vBulletin Mods

Mate I disagree with your statement BUT it looks like he has the issue fixed.

had this fix a few posts back on post 1790

1 - No, I did not.
2 - N/A, as I'm not using the newbies usergroup, right?

I've been using this mod for some time, and it's been extremely effective, so I'd like to continue supporting it before just jumping ship to something else.

Anyone else have some insight?

@PBRiot

In vB admincp under usergroups/forum permissions/group do you have Post/Thread Permissions/Follow Forum Moderation Rules accidentally ticked to no? If you do that will put posts for anyone in that group into the moderation queue.

When you have auto-moderation disabled in SOM that should shut off any moderation of posts unless posts are being monitored elsewhere.

Does that baby still fully work with VB4.2 ?

Just trying to see if anyone has any ideas on this.

I only notice the problem on my largest forums. I'm guessing that there are some keep-alive connections being left open somewhere in the mod, and that doesn't effect small/medium sized forums as it takes a long time for those to add up high enough to do any harm.

Hello,

Complete noobie here wondering if i could get some help I have SOM installed on my forum i am running the latest version of vB 4.2.0. I am having a issue with SOM marking some of my valid users as spammers when they try to register on my forum. These users that have tried to register have used the following email address's @live.com (hotmail) @yahoo.com and @gmail.com.

I have disabled the native spam ware on vb and am running SOM as the only spam ware on my forum.

Is there something i need to change around? how would i fix this? Is there a place to manually approve registrations?

Turn off names during the SOM check. Only allow IP and email check.

Is there a way to add users to an 'exclusion' list or something? Some users have said they are rejected from registering and after looking at the logs it was because their usernames were common names that had been added to the spam database as spam usernames - is there a way to manually override this?

Not that I am aware of. An IP and Email check are more than enough. This mod or any other mod is not 100% full proof against spammers. Checking a database against names is a little ridiculous in my book. There are just to many common domoninators.

D'oh, stupid me. I completely forgot to check the settings and I realized all the tests were set to 'on' - my bad, sorry about that!

Just added this to 4.2.PL2

Let's see what this puppy can do!

How do I manually revert a rejected registration and allow the user to proceed?

I got this:

Spam-O-Matic Tagged username - Sneakers - Spammer Found and rejected.

How do I know the detailed reasons why it was rejected?

run this query
UPDATE `glowhostspamomatic_remotecache` SET `is_spambot`='0' WHERE (`field`='username') AND (`is_spambot`='1') AND (`data`='Sneakers')

and disable username in your settings so this wont happen again

make sure you make yourself superadmin from the config then go to AdminCP > Statistics & Logs > Glowhost Spam-O-Matic Logs
if it was his name first check on the spam o matic forums make sure he is not a spammer check his ip and email as well and only run the query if he is found to be a real person

AdminCP > Statistics & Logs > Glowhost Spam-O-Matic Logs

In the log you can see the reason why they were not allowed to register. 95% of the time it is the user name that is rejected, that is why we suggest you turn that feature off. Occasionally an IP address may be the culprit. You can double check this information if you like, but sometimes legitimate users may be using RIPE Networks, which I would say 99% are spammers. If this is the case, then you will have to manually register them. The log gives you their IP, e-mail, and username. that's enough for you to get started, then when you send them an e-mail include the link to their profile and ask them to complete the information.

How do I run a check and pull the reason for block? No reasons are given in my logs except below

Spam-O-Matic Tagged email - [email address] - Spammer Found and rejected.

That doesn't specify the reason though

I have disabled username check in the meantime, thanks for that tip.

The reason is given in your log plane as day

This mod is freaking awesome! I have always been skeptical of spam mods for some reason but I had no choice but to try it out yesterday. My site has been getting hammered by spammers in the last week.

Installed it on 4.2.0 PL 2 without any hiccups and set it to check IP and email address, and it has blocked 29 spammers in about 20 hours, while letting 17 actual accounts through with no problems.

Thank you for this mod!

Great mod!
The only one feature I miss is - menu Submit Data to StopForumSpam in adminCP options or user's profile. Sometimes "fresh" spammer registrations are passing through stopforumspam check.

This! I catch a lot of spammers who never post so I have no why of reporting there info.

I think I responded to this previously. I'm using the plugin from the older vBSTopForumSpam add-on in combination with the Glowhost add-on:


Product: vBulletin
Hook Location: useradmin_edit_column1
Title: Submit to StopForumSpam.com
Execution Order: 5
Plugin PHP Code:

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

Plugin is Active: Yes


Added: see http://www.vbulletin.org/forum/showp...postcount=1826 below

Do I need to manually add the stopforumspam api key into the plugin?

You could. The Glowhost version already has a place to input the key in the settings so you could try it without any changes.

In case it doesn't work that way, what I did was leave the old product, which also provided a place to add the key, installed but disabled. Never bothered uninstalling it on the grounds of "if it ain't broke don't fix it" but not sure if it's actually required or not.

Thanks for that djbaxter. I changed the code a bit and added the API key directly.
Works great.

Where exactly do I put the API key? I'm trying to get this to work, too.

Here is the code with my changes. Make sure to add your API Key below.

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

Cheers.

Good job! Thank you. :) :up:

Thank you so much!

I have installed but not showing that stats on home page.Everything is turned on in the admin part an on the home it just says Spam-O-Matic Statistics an thats it.

Is it possible that the Spam-O-Matic Statistics to be visible only by the forum admin?
thanks.
---------------------------
I fix the issue. Solution:
In the Plugins & Products->Plugin Manager-> Product : GlowHost - Spam-O-Matic there is a plugin called "Stats render" edit this and a the beginning put this php code

if (is_member_of($vbulletin->userinfo, 6))
{

where number 6 is the Administrator group ID.
at the very end add the

}


this worked for me.

Why doesn't the Spam-O-Matic log not show under my Statistics and Log in the AdminCP? I've seen it on a screenshot for someone else's. Is there another way to look at the statistics?

I have the same issue, I can see the "Spam-O-Matic Statistics " in the "What's Going On?" vut no statistics.
I have the latest build vBulletin 4.2.0 Patch Level 2.
Thanks

Go to AdminCP > Settings > Options > GlowHost - Spam-O-Matic

Set all of these to YES:

Statistics: Display Number of Denied Registrations?

Statistics: Display Number Of Banned Spammers?

Statistics: Display Number Of User Details submitted to StopForumSpam?

Statistics: Display Number Of Post Details submitted to Akismet?

Statistics: Display Number Of Automoderated Posts?

Statistics: Display Number Of Removed Posts?

The statistics will show in the WGO. Just follow the above instructions.

If you have a busy forum, you should do two things. First add a question in the "Contact Us" about registration problems. Second you should check the logs every so often to see if a user was not permitted access to the forum that should have been. This also helps you decide if certain settings should be turned off in the SOM settings.

Hope that information helps!

Maybe it didnt have any activity yet?

Those options were all set to YES and my statistics appear in WGO but just not in the Statistics & Logs in the admin CP. I don't know why.

Mine didn't show instant, had to wait for activity..

Create a new user, you should not be blocked by SOM. Then after the user is created check your stats in the AdminCP. It should then list the new user and say, passed.... sent to registration. Let me know if that works for you. The log should look similar to this:

I've had the Spam-O-Matic for about a week now. Theres 28 posts banned and 1 user registration that was denied

Interesting! Open your PhpMyAdmin and check the database to make sure you have the following tables:

glowhostspamomatic_log
glowhostspamomatic_remotecache
glowhostspamomatic_stats

There may have been an error in the upload of the mod.

uninstalled.

over 3,000 blocked over past week - only 3 people were able to register.

many of my friends could not register due to being flagged as a spammer.

only stats that showed were blocked registrations.

vB 4.2.0 PL 2


went with a different product to cure my spammer block requirements

Did you have check user name enabled? What system did you switch to?

random questions and advanced registration system - works for keeping bots at bay

yes, check username was enabled

That was what was causing the issue. When I disabled that and only had IP Address and e-mail address enabled it worked perfect.

I have the VSA Advanced Registration mod and I love it. It does work for keeping bots at bay, but it doesn't work for blocking IP addresses, and e-mails.

I'll give it another go.
site still in work but taking registrations now as i clean up styles.

thnx for the assist. uername is disabled but ip and email are enabled.


are there still issues with KeyCAPTCHA? full stats never showed on the WGO for me at anytime. just Spammers Denied Registration.

I'm not sure about the keyCAPTCA, as I don't use it. However, the stats for GlowHost only shows, "Spammers Denied Registration" and "Number of spam posts moderated" if that feature is turned on.

You may not have everything set up correctly. There are a lot of little things to do as in making a new usergroup for new members, setting the amount of posts that are moderated, etc. I set the moderated post to 2 because it moderates everything. In other words the first two posts are moderated even if they are legitimate posts. Kind of a pain, and I may set it to just the first post. Normally the first post is all you need to know if they are a spammer or not. You of course have to turn off links, signatures, etc on the new member, but this gives you the opportunity to look at the user profile or have the mods look at the profile for you. Setting up e-mails about new registrations to the mods takes care of this for you.

To make this work with the existing StopForumSpam API key from Spam-O-Matic, I changed the following in your code:

To:

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

Just replacing vbstopforumspam_apikey with glowhostspamomatic_apikey. That seems to work.

Thanks! This helps out my moderators quite a lot.

Still dosnt work for me.Ive has it installed for the past week an still no stats in WGO box.

Checked the databases and there wasn't any of those tables. How do I get them?

nevermind i found them in the databases but they are still not in the adminCP

That is really strange. I haven't run across that before. Maybe someone with a little more knowledge can help you out on that.

You say that they are not showing in the AdminCP. You mean in the log files are not showing, or the information is not showing on the WGO area?

Make yourself superadmin from the config so you can see all

under statistics & logs where spam-o-matic log is supposed to be, there is only Statistics, Control Panel Log, Moderator Log, Scheduled Task Log, Log Manager, Transaction Log and Transaction Stats
i made myself a superadmin and it was still not there

In the cofig.php make sure you have the following permissions set for your User ID #:

USERS WITH ADMIN LOG VIEWING PERMISSIONS

SUPER ADMINISTRATORS

There are a couple of others you may want to check as well. If you have the Log Viewing Permissions set, then you should be able to see it. Refresh system cache if you need to.

add your id to all of them that will let you see everything

i really have no idea why this isn't working. i've done everything you guys have suggested

I installed Spam-o-matic on my new forum and started getting "white screen" when hitting the "go advanced" button when posting.

I worked out (after about an hour) that when disabling Akismet in the CP the white screen problem was resolved. I followed the install instructions - have I done something wrong?

Also, I have two links side-by-side "Web hosting Web Hosting" in my footer link bar, why two?

Cheers :)

You can remove the web hosting links see settings for the plugin near the bottom of it you will see

Right got it - thanks!

Just to update on my "white screen" issue, it seems the problem might be more than Akismet and likely my own misunderstanding of my host server. I'm waiting on a relpy from my host to see if in fact I need to "apply" for allow_url_fopen - I know they have it but I'm now not sure if it's enabled.
If allow_url_fopen is not enabled by default, that could be the real cause of my white screen on posting.

There is a setting for "Auto-Moderation: URL Count".
Does this check URLs posted in the vb blogs also?
Seems spammers are still able to post links in blogs.
The blog spam that vb attracts is just horrible and makes the admins waste so much time dealing with it. We need better tools to stop blog spam.

i set my newbies usergroup to not access blog

newbies with 10 posts will be moved to registered usergroup and now have access to blog.

this stopped my spam

Blogs are not checked with this plugin it does need updated as you cant even send the spammer info to spam o matic forums

This is what I see when I try to import the product.

I've integrated my WP with vB. A thread is made in vB for every post in make in WordPress. If I add the usergroup which automatically makes threads in vB as an exception in Spam-O-Matic, will it allow them to make threads or no?

This is really awesome. I love this mod.

Best mod I ever used....was getting 50 spambot signups a day....now 0 for last 4 months now

Thanks

Hi,

I love the mod, it's an absolute Godsend in keeping malicious users out of my site.

I'm running a board in Danish, and it doesn't exactly look good that Spam-O-Matic is the only thing not translated.
I've been up and down the phrase variables, will I really have to modify the xml directly? A casual perusal seems to indicate that if I change the following:

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

That ought to do the trick? It just seems weird that a lot of the phrases are in the phrase manager, but not these crucial bits?

Cheers!

I have been getting database error reports since I installed this mod. Here is a recent example of the error:

Database error in vBulletin 4.2.0:

Invalid SQL:
INSERT HIGH_PRIORITY IGNORE INTO VB_glowhostspamomatic_remotecache(`date`, `data`, `is_spambot`, `field`) VALUES (now(), "Lauren_22", "0", "username");;

MySQL Error : MySQL server has gone away
Error Number : 2006
Request Date : Friday, July 27th 2012 @ 03:19:02 PM
Error Date : Friday, July 27th 2012 @ 03:19:15 PM
Script : http://www.sandboakeepers.com/register.php?do=addmember
Referrer : http://www.sandboakeepers.com/register.php
IP Address : 98.170.224.173
Username : Lauren_22
Classname : vB_Database
MySQL Version :

There is a different username and IP address for each error. Other than this, the mod seems to be working correctly.

Server has gone away thing u need to talk to ur host about this

I would like to change the

in the whats going on box to something like spam statistics but can't see how to do it in phrases can anyone point me in the right place please?

apologies if it is in here somewhere but I just haven't the patience to go through the 125 pages on this thread to see if anyone has asked before..

You should really scroll up just five inches..

Thanks, I did see that but didn't realise mucking about with that would do the trick :o

So it worked? :D

Yes thanks, I just wanted to change it to 'Spam statistics'


:)

Great, then I can muck about with it myself. I was too worried about doing it on my live board, and setting up a test just for that seemed slightly.. excessive.

I really think this should be added to the phrase manager though, now it'll just be in Danish on my site, whereas it's always been multi-lingual previously.

I thought you had done it! all I did was change the second instance of Spam-O-Matic Statistics
I did change the first but that didn't work, so then moved down to the next one (the one that worked was in single commas not double ones) and hey presto :)

All is well in wonderland in the end then. ;-)

So far...


:D

Has anyone figured out a way to limit Spam-O-Matic Statistics to Moderators / Administrators only?

As a forum administrator I'm interested in these statistics and they not really relavant for my forum users to know.

Hi
I installed Spam-o-Matic some time ago and I think it is mostly great (I only get a few real people complaining they were blocked from registration).

BUT I want all successful (those that pass Spam-o-Matic's criteria) registrations to come to me for moderation, as still some spammers get through (though they are easy to spot - so, I just need to approve them first). I do not want to turn Spam-o-Matic off and moderate every registration, as Spam-o-Matic does a great job of blocking 99% of spammers.

Is there a way?

Certainly - that's the way I have it set up.

AdminCP >> Settings >> Options >> Registration Options

Moderate New Members
Allows you to validate new members before they are classified as registered members and are allowed to post.

Set to Yes.

Eh, thanks, but no.
This is the way I have it set up too, but new registrations are not sent for moderation. I posted about this on the forums, and ended up raising a ticket on vb.com support. They said GlowHost was the problem; they confirmed I had my vb admincp settings correct for moderating new registrations, but that GlowHost Spam-o-Matic was preventing this from happening.

The way I see it at the moment you have two possible options

1 set up spam-o-matic to moderate the first post/ posts of new users using keywords (the downside is you will still have to approve some posts or get a moderator to)

2 use it in conjunction with this mod-

http://www.vbulletin.org/forum/showthread.php?t=271057

then if new users do make any spam posts they can be dealt with in one click

Well it works for me. But I only have GlowHost blocking registrations - I don't use it for moderating posts because I found that feature to be unreliable. That's probably why it isn't working for you.

I am not using it to moderate posts.

Thanks, but that is not what I want. And adding yet another spam killer I do not think is going to alleviate a moderation issue on spam-o-matic.

What are your GlowHost settings? As I said, it's working perfectly for me.

There are a lot of settings, which ones specifically?

If you read the intro, it appears as this is default (that there is no moderation queue ability);
"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!"

So it seems GlowHost assumes that anyone that passes their filters, is ready to post.

It sounds to me like you did not follow instructions completely. I know that there are several steps to take and a lot of settings, but you can create a new usergroup with limited permissions, and set how many posts that you want to be moderated by SOM. There are a few things that the utility doesn't do, but for the most part I find it to be a great defense against spam.

Again, thank you, but you as others miss what I want.
I do not want to have post moderation. I want registration moderation.

If they can't post, what's the difference?

Can you post a screen shot of your settings? Also one of the names of any other add-ons you have installed?

I don't understand what you are trying to say. SOM does prevent known spam from registering. You do not have to moderate the first post if you do not want to primarily because it doesn't work perfectly, but it does work. Every post is moderated and has to be approved before it is posted. The problem is that you and the mods have to pay attention to all new registrations. That is an easy fix, just have new registrations sent to the mods, and yourself if you wish.

For some reason you have to pay attention to the threads in question because moderated threads do not show up in the way they should. Having a new post mod resolves this issue, unless they register and never post! I only moderate the 1st post because of a couple of problems with SOM.

1) you do not have the option to submit new spam IP's and e-mails to stopforumspam. In order to do this you have to manually go to SFS and enter the information.

2) Do not check user names! This is a big drawback, but if you check user names you will have a lot of people blocked for the site even though they are not spammers.

3) Many people have issues with the database, and there are so many times that it's mentioned how to fix it in the thread, but with over 120 pages of posts it is difficult to find. They end up not using it because they do not know how to fix the error.

4) If you just want to cover registration, there are many other options to use. I use a mod created by BOP5 that is great. Here is the link: No Spam Image Enhancement Link

That mod stops bot registration pretty well because you can use multiple images that you find and set up.

As djbaxter mentioned a screen shot of your settings may help us out with your current situation.

If you don't want post mod then turn it off I had it turned off when I had forums just go to the settings and disable the option

I love people that say "Do it my way". The reason is because some registrations stand out as being spam, and I want to stop them from posting anything. Some spammers are clever and will post a few "real" messages and then insert some spam signature. Please do not tell me to get this add-on and that add-on. I simply want all registrations to be sent to me for approval AFTER spam-o-matic has blocked the obvious ones.

Again, thanks, but you are missing the point.
I do not want this.
What I want is for new registrations that clear Spam-o-Matic to come to me for final approval.

Great, superb. How does that give me what I want? I never posted about wanting or not post mod. You and others have suggested it. I have kept saying I do not want it, and then you tell me to turn something off I never had turned on in the first place!

Thanks, but I think this is a bit too much for me to put up on this forum. I will ask the developer. But, truly, thanks for trying.

You can add the option to submit a spammer to the database by creating a small plugin to add the feature to the user profile in your AdminCP:

See http://www.vbulletin.org/forum/showp...postcount=1821 and http://www.vbulletin.org/forum/showp...postcount=1826 in this thread.

Have you even took the time to look at the settings and not just the settings of this mod