vBulletin Mods

If you install this mod, please mark this as "Installed."

VERSION 2.1.2 RELEASED 5/28/2013!


About Spam-O-Matic 2.x:
Spam-O-Matic 2.x (SOM) is a spam firewall for your vBulletin Forums version 4.x and later. It prevents known spammers from registering on your forums. If they can't register, they can't spam!

Languages Packs Available
English
German - Courtesy of Alex@bulletin (included in zip)
Romanian - Courtesy of Teascu Dorin's (included in zip)
Spanish - Courtesy of vbluis (included in zip)

How it Works
This data responsible for blocking user registrations comes from the stopforumspam.com (SFS) spammer database. After the user who is trying to register passes the built-in vBulletin registration checks which you have configured in your vBulletin settings, SOM then checks the SFS database to see if the IP, username, or email address that the user is trying to register with has been recently tagged as a known spam source on other forums around the Internet. Also can be configured to check the Akismet service for known comment spam.

This is without a doubt, one of the most important mods that you will be using on your forum.

Other Notable Stuff
It also does a ton of other cool stuff like moderating posts automatically if the post is found in the Akismet database, or if it contains words on your "Bad Words" keyword list which can be configured within the mod itself.

The mod WORKS with vBulletin's new Facebook integration.
This module works with all of the Facebook functions that are built into the vB4 series.
Similar mods do not handle Facebook integration completely.

This module has the ability to submit new spammer details to the StopForumSpam or Akismet databases automatically, all without any new templates or manual template modifications! :up:

This means other forums that are running Spam-O-Matic will not have the same spammer on their forums if you have (automatically) reported the spammer to the SFS database.

Just install the product in the product manager, upload a few files, configure the system and you are done. (Estimated time: 5-10 minutes)

What's new in 2.1.0:

• Fixed a problem with MySQL engine selection to make mod more compatible with different types of servers.
• When SOM "Newbies Group" is activated + vB's native option to "Verify Email address in Registration" is activated at the same time, "Users Awaiting Email Confirmation" must click the verification link to become a newbie.
• Added remove user, post, ban to user profile options in admincp under "Quick User Links"
• Added German Language Pack
• Optimized default settings to work with the needs of most forums
• Added a new coupon for GlowHost (available after you submit a spammer)
• Several other performance tuning options

Feature List:

• Optional Public Statistics. Show off to the world how many bad guys you have automatically prevented from posting junk on your forum.
• Auto-Moderation moderates posts that have links, bad words, and other configurable settings.
• Auto-Moderation ignores your RSS posts.
• Registration / Denial Logs available from Admincp > Statistics and Logs
• Optional "Newbies" Manager! After registration, newly registered users can be placed in a "Newbies" group which has more limited permissions as compared to your regular "Registered Users" group. Newbies will graduate to your Registered Users group based on your required post count settings.
• Auto-Submit Spammers from the moderation tools menu on each postbit.
• Remove Posts, threads, PMs, Calendar Events from your spammer in one easy wizard. No double logins needed.
• Shows other users who signed up with the same IP. (Sleeping Spammers)
• Optional Affiliate System
• ~50 customizable settings to fine-tune Spam-O-Matic to your exact needs.

A) StopForumSpam:
The StopForumSpam Module lets you:

• Check a registrant's IP address.
• Check a registrant's email address.
• Check a registrants Username.
• Disable or enable any of the above checks.
• Block and log, or, allow and log known spammers.
• All registration attempts are logged for your viewing pleasure.
• Several other performance tuning options

If a user (or bot) tries to register on your forum and they pass the built-in vBulletin registration system. (Human verification, email verification, etc), their registration details are then passed to the Spam-O-Matic firewall for further checking.

NOTE: You should use some sort of human verification checking in vBulletin's built-in options to limit the number of requests to the already heavily-loaded StopForumSpam database servers. This will also prevent additional load because SOM will not have to do anything if the bot/spammer fails preliminary registration validation which is built-into vBulletin itself.

It is completely invisible to humans who are registering that this process is taking place. Bots are stopped dead in their tracks.

If a spammer is able to sneak past the first line of defense, and manages to post, then there are secondary, tertiary, and, uh...4th level protections too!

B) Auto-Moderation:
Auto Moderation lets you:

• Define how many URLs a new member can post before being sent to moderation.
• Define keywords that will send a post to Auto-moderation (viagra, porn, more here)
• Define minimum post count to avoid Auto-moderation.
• Excludes admin and moderators from Auto-moderation.
• Completely disable Auto-moderation if you don't want it.

C) Akismet Service
Spammers that make it past the StopForumSpam and Auto-Moderation will be checked against the Akismet service. If they manage to make a post, and then are found on Akismet, they can be auto-moderated.

The Akismet settings let you:

• Set the number of posts that Akismet will check from each user. After this number is exceeded, Akismet checking will be disabled for that user.
• Auto-Submit spammers that post on your boards back to the Akismet service so that other forums and blogs do not do not receive the same spam.
• Completely disable the Akismet service.

D) Newbies Manager
Should you decide to enable this option, you can create a new usergroup and then tell Spam-O-Matic about it. Once SOM knows about this usergroup, and once enabled, all new users will be part of the Newbies group. The idea here is that you make a Newbies group that has limited forum permissions. For example, no signatures, no BB code, no images, and etc. This group is created completely in the vB admincp. Spam-O-Matic simply makes it the graduation process to the normal Registered Users group, automatic.
Learn More and Discuss the Newbies Manager here.

Punitive Actions:
If you find a spammer has made it past your 4 front-lines of defense, and has managed to post on your forum, then you can help the community...

The spammer's details can be sent to the Stop Forum Spam and Akismet databases automatically, preventing them from registering or posting on other forums. When other forums do the same, the protection is reciprocated.

Simply moderate a post and choose the option to "Delete Posts As Spam..." an then choose the option to "Ban User." Banning the user sends their details to either Akismet, StopForumSpam, (or both) depending on how you set it up.

API Keys:
API Keys are not required for this system to stop spammers on your forums. But you should obtain them so that your forum can contribute to the real-time block lists.

A StopForumSpam API key is required if you want to contribute to the StopForumSpam blacklists by adding your spammers to their database. By submitting spammers you help keep other forums and blogs clean.

An Akismet API key is required if you want to enable any Akismet auto-moderation features in this module. Akismet API key is not required for all Auto-Moderation functions.

You can obtain a Stop Forum Spam API key which is free from stopforumspam.com.

Get your StopForumSpam API Key Here

You can obtain an Akismet API key from Akismet.com.
Akismet offers free and paid API keys so choose your version based on your situation.

Get your Akismet API Key Here

Why it is better than the other anti-spam solutions on vBulletin.org:

• Works with all of vBulletin 4 functions including Facebook automatic registration.
• Report spammers that you find to the Stop Forum Spam Database.
• Report spammers that you find to the Akismet Database.
• Built-in Auto-moderation.
• Auto-moderation rules based on post count.
• Auto-moderation rules based keywords.
• Auto-moderation rules based Akismet results.
• Enable or disable any actions that you do not want.
• Customizable "Registration Rejected" message.
• Consolidates 4 popular methods of spam prevention into one product.
• No Manual Template Modifications!
• Lots of community support!

======================
Compatibility:
vBulletin 4.0.x

Server Requirements:
Curl or allow_url_fopen must be compiled/enabled into PHP. Ask your web host to enable curl or allow_url_fopen if it is not already available on your server's PHP configuration. (Or just host with GlowHost.com, where it already is :)

=====================
Donations:

If you like this mod, sure, you can donate!

Donations can be all sorts of things:
1) The "Give Thanks" option in your settings is an optional link back to GlowHost Web Hosting.
2) Tell your friends and others about this mod.
3) If you are in need of web hosting, please consider ordering it from the hosting and development professionals at GlowHost.com who were able to develop this mod to you.
4) Help others who are having trouble with this mod by posting tips and suggestions in this forum thread.
5) Cash! Use the "Support Developer" option on the top right of this page.

When you choose to donate, you are contributing to the product development, bug fixes and new releases for SOM and are helping to feed our hungry developers and their families! In other words, your donations helps to cover the time and money spent to develop this system.

The entire team at GlowHost thanks you for your help and support!

We hope you enjoy the mod! :up:

=====================
Installation:

1) Download the attached file
2) Mark As Installed
3) SOM 2.x does not support updates from the v1.x series.
When upgrading to version 2.x, please, be sure to remove any other existing version of SOM 1.x from the product manager before installing v2.x series. Also make sure to remove /forum/includes/xml/bitfield_glowhostspamomatic.xml from version 1 if you had it installed.

4) Extract the zip file, and view the readme file for the rest of the instructions.

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

Original concept credits go to the authors of vBStopForumSpam, MonkeyStop.

Q. Should I use vBulletin 4's built in Spam Management system?
A. You can do whatever you like, but we recommend disabling it. If you have this enabled and have problems, we won't be able to support you. Spam-O-Matic was built to run standalone from any other Spam prevention modules.

Q. Can you add something in the admincp so I can remove users from there too?
A. Yes we can and we did. it is now available in version 2.1+

Q. Does this mod work in vBulletin 3.x?
A. probably not. It might but its not recommended as we have not tested it and it was not built for vB3. There is an older version that works on vB3 here. http://www.vbulletin.org/forum/showthread.php?t=248470

Q. How come there are links to GlowHost.com on my public forum?
A. That would be because you did not use the settings to turn the "Give Thanks" link off.

You can disable the "Give Thanks" link if you do not want to help support this mod. Please keep in mind that this is a free mod and development and support for it does cost time and money. :)

We rely on your links to our site to help support development of this mod so we greatly appreciate your participation if you keep the "Give Thanks" link enabled. Linking to us ensures support and future (New and Improved!) releases. Yes, it is OK to link to us even if you use a different host. GlowHost has thousands of customers that link to other hosts. They pay for their hosting, they are free to link whatever they like. :)

It's a very small and unobtrusive link. Come on! Help us out and link us! (How is that for shameless self-promotion?)


...

tagged and thanks

I'm unclear: Is this an adjunct to the Stop Forum Spam add-on? Or is it a replacement? i.e., to install this should the Stop Forum Spam add-on be disabled or uninstalled?

This is a complete replacement. Your other StopForumSpam plugins may or may not work with this.

Reference this feature ...

New registrations are checked against the known spammer database at StopForumSpam.com. If the email, IP, or username exists in their database, the user (or bot as the case may be) is denied registration on your forums.

Using the StopForumSpam mod, we have found that blocking based upon IP address is a killer and a LOT of legitimate registrants were being blocked, so we turned OFF this option allowing the email address and user name to continue being checked.

Does your mod allow the same configuration options?

I can't really tell by your sample pic as the text is so small I can't read the AdminCP options ...

On a side note, this looks really interesting and could consolidate several methods we use now ... :)

Regards,
Badger

Hello Badger,

Yes, it does what you want.

"Test the IP address against the StopForumSpam database:"

Select "Yes" or "No."

I will work on that screen shot as well, I agree.:up:

Problem is vbulletin.org has a max height of 768 px so I cant find a good way to put a screen shot of admin settings here without chopping the image into 3-4 pieces which is a bit sloppy. Best to just install the application, and check the settings yourself. :)

The simple answer is this mod has all of the same settings as the older mods, and some additions.

Long day. I guess. Badger I have updated the previous post. What you want is included.

Anyway to include the infraction system as well? I currently use the infraction system to move spammers to a usergroup that isn't banned users but a separate group that has no posting privileges. The spammers seem less likely to register again when they are still able to login even though they can not make any posts.

I didn't find the IP address to be the problem but the name, so I have it check IP address and email but NOT name.

No, but that sounds like a waste of your time to me. Most spammers are bots so they probably care nothing about what group you put them in, and are even less likely to login or "see" that they can login but not post.

This module blocks bots which will be 80-99% of your spammers, then when you train your Spam-O-Matic Auto-Moderation to your specific needs, your auto-moderation filters will catch the human ones that are stupid enough to try and login to post. The spammers that get past those two checks are checked by Akismet. The ones that get past all of that are determined humans, lucky, or have new techniques. Those users should be reported so make sure to get your API keys.

I don't see much point in moving spammers to a special group. It wastes your time, it wastes database space, it wastes server resources, etc. The only upshot of doing that is to boost member count and that can be done in other ways if you want your boards to look like they have more members.

I may have overlooked something though. Let me know. :)

Awesome! Can we have this for vb3.8.5?

Hi Alfa,

It is untested on vB3. However, it probably works.

If you want to try, you need to download the zip file and edit the file called "product-glowhostspamomatic.xml" on line 12.

Find:

Block Disabled:      (Update License Status)
Suspended or Unlicensed Members Cannot View Code.

And replace with:

Block Disabled:      (Update License Status)
Suspended or Unlicensed Members Cannot View Code.

Then view the readme, follow the destructions and see how it goes.

If it works or doesn't, let us know. :)

Works well so far ... does conflict with Merge Double Posts Mod By Paul M

Thanks ... :)

One more clarification as previously asked ...

Do you recommend either disabling or removing completely the current "StopForumSpam" mod and just using yours in lieu of it, as opposed to trying to run them concurrently?

Regards,
Badger

We did for some reason....

Perhaps it was because a lot of spammers hitting us were using IP address blocks that were from AOL which use proxy for their members. We got a lot of complaints from AOL members who were legitimate but couldn't get on.

Regards,
Doug

By the way ....

Reported Conflicts:
The following conflicts have been reported. We have not tested them to be sure. If you run the mods in this list you may want to be aware that possible conflicts may arise.

Double Post Prevention by (Paul M)

We run this mod.....

Before we install yours, do you have any anecdotal feedback as to the nature of the conflict that occurs and how serious it is?

Thanks ... :)

Regards,
Badger

That's been answered in post #5

In other words, no I don't recommend running both since this does everything the old module does, assuming we are talking about the same thing when you say "current StopForumSpam mod"

me too :(

Unfortunately I do not know if the conflict truly exists, or what the problems may be, it was reported earlier in this thread. If you can confirm it is a conflict and the nature of it, that would be good.

I find it hard to understand HOW it could interfere with the double post prevention mod.

I was going to post the actual error but I had uninstalled the DoublePost Prevention mod.
I reinstalled the Double Post Prevention mod and now there is no error. Head scratcher.

In that case, for the time being I have removed the compatibility problem from the list of known compatibility issues.

Currently, there are no known conflicts with other 3rd party mods.

Ok, let's give this a go ... ;)

Installed for testing with thanks ... :up:

DISABLED other mod titled vbStopForumSpam v.061 for duration of trial ....

Appreciate your efforts to consolidate the services and make the handling of spam easier. It's a similar approach to the old v3.6 One-touch Spam Ban & Cleanup Options mod, which we really loved using until the unfortunate demise of the author.

Will post and let everyone know how this testing goes ... :)

Regards,
Badger

First question ... :D

Where does one set the usergroups which are eligible for auto-moderation?

Thanks .. :)

Regards,
Badger

vB Admin > Usergroups > Edit the Usergroup you want > Search the page for Akismet and you can enable Akismet auto moderation for that usergroup.

The other options on the main settings page are global to everyone except mods and admins.

Thanks .. :)

So, this entry shown in in the Usergroup AdminCP is for the auto moderation control of your mod, not a setting from vBulletin?

Regards,
Badger

ps: running well so far... bagged 10 spammers in less than an hour already. No errors and no conflicts noticed ... ;)

Thanks for this, installed and working perfectly :)

Just installed. My first plug-in (new to vb)

one Q;
if I already have an Akismet key supplied under
vB Admin > Options > Spam Management

should I still supply it where your plugin asks for it?
should I delete it from the Spam Management section?

does it make a difference?
thanks

Spam-O-Matic is untested with the built-in vBulletin Spam Management system.

Spam-O-Matic should be run standalone for best results.

Interesting ... :)

Thanks for the update ....

Akismet direct support etc were added new in VB4 as options ...

Not knowing what you said above, we left VB's services ON and have been running them side by side after installing your mod, so far without a problem. Perhaps we'll leave then ON for now and see if there's any obvious conflicts and post here if we observe any.

Thanks again for your work... nice integration .... would love to see a ONE BUTTON option similar to mfyvie's old 3.6 One-touch Spam Ban and Cleanup. When trying to deal with spammers on a PDA or iPhone sitting in an airport, that one button approach in the spammer's profile that banned him, removed all his messages permanently and sent reports to stopforumspam database (with an optional add-on) was excellent. So, if you ever think about additional options, we'd sure appreciate that one. :up:

Regards,
Badger

Take a look here. One spammer first rejected, after allowed with same banned IP

Getting some odd behavior .... :confused:

Since installing this mod, I've found automated posts from two names that we use for posting information about classified ads (uses RSS function) and multiple user logins, are having their posts placed in moderation, which never happened before.

Both these users belong to the Admin user group and the only thing they have in common is their posts are generated automatically by either the RSS funciton in vBulletin 4 or by an add-on mod which creates a post in a forum advising moderators about people who are attempting duplicate logins and registrations.

Not sure why this mod would cause this, but perhaps it has something to do with the fact we're still running vBulletin's Akismet function in tandem with this mod? With just vBulletin's Akismet check running, we don't get this problem...

Regards,
Badger

Yeah I've just noticed that aswell. I was trying to figure out why my RSS feeds weren't posting :erm:

Yup .. :)

I've been looking at this further and this mod is definitely placing automated posts by Admins using both RSS and other mods into the moderation queue...

I wonder if there's a way to disable the "auto moderation" function in this mod, as we're not using it anyway, of course, assuming that it's the element of the mod causing the problem.

Regards,
Badger

Not sure how that will work, our forums have the default vB stuff turned off and only run this mod. Seems like the built-in functions our similar but maybe a little less robust.

Yes I would like to see that too and it is planned for a later version when we can figure out how to get it doen without manual template modifications.

Giorgino, for the sometimes strange log-entries, we are looking into that.

Regarding RSS feeds being moderated, it shouldn't moderate them unless your RSS user does not have more than what you have configured in "Auto-Moderation: Minimum Post Count"

Are you saying your RSS user has more posts than the configured value and is also ADMIN and it is being moderated?

Yes, you could disable auto-moderation by setting the post count to 0.

In our case, yes... our RSS Poster name "Quartermaster Stores" has 120 posts and is classified as a usergroup Admin, yet it keeps putting that username's posts into the moderation queue. Also, our "Admin" username that auto posts in a mod forum inappropriate multiple logins has 18 posts and it puts his posts into the moderation queue as well.

I will try that ...

Note: Just has a regular registered member (18 posts) have one of his posts placed in moderation queue and I've never seen that before. We had the Akismet setting (vBulletin's version) at 1, which according to their instructions means that shouldn't happen with their version. As I said, it never did previous to testing this mod. Let me set your auto-moderation to 0 and see what happens.

Regards,
Badger

Edit: Just checked and your auto-moderation count for URL's was already set to 0, but it still stopped the user with 18 posts? It's worth noting that user had 5 links to external images in his post that got moderated. The Auto-Moderation: Minimum Post Count was set to 1, so I just changed that one to 0. Does this help at all?

Regarding your RSS, is that done through some plugin or is that done using vB's built in RSS?

As for auto-moderation of your guy with 18 posts, that may be a conflict with running vBs Akismet service in tandem with Spam_O-Matic which I don't recommend trying as it has not been tested.

This module was meant to run standalone from any other anti-spam.

Is there some reason to run both that I am not seeing?

It's vBulletin's standard RSS built into v4.0.4pl1. It's reading a standard v2 RSS feed and creating a post in a forum, using an Admin account.

After resetting your "Auto-Moderation: Minimum Post Count" which was set to 1 to 0, I note that a recent auto RSS post by the same Admin account posted successfully without being placed in moderation. Can I assume that's because by changing it to 0, the auto moderation function is now disabled?

Thanks for your help ... :)

Regards,
Badger

I do not have any addons enabled on our boards except Spam-O-Matic.

I have disabled the vB built-in Spam settings.
I used the built-in RSS feed manager.

I then made a test as the default "admin" user as the RSS user.
I posted to both public and private boards.

My "Auto-Moderation: Minimum Post Count" is set to 6
My "Auto-Moderation: URL Count" is set to 0
(no URLs alowed if you do not have at least 6 posts, unless you are mod or admin in which case these settings are ignored)

Nothing was auto-moderated.

If you are still being auto-moderated perhaps it is based on keywords. I can't duplicate the problem.

When you have more details that explain how to use it easily for everyone including what to disable and leave enabled that is vB default I might be back :p, I can understand how to make it work and know how to install but look at your three pages, perhaps clean up the first mod post and include known or common bugs and or what to disable etc so people will not need to scroll thorugh several pages to find or you say "That is covered in post #5" etc etc.

Long story short I cannot believe that you developed this mod without even looking into the pre-built functions... Now I've made an honest mistake before but imo you should have shown a way to increase the capabilities of the default functionality in vBulletin 4 or simply made an add-on that enhanced it all, not to be rude but that is IF you actually did your homework.

Just my 2 cents you can give me a refund later but for now keep it in case the next person needs a penny.

I'm not using ANY keywords ...

Now I'm confused again .... :D

So, based upon what you just posted, I did this ...

Auto-Moderation: URL Count (Set to 50)
The maximum number of URLs a user can post in a new thread or reply.

Auto-Moderation: Minimum Post Count (set to 0)
Minimum postcount required to avoid keyword and URL moderation. If user has a higher postcount than this number, their post will never be auto-moderated. This does not effect moderators and admins.

The mission is simple for me.. I just want the darn auto-moderation turned OFF, so there's no possibility for it to affect Admin usergroup RSS auto posters or any other auto poster.

I also want it to check Akismet for spammer's posts for the very first post only (any user group), just as it does now with the standard default vBulletin Akismet function. I assume this mod still does that, even with auto-moderation turned OFF?

Thanks for your help ... :)

Regards,
Badger

OK Superman, here it is so you do not have to read 3 pages:

Disable the built in spam settings in vBulletin and use Spam-O-Matic instead.

There is not enough feedback yet to list "common" bugs or known issues, that is why I have reserved the first post for FAQ. This thread is here to find known issues, take feedback for enhancements, and bugs so they can be added to the main page.

Badger,

To turn off auto-moderation, set Auto-Moderation: Minimum Post Count to 0. Nothing should be auto-moderated in this case.

Spam-O-Matic runs every post from every user through Akismet for every post always every time.

A future version may have an option to only check the first "x" posts that a user makes using the Akismet service.

You might be able to do what you want to do by disabling Akismet (remove your API key and/or set Akismet: Auto-submit from Moderation Tools to "No" in Spam-O-Matic and then using the vB Akismet services which better do what you are trying to accomplish.

Thanks ... :)

I think that's what's happening and why our registered member with 18 posts got stuck in moderation. Spam-O-Matic is checking every post through Akismet, instead of only checking the first post (that's when you nail spammers), which is the way we had the VBulletin Akismet set (stop checking after first post).

I'll turn OFF your Akismet and leave ON vBulletin's until you are able to add that option. I'll also continue testing for you ...

Regards,
Badger

There's enough confusion on the first three pages that need to be made very clear, you might think I'm being rude I just want everyone to actually benefit from your mod, if they can't understand something or become confused because it's not made clear in the actual Modification post then they will quit and not even try to install you should know this from being on here so long "Join Date: 22 Nov 2005".

Also, posting on page three will not save others from searching up until page three or backtracking if this ever reaches let's say page 40 etc so simply modify the modification info and put that bold text up there ;).

Ok back to work for me, you handle your mod, like I said I like the concept but was simply taken back reading your post about being unaware of the default settings especially since your a "Host" that most likely releases free mods to get more vBulletin clients.

@Badger
Thanks for the feedback and testing :)

@Superman
Changed first page (again) the mod is only a few days old to for release to the public so yes the description being constantly updated. Hopefully the first page says everything there is to know now. FAQ also added.

Still waiting to here if there are other users that have RSS issues, I can't duplicate them. If you find a way to duplicate the problem with specific examples, let us know.

Quick question. I installed the mod and ran into users getting tagged by akismet checking every post. I will disable that feature after reading the previous posts.

I was looking at the logs and it lists like 116 entries. I just installed the mod today and I know I have never had 116 new registrations in one day. Where are all these log entries pulled from? I am just curious since I see a lot of usernames that say "Allowed registration" and I don't see them in my member list.
I did notice that some of the usernames are linked, which leads me to believe that those specific usernames are legit new registrations for my site.


Thanks for this mod. We are hoping it catches the spammers trying to register so we don't have to worry about them

Yes, the linked users are the ones that were really allowed registration. There is a known issue with the logs making duplicate entries and sometimes saying "allowed registration" for users who were really not allowed.

It will be fixed in a later release, it is a cosmetic bug and not a functionality bug.

As for the high number of log entries, that is normal even without the dupes. There are lots of bots running around out there that get denied on the default human verification settings or just give up or die in the registration process. Spam-O-Matic tries to tag them all.

wow, I forgot all about the bots not getting past the recaptcha stuff. Thanks for the info. I really like this mod. Good job and thank you for sharing.

Great mod, thank you - this will really help reduce spam.

I have 1 problem with it at the moment. When trying to ban a spammer, I get a 404 because (for security reasons) I changed the name of both modcp and admincp folders but your mod does not recognise this. As this is such a common situation, you really need to add those variables to the options page.

Sure! glad you like it. Don't forget to give the mod a rating and vote it for MOTM :)

I will put it on the list for possible enhancements if this is something that a lot of other people want. Though I think that if you ask around, the moving of those directories doesn't really do that much good and is more of a hassle than it is worth when dealing with administrative tasks such as mods and upgrades.

Ok, update ...

Still getting members placed in moderation and can't find a pattern as one had over 500 posts and the other just 2 posts. One thing in common was that they posted one (1) link in their post.

Settings in Spam-O-Matic as follows:

Auto-Moderation: URL Count = 0 (academic since according to previous instructions, the "Minimum Post Count" at 0 should turn OFF this function anyway)

Auto-Moderation: Minimum Post Count = 0

Akismet as handled by Spam-O-Matic was disabled ...

Vbulletin Akisment was left ON ....

So, before we un-install Spam-O-Matic and go back to vBStopForum mod which was working fine (even with vBulletin's Akismet running), we're going to turn vBulletin Akismet handling OFF completely and turn Spam-O-Matic Akismet handling ON, although checking every post of every user group is a waste of time most of the time (really needs that "above x posts not checked") function.

We've left the moderation settings at "0" and "0" ... hopefully disabled. ;)

Anyway, let's see what happens with this set-up, which is now mutually exclusive to the two Akismet handlers.

Thanks .. :)

Regards,
Badger

I also had the issue with legit members getting their posts put into moderation. We have had zero spammers make it to posting in 2 years with about 4400 members registered and a couple hundred thousand posts. Our big thing is catching them when they register and booting them before they do harm. That is why this mod rocks, it does a lot of the leg work for us.

We have a forum that is specific to a certain activity, so we added some mandatory fields in the registration that would be well known by people that would join up, but spammers just end up typing "test", "asdfg" or "Russia" or whatever. Combined with manually approving new registrations, this dropped our spammers to zero.

We disabled the checking of the posts in the forum because it is not really needed right now.

On a side note, we did find that a few years ago we had some spammers sign up and just start sending spam via private messages. We simply made it so new members with less than x posts cannot pm. once they hit the magic number the pms are turned on. When that first started, we found that we caught every spammer with the standard akismet anti-spam that came with vbulletin, and deleted them before they could do harm. This mod catches the spammers before we even have to deal with them. nice.

This is a nice mod.

I'm not talking about moving directories, I'm talking about the common practice of renaming them. This is supported as standard by vB. There is a setting in config.php that allows you to do this easily witout any upgrade hassle etc. It's a standard thing and this mod either needs to get the setting from the vB config file or if that's not possible, allow the admin to configure it on the options page. Any security conscious forum admin will do that as standard.

Extract from config.php:

Block Disabled:      (Update License Status)
Suspended or Unlicensed Members Cannot View Code.

Sorry, I was thinking of the Linux commandline when I said "Move" which is the Windows equivalent of "Rename." I usually work in Linux so I got your idea and was talking using Linux speak, sorry for confusing you.

As I said we have it on the list, based on if many others need this we will consider it. AFAIK this "renaming" is not very popular, but we will see.

OK. Can you give me a workaround in the meantime?

I found 2 instances of "modcp" in functions_vbghsfs.php on lines 290 and 534 and changed them to my own modcp name and although I no longer get a 404, neither the remove or ban actions will work. I get an uninformative message and when I click OK, nothing happens.

Attachment 120598

Unfortunately I can't give you any workarounds at this time as we are busy working on other more pressing areas in the current version like improving the logs and improving the Akismet functionality.

Once we are done in those areas we can probably spend some time looking at your request, but these were not part our original plans so it will take some research for me to be able to give you a workaround., well, one that works properly anyways.

If I find a workaround, I will probably just include it in a future release instead of in a random post in this thread which will be unlikely to be read or found.

Ok, another update ...

Still getting members placed in moderation and can't find a pattern as one had over 644 posts and the other just 8 posts. The 644 post member placed a post with one (1) link in their post while the 8 post member just mad a regular post with nothing obvious that would trigger it being placed in moderation. :confused:

Settings in Spam-O-Matic as follows:

Auto-Moderation: URL Count = 0 (academic since according to previous instructions, the "Minimum Post Count" at 0 should turn OFF this function anyway)

Auto-Moderation: Minimum Post Count = 0

Akismet as handled by Spam-O-Matic is ENABLED with ID.

Vbulletin Akisment handling was OFF ...

Not sure what to do next, but as much as we think that this mod has nice potential and its author is making efforts to sort it out, we're going to have to un-install Spam-O-Matic and go back to vBStopForum mod which was working fine, even with vBulletin's Akismet running concurrently.

Perhaps we'll try it later on when the "kinks" have been worked out ...

Thanks for everyone's efforts ... :)

Regards,
Badger

Not sure what you mean by "Akismet as handled by Spam-O-Matic is ENABLED with ID." sounds to me like you have some strange setup or the vB Akismet is conflicting.

If you want me to have a look PM me your admin logins so I can see what you have setup. I'd like to see the moderated posts as well.

I meant that I put in the field you provided my actual Akismet ID, which I thought you'd might want to be aware of for your trouble shooting. ;)

Running vb4.04pl1 with nothing odd about it other than pretty standard add-ons that I bet at least 50% of people here run as well .... and to reiterate, vBulletin's new Akismet "Anti-Spam" option was turned OFF in the recent testing as per your suggestion.

Have gone back to vBStopForum mod for now, as I can't afford to have 13,000+ members sending me emails at all hours of the day complaining about their posts being moderated when there's nothing wrong with them.

Will happily do more testing as future releases come out and more people post results, including any validated conflicts.

Thanks for your efforts .. :)

Regards,
Badger

Sounds good. It sounds like your specific issue is related to Aisemet checking every single post. Akismet found something in their DB that triggered a flag to moderate the post.

This will be changed in the next version to be more flexible in regard to which posts to ignore.

I agree with you ... :)

In my opinion, checking every post of every user group is a waste of time most of the time and if you added an option to NOT check above x posts, it would solve this problem.

Regards,
Badger

OK, so I set the folder names for modcp and admincp back to the default and tried using the options in the user manager but I get exactly the same problem. A strange alert box as shown in the image attached to my previous post and nothing happens. The mod does a fine job of preventing spammers from registering but it doesn't allow us to ban or remove users.

What am I doing wrong?

That's the first I have heard of it.

Are you running any other mods?
Are you running the original mod or the one you modified?
Have you tried a different browser?

Mod Installed Perfectly. Hopefully it can hold up to spammers now :)

I need help with this mod...

a user signed up earlier on my forum today, then emailed me saying he signed up, got confirmed, but could not get on, I looked for the user up and down, and vb showed nothing, then i looked in spam-o-matic logs...and this is what it said...

Spammer Found and rejected.

I did not even get notified, nor did it place him in que for moderation..if the user tried to signup again, then it will just flag him again..

1 why did the mod not send him to que so i can decide if he deserves a ban?
2: why was i not notified at all?
3: if he does not appear in vb records, then how can I unban his IP from spam-o-matic
so the system does not flag him again? I see no record that he exists at all, yet he
can not signup or login...

This sucks..

wth..

And did it tell you why he was found and rejected? (IP, Email, Username)

You will need to read the description of this mod more carefully.

1 )It does not email you each time it tags a spammer, your inbox would be flooded with junkmail from Spam-O-Matic. Instead it logs them.

2) It does not place users in a queue for moderation. It places posts in the moderation queue. If they are not registered, they can't be queued.

Maybe, maybe not. It depends on the answer to my first question, why was he banned in the first place?

1. There is no user moderation, there is post moderation.
2. Spam-O-Matic logs things, it does not email about them
3. You can't unban his IP from Spam-O-Matic because Spam-O-Matic is not where the "banned" IPs are stored. Those IPs are stored on StopForumSpam.com which is where Spam-O-Matic gets its data from. So if your user is tagged as a Spammer because of his IP then you can turn off IP checks or you can tun your cache down to something lower than the default 90 days.
[/QUOTE]

Version 1.2 has been released with new goodies, primarily fixes and additional settings for Akismet and Auto-Moderation.

Enjoy!

Installed! Thanks for sharing.

[/QUOTE]

You are asking me why your mod banned him, seriously? Was he in the spammer Database, and that was why he was rejected? He is helping me, so I knew he is not spamming my forum, soI am not sure what he does on other forums, but regardless, it flagged and rejected him instantly...We need a way to white list users that we know, what I do not need is a maybe or maybe not he will be flagged and rejected again, if it flags him again, I will disable the mod as useless..if it will not give users a chance to plea their case if they are flagged on mistake, or if they are rejected, at least throw the user into a user group for review and for them to have a way to at least contact admin just in case they may not be a spammer.

What I wasn't asking for were rude remarks, threats or demands.

I am writing a program for you for FREE and was willing to help you for FREE to remedy your specific problem. Asking people for things nicely goes a long way.

I was asking what the log said was the specific reason for the ban.

Usergroups are coming in version 1.3 but you can get by without them if you look at the logs to see why they were banned (username, email, IP) and disable that check or turn the "StopForumSpam: Remote Expiry" down a bit to something like 10.

I was not rude. I am telling you how it is.
What threat?
I am not demanding anything. You can surely do what you
want with the mod. I will run it or I won't.

Thanks for the update :)

I'm getting this error when making a new post after installing the update

Parse error: syntax error, unexpected T_BOOLEAN_OR in /home/xxxxxxx/public_html/includes/functions_newpost.php(433) : eval()'d code on line 29

What about existing users? Are there any plans to check existing users against stopforumspam and offer the possibility to delete the users?

Sure thing :)

Hmm, have you tried re-installing it? Do you have any other modules or manual template modifications running on your boards?

We considered that in the beginning but it presents some problems, especially on larger boards. StopForumSpam has a 5000 query per day limit, so we did not want to overload their servers. Boards that have more than 5000 members would have to setup a scheduled task and that could take a very long time to complete. The other issue as that most spammers are caught right away and rarely come back to do anything if they have not already done so in the short period of time after their registration.

Yes uninstalled and re-installed, same error. Got loads of mods and a few manual templates modifications.

I've gone back to v1.1.2 it works fine for me :)

Right now my boards exists since few years and your modification has just appeared. In the long timeframe there were many spam account. Some I deleted manually, some not. there are around 350 accounts which are suspected to be spam accounts. Deleting them manually would require much efforts. vBulletin does not offer automatic deletion of them.

Automatically scan and delete/ban accounts would be a real help with this. There are not only boards out there with over 5000 accounts. Just the effort to manually check them is huge.

A brilliant mod, which combines a few things like Keyword Checker and StopForumSpam into one, though I have found one major feature missing.

For the Keyword checking, the only option is Auto-moderation. Sadly with the amount of spam bots about that moderation queue can be over 100 long in the morning every day, with an old VB3.8 plugin we use to just deny anyone with less than 3 posts who hits a keyword, would it be possible in a future version to add the option to either send to moderation, or just stop the thread being posted?

Cheers all the same, a great addon :)

Thanks for the update. This mod is awesome.

Error with vBulletin 4.0.6 by creating an article:
PHP Parse error: parse error in \includes\class_dm_threadpost.php(1766) : eval()'d code on line 4

It's the hook threadfpdata_presave.

Can you fix this error:?

Block Disabled:      (Update License Status)
Suspended or Unlicensed Members Cannot View Code.

Im getting it after posting.. Its causing me to double post.

If you are getting this error:

Block Disabled:      (Update License Status)
Suspended or Unlicensed Members Cannot View Code.

it would be nice to know version number of your vB.

Do you mean in the CMS, blog or in the forum? If you can give me details on what you do to get that error I will try to track it down on this side.

CMS Article. As I described I created a new article and clicked Save. The message appears and the article is not saved. If I disable your mod, it works.
I have also disabled automoderation, but this has no effect.

I still don't see the point of it. How often do you see a 3 year old suspected bot resurface and start posting spam? Never I guess. You might as well keep those users and make your forums look like they have more members than they do.

I am not saying it isn't possible that your request will make it into this mod, but it is unlikely anytime soon.

Thanks.

Yes that is possible, do you have an example of the old mod so I can see how it was handled?

We have such bots posting after years of silence. Also it does not make any sense to have dead accounts just to show more users. I love to keep my forums clean.

Anyway, if you don't implement such a thing, I will do it as I need it.

Another thing:
In my Log Viewer there are entries with "No Username Submitted". They just have the eMail Address. How can that be?

The logs are overly verbose in this version and so is the checking. We will probably disable that as in many cases it is just information for your viewing pleasure.

The reason you see no username or no email is because some bots do not provide those details, then Spam-O-Matic sends them to the vBulletin registration system (or bans them as the case may be) When they get to the vBulletin registration system they are eventually blocked for not having the required fields.

Ok, in this case they were blocked due to eMail Address. Thanks for the info.

bug...

Block Disabled:      (Update License Status)
Suspended or Unlicensed Members Cannot View Code.

Only happens when a user clicks "Go Advanced" on the quick reply form. Does not happen when double clicking "Reply to Thread".

Im running 4.0.6PL1

I get this error when I try to delete a post as spam and ban the bot:


Fatal error: Using $this when not in object context in /home/website/public_html/includes/functions_vbghsfs.php on line 459

Even after I disabled and then uninstalled the plugin this error still exists.

Im getting this error also when making new posts.


Parse error: syntax error, unexpected T_BOOLEAN_OR

I can't dupe it. I need versions.

When you submit a bug report please give me a vB version number and precise and exact steps to reproduce the problem. Thanks. Also, include your browser version and name (IE, FF, Opera, etc).

Here, I will give a checklist:

1: vBulletin Version:
2: Browser:
3: Detailed description of the problem.

Gold Phan7om wins the prize so far for the most detailed report.

I asked vbulletin support about it and they said its most likely the 'newpost_process' hook.

May be a start?

If you create a mod for vb 4.0 and users post an error in the same thread then it should be obvious which version they are using. The mod should work in all 4.0+ forums. No worries though. I found a way to remove the mod completly. You should test this thing out some more before offering it.