2011-11-15, 01:44 PM
While the finishing touches are being made to the Spam Ninja plugin, MyBB 1.6.5 features some new changes that can help you cook your forum's spam to perfection - Oliver style. This process lets you setup a custom view so that your search for spam is quick, easy and pain free.
These instructions are for MyBB 1.6.5.
In MyBB 1.6.4 and below, you can still create views just like the ones above. Instead of ticking is not empty, enter url for the signature or enter www for the website. It has similar results but is a bit more specific and doesn't allow you to limit by date.
Remember that the Views system and Find Users uses AND comparisons when searching for users. That's why we need to create different views for different criteria. You can create as many custom views as you want so be creative - and remember to share views with us that are successful for you!
Searching Again
If you want to search for users again, go to your ACP and visit the Users & Groups section. In the views menu, you will see the Spam Finder options - choosing one of these will re-search for users.
Support
When you visit the Users & Groups section, you might see the 'No users were found...' message or just a handful of users when you know you have thousands. This is because you've set a custom view as default that isn't finding any users. To reset this, open the blue "Views" menu just above the error message and choose "Manage Views". This will display the views you've created - for the All Users view, open the "Options" menu and choose "Set as Default".
These instructions are for MyBB 1.6.5.
- Login to your Admin Control Panel (ACP) and go to the Users & Groups section
- Next to the search box, you'll see a blue "Views" menu (default theme, may differ if using a custom ACP theme). Open this menu and choose "Manage Views" - then choose the "Create New View" tab.
- Enter the following options:
- Title: Spam Finder: Signature
- Visibility: Public
- Set as Default View: No
- Other settings are optional depending on your preferences. I recommend Business cards as the display results.
- Title: Spam Finder: Signature
- Select which fields you want to show in the view. I recommend you enable Username, Email, Primary Group, Registered, Last Active, Registration IP and Controls.
- Next, you need to select your criteria - how you find spam users. In 1.6.5, a new option was added where you can search for fields that aren't empty. In normal circumstances, a spam user will fill in their website and signature with spam links. You can setup your criteria as you want, but I would recommend the following:
- Tick is not empty for Signature contains
- Post count is: less than 10
- Registered in the last: 14
- Once you've selected the criteria you would like, save the view.
- Tick is not empty for Signature contains
- You will be redirected to the view straight after saving it. Hopefully it will say that no users were found matching the criteria - that means it hasn't found any users that match what you've asked it to do. If it brings up a list of users (and you've followed my recommendations) then these users have a signature, with less than 10 posts who have all registered in the last 2 weeks. Traits of a spammer, no less. Extend (or remove) the time limit for out of date spam.
- It's then up to you to check each user to see if they are a spammer or not. Clicking on their username will edit their profile - where you can see their profile information and judge for yourself whether this user requires action.
- Be careful - you don't want to delete a legitimate user, so it could be a good idea to have Stop Forum Spam open so you can query their username, email or IP address against their database. Delete all is not an option.
In MyBB 1.6.4 and below, you can still create views just like the ones above. Instead of ticking is not empty, enter url for the signature or enter www for the website. It has similar results but is a bit more specific and doesn't allow you to limit by date.
Remember that the Views system and Find Users uses AND comparisons when searching for users. That's why we need to create different views for different criteria. You can create as many custom views as you want so be creative - and remember to share views with us that are successful for you!
Searching Again
If you want to search for users again, go to your ACP and visit the Users & Groups section. In the views menu, you will see the Spam Finder options - choosing one of these will re-search for users.
Support
When you visit the Users & Groups section, you might see the 'No users were found...' message or just a handful of users when you know you have thousands. This is because you've set a custom view as default that isn't finding any users. To reset this, open the blue "Views" menu just above the error message and choose "Manage Views". This will display the views you've created - for the All Users view, open the "Options" menu and choose "Set as Default".