with or without a capital C and it would still work.

Bogey · Post by **Bogey** » Thu Jul 16, 2009 11:14 pm

I don't use anything but the CAPTCHA for spambots... and so far, I only had to remove and ban one

Silverback420 · Post by **Silverback420** » Sat Jul 18, 2009 10:22 am

can someone please show me how to make a security question for the board...

Post by **stevemaury** » Mon Jul 20, 2009 4:33 pm

Silverback420 wrote:can someone please show me how to make a security question for the board...

You cannot do it with Custom profile fields.

You could have a dropdown with the middle word as one of the items.

firebrad · Post by **firebrad** » Mon Jul 20, 2009 7:33 pm

just setup my Custom profile fields ( a number and dropdown field) heres hoping it stops the bots

magicfun · Post by **magicfun** » Mon Jul 20, 2009 9:58 pm

Can someone point me to the correct screenshots for this mod? I'm using 3.0.4 and want the custom profile fields that are hidden ...is there an example of this?

I set up the antispam custom profile field. Can you use this independently, or do you have to use the numbers with it too?

So, if they answer, yes I am a spambot. Then what happens to the registration? All I see that it does is say it is required, and thats it. They would still be able to register. Am I missing something?

BeKind · Post by **BeKind** » Wed Jul 22, 2009 2:09 pm

I'm using:

Advanced Visual Anti Bot
Anti-Bot Question
daroPL_AntiSpam

The spammers are still getting through (3.0.5). I've also tested custom profile fields.....still get through. I run some busy boards and everyday we have to clean up loads of porn spam.

I really hope I can find a solution soon!

dpaanlka · Post by **dpaanlka** » Wed Jul 22, 2009 6:20 pm

I'm now using phpBB3's built-in feature that requires users have at least one moderator-approved post before their posts show up to the public. In addition, I've noticed that a lot of spammers these days are not posting but merely filling in profile information.

My simple solution to this is, in my forum's style template, in any location where profile information is show, the style checks for a number of posts of the user. If it is zero (doesn't exist) then a message stating "this user's profile is hidden because they have not made any approved posts" is shown.

Since I've implemented the above two things, my users literally never see any spam of any sort.

TerryE · Post by **TerryE** » Wed Jul 22, 2009 10:22 pm

On the VirtualBox community forums we started asking the registering users to enter the version number of the latest version of the product (this is a regexp in the system config table which we just update with MySQL). Requiring collateral such data from a sister site has just about killed SPAM registration stone dead, but what we've discovered is that the spammers have already placed a lot of activated sleeper accounts over this last year prior to this new check, and are now using these to SPAM, so we've had to do a lot of manual review of accounts with no posts and certain well known patterns for email addresses, ICQ, interests, websites to mass prune a thousand or so such accounts. We do this through SSH / MySQL but the SQL interface to phpMyAdmin should be equally useful for those running their forums off a shared service

Kellanved · Post by **Kellanved** » Thu Jul 23, 2009 10:40 am

There are many changes regarding the CAPTCHA handling of phpBB in the upcoming 3.0.6 release. This blog post gives a summary:

http://www.phpbb.com/blog/2009/06/27/3- ... s-and-you/

BeKind · Post by **BeKind** » Thu Jul 23, 2009 5:11 pm

Seems like they're taking something from the Advanced Visual Anti Bot Mod.

I'm using all 3 validated mods (minus the Javascript), as well as a text custom field, and I just had to zap 6 more spammers today. Our moderators are getting sick of all the spam.

I'm really willing to try anything if there's anything else that's been really helpful for anyone.

Thanks

Seraphic · Post by **Seraphic** » Tue Jul 28, 2009 11:23 pm

So when using custom profiles to add a dropdown box for registration, why is using more then two options considered easier then just two? Wouldn't using say five options be harder then just two for a bot?

advertisements