MyBB Community Forums

How can I block bots? They register and spam the forum constantly full.

http://mods.mybb.com/view/goodbye-spammer
http://mods.mybb.com/view/stopforumspam-com-for-mybb
http://mods.mybb.com/view/fassim-anitspam

Well, you can't just "block" bots by enabling a button or something. Unfortunately, that's not how it works. Spam will always be a problem on the internet. And even though nowadays spam is created by real humans instead of bots, there are ways to reduce it. I recommend installing these plugins:

http://mods.mybb.com/view/stopforumspam-com-for-mybb
http://mods.mybb.com/view/fassim-anitspam
http://mods.mybb.com/view/recaptcha
http://mods.mybb.com/view/registration-s...y-question

These should help stop most spammers during registration. But for those who get in, you can use these:

http://mods.mybb.com/view/goodbye-spammer
http://mods.mybb.com/view/extra-forum-permissions (use the "Can post links?" permission on new users)
http://mybbhacks.zingaburga.com/showthread.php?tid=356

Those last two are, in my opinion, the best protection you can take against spammers. Why? Spammers usually register with the goal to spam your forum with links to their client's websites. By stopping them from using links in signatures, profiles and posts, they will probably leave and never come back. Who cares about a few nonsense posts, it's free content. At least I know they failed their mission!

Quote:And even though nowadays spam is created by real humans instead of bots

Not true. The vast majority of spam is submitted by botting. I use SFS's mod and every single day in my log there are hundreds of attempts, many by the same bot trying to register with the exact same user name over and over again. No human would be stupid enough to try to register on the same forum twenty times each day for six days in a row. Those are bot attempts.

I will tell you about what I've learned on the Stop Forum Spam forum and my experiences with that knowledge.

Because of time limits I ended up adding my anti-spam aids in stages, so I would do one thing then end up having to wait for a couple of weeks or so before going onto the next step. This was good because along the way I was able to see how each step affected the amount of spam registrations. Now bear in mind, even accounts with profile spam are against my TOS so as soon as I find them (which is super easy) I ban the accounts and report them to SFS. I don't include people who sign up with links in their profiles and/or signatures to sites relevant to my forum's content spammers, ONLY those who have obvious spam links, like linking to a site selling knock-off handbags or WoW gold.

The first thing you need to do is set permissions on your member list so that it isn't viewable by guests or anyone with below, say, 3 posts. This blocks the search engines from indexing your member base and it gives your members a bit of privacy, which they really enjoy. Members on my forum with fewer than three posts also aren't allowed to post attachments or send private messages. Bots WILL spam your members via private message--I've seen this done on a video posted at YouTube.

CAPTCHA and RECAPTCHA are totally worthless against anything but the worst-programmed bots. Xrumer and many others can get past those in a heartbeat. Don't even consider them as part of your anti-spam process.

Using the Stop Forum Spam mod decreased spam registrations on my site by probably 50%, as in it stopped anything already in the SFS database and anything that got through I added to the database. Most of those registrations were from bots (yes, I do use RECAPTCHA, so I know first-hand how worthless it is) with a handful from real people.

My next step (again, learned from someone at SFS's forum) was to install the Signup Questions mod (faviouz has posted a link to it). The question HAS to be something tricky because bots DO search the internet to find answers to the questions you use. My first step was to delete the original questions and add ONE single question that had been suggested: "What is the sum of 3 + IV?" Humans can answer that question easily. Bots can not. Since I added that mod I haven't had a single bot be able to register.

Human spammers are another problem, but they aren't a big deal. The ones who do post on my forum are n00bs to spamming, some of them even have to edit their posts. As soon as I see their post I ban them, quarantine their post, then submit their data to the Stop Forum Spam database. I'm very careful about what I add to the database, as in I don't add anyone I suspect COULD be a spammer. They have to actually spam my forum either by posting or having an obvious spam link in their signature and/or listed as their website. I also make sure I fill in the evidence field with what they did and a link to the site they're spamming for. Just to use the mod you don't need an SFS account but you do need one if you want to help add spammers to the database, and it's something I highly recommend because every spammer anyone adds to that database is then prevented from spamming any forum on the internet that uses the SFS mod.

Just two mods is all I needed to cut spam registrations by as much, if not more than, eighty percent.

Bear in mind, some accounts that are created on your forum could be spammers known as sleepers. These are people who will register an account then out of the blue return and add spam links to their signatures or a website to their profile. Set up a View in your User section that shows nothing but accounts that have http in the signature. Then set up another View for the same thing with websites. I check each of those views twice a day and if I find spammers, they are banned and reported to SFS. Once they're banned and reported I edit their profiles to remove the links and after a couple of weeks completely delete their accounts.

Some sleepers won't return for months. A simple way to frustrate the stuffings out of them is to every day delete all zero-post accounts with no activity in a month. Again, these are easy to find in a custom view. Just create a view that shows all accounts with exactly 0 posts with their last activity in an ascending order.

By doing the above I don't need to moderate registrations at all, and as soon as I can I will install the mod that allows the first couple of posts by a member to have to go through a moderation queue just to stop the few who actually do manage to get past from ever posting publicly to begin with.

We all have different approaches to stopping spam. I use the registration question which stops non-human bots and a no signature mod. For posts I rely on the users to report spam and I nuke it after banning the IP. One REALLY annoying bot got blocked at server level. If a new user is registered as being on the board for less than 30 seconds I just ban em as spammers.

I want people (real ones) to be able to register and post if they want and I don't want people to have to jump through a million hoops to do so. If blocking spammers means making posting for real people on my forum a chore then I would rather just keep checking the board.

Hiya, Leefish! I thought about using the No Signature mod, but then I realized I'd end up with hardly anything to report to the SFS database and I don't think it's fair for me just to benefit from it without contributing to it what I can--it helps me so I like to help others. I don't want people to have to jump through hoops, either, which is one reason I won't moderate registrations--well, and the fact I have better things to do with my time than sit here all day trying to figure out who MIGHT be a spammer and MIGHT not. Of course that also makes a good point against moderating the first couple of threads someone posts.

One thing I forgot to mention earlier is that most sig spammers don't even bother with posting on the forum, but instead just want to use our member lists as a link repository for upping their Google search rankings (thanks, Google, for giving spammers even more reason to do what they do). When the member list isn't viewable by guests, Google can't search it so their links don't count.

Thanks to all, especially how it could be different, faviouz.

Thanks for the good tips Regina (and everyone else too).

Regina Wrote:Set up a View in your User section that shows nothing but accounts that have http in the signature.

I did that and it works as advertised.

Quote:Then set up another View for the same thing with websites.

I set up another view and put html in Website field but no joy. What did I do wrong? Is there a wild card I can use in Website field instead of http? I assume the goal here is to display a view of all users who have a URL in their profile.

Thank you for your help.

(2011-07-26, 07:29 PM)Regina Wrote: [ -> ]The first thing you need to do is set permissions on your member list so that it isn't viewable by guests or anyone with below, say, 3 posts. This blocks the search engines from indexing your member base and it gives your members a bit of privacy, which they really enjoy. Members on my forum with fewer than three posts also aren't allowed to post attachments or send private messages.

Regina, first, thank you for all the great advice above!

Could you (or someone) tell me how to set those kinds of permissions on my member list and with attachments and private messages? I've literally been all over my Admin CP tonight and can't figure out how to limit actions based on # of posts. I'm using MyBB 1.6.4

(2011-08-19, 09:57 AM)CDHein Wrote: [ -> ]

(2011-07-26, 07:29 PM)Regina Wrote: [ -> ]The first thing you need to do is set permissions on your member list so that it isn't viewable by guests or anyone with below, say, 3 posts. This blocks the search engines from indexing your member base and it gives your members a bit of privacy, which they really enjoy. Members on my forum with fewer than three posts also aren't allowed to post attachments or send private messages.

Regina, first, thank you for all the great advice above!

Could you (or someone) tell me how to set those kinds of permissions on my member list and with attachments and private messages? I've literally been all over my Admin CP tonight and can't figure out how to limit actions based on # of posts. I'm using MyBB 1.6.4

Prevent visitors from viewing member list, calendar, search or other things:
Admin CP > Users & Groups > Groups > Guests > Click Guests link: Look at Forums & Posts tab and Miscellaneous tab.

Other user group privileges can be customized in a similar fashion.

Don't forget to logout, visit the front-end and test what visitors can do after you change their user group settings.

IIRC To grant privileges based on post count you would use Group Promotions in Users & Groups. But I have no experience with this.