vBulletin Mods

Your smarmy comments are sure to inspire all of us to come to your aid...

That said, at no point did I mention any additional addons.

Antique Swords,
Turn off the moderation option in SOM.
Go to User Registration Options and find a line that says, "Email Address to Notify About New Members" and place your e-mail in there.

You did not come to my aid. You made a curt response. And you inspired me to respond as I did.

Hi
Thanks. But isn't this only turning off post moderation functions? I have looked and it seems so. I presume you mean Auto-Moderation: Enable? If so, all of the things it turns off are to do with posting, not registration.

I also emailed the developer, and it appears (I think, from what he said), that it is not possible to do what I want. So I guess I must moderate the posts of Newbies, which is not what I want to do.

But thanks to those that tried to help.

Yes, thank you. I have been through this on the forums on vb.org and filed a help ticket with vb.com. So I have done everything. It simply is not possible to have Spam-o-Matic moderate registrations to remove the known spam and then have the remainder come to me for final approval.

Because I have set up various mandatory questions (spammers always answer off topic or badly), country flags (spammers tend to select no fag / the default flag), etc., I easily see the spammers that get past Spam-o-Matic. I MUCH prefer this.

Good. Then it's settled. SOM won't do what you want. Let's all move past this now.

@Antique-Swords

I agree with Syxguns, BUT you also need to tick 'yes' to Moderate New Members and tick 'no' to Verify Email address in User Registration Options.

You will receive an email for new registrations and you can validate the new registration from the ACP and send a manual approval or denial letter to new registered member awaiting approval.
Also go into usergroups/Users Awaiting Moderation and setup the group to allow user his/her permissions until approved by you.

I've used this setup before with SOM and it works fine. SOM would have to be recoded in order to do what you want it to do, so this is the best work around fix for what you are wanting to do.

Good luck...

Thanks for all your "help"

I'm always glad to help. Have a great week!

Can you not just place approved members to the "awaiting moderation" group instead?

I get this error when I try to install :

Database error in vBulletin 4.2.0:

Invalid SQL:
CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS `glowhostspamomatic_log`(
`date` DATETIME NOT NULL,
`ip` VARCHAR(15) NOT NULL,
`email` VARCHAR(255) NOT NULL,
`username` VARCHAR(255) NOT NULL,
`message` VARCHAR(255) NOT NULL,
`is_blocked` TINYINT NOT NULL DEFAULT "0",
`user_hash` VARCHAR(50) NOT NULL,
`user_id` INT NOT NULL
) TYPE=MyISAM;;

MySQL Error : You have an error in your SQL syntax; check the manual that corresponds to your MySQL server version for the right syntax to use near 'TYPE=MyISAM' at line 10
Error Number : 1064

Using VB 4.2 MySQL Version : 5.5.24-cll

Any suggestions ?

Change all occurence of

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

to

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

in the XML and that will solve the DB Errors.

Database error in vBulletin 4.2.0:

Invalid SQL:
CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS `glowhostspamomatic_remotecache`(
`date` DATETIME NOT NULL,
`field` VARCHAR(20) NOT NULL,
`is_spambot` INT NOT NULL,
`data` VARCHAR(255) NOT NULL
) TYPE=MyISAM;;

MySQL Error : You have an error in your SQL syntax; check the manual that corresponds to your MySQL server version for the right syntax to use near 'TYPE=MyISAM' at line 6
Error Number : 1064
Request Date : Wednesday, August 8th 2012 @ 03:02:34 PM
Error Date : Wednesday, August 8th 2012 @ 03:02:34 PM

IP Address : 94.59.232.82
Username : pendu
Classname : vB_Database
MySQL Version : 5.5.24-cll

i have same problem ,, i change this code to xml file

but same problem

You have missed some

missed from where .. that xml file .

can u tell me how to get stopforumspam key ..

U will find a link in the settings near where u input the key

Another member said that you can change the "TYPE=MyISAM", to "ENGINE=MyISAM" but I just removed the items. It shows up 3 times. If you want to see the link where I first made the correction it is located here: http://www.vbulletin.org/forum/showp...postcount=1639

It's really clear as I have highlighted in RED the 3 places to make changes.

Would rather not remove better to just change them. Don't understand why some are having this problem in the first place

When I first had the problem I did a little research to find that the newer versions of MySQL had tighter security and did not support some of the older commands.

By reading this information again, I guess I could have changed it to ENGINE instead of TYPE, but I didn't. The mod works so that is all I need! The problem is many people do not understand how to track down the errors they receive in the database. But regardless of that we still have some people that just don't bother to read! There are a lot of little steps in setting this mod up and people just want to install and it run 100% without even looking in the AdminCP!

Some of the info you posted I already knew. I have never had a problem as I have always installed the right version needed and I know some forum admins are just to lazy to try and find there own fixes I am sure you see many posts of members asking for help (not just on these forums) but are to lazy to search for the answer. One of the reasons I don't answer a post right away gives them time to search. Another reason why I said what I did above as it makes others want to ask questions and search either here or google :)

Is there a way to approve an initially rejected registration marked as spam? I do not see any such options.

All I see is this for the particular account in question:

2012-08-12 05:09:45 72.53.xxx.xxx wendydavis423 [email protected] Spam-O-Matic Tagged ip - 72.53.xxx.xxx - Spammer Found and rejected.

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

run this query just update the ip first

Could be two things
1. You have vb3.8 and are using a plugin for vb4.x.x
2. Revert header template as you could have some php messed up in it
Or 3. Both 1 and 2

Marka,

You might want to try downloading and installing the one linked above. If this one was written for vB 4.x, there are likely code references which are not valid for vB 3.x boards. If you install it "on top of itself" (i.e. don't uninstall previous version, but upload files and import XML in "overwrite" mode), hopefully it will keep your settings and stats.

as to your header as you never pointed out it was default vb skin then the problem is because you are using a plugin for vb4 that will not work for vb3 as alot has changed in the php

you can delete the post yourself

Or we could just hang him in the public town square and stone him. I'd vote for that option just for the entertainment. Seriously, television is total crap these days.

I am trying to install it on vBulletin 4.2 but I get this error, what gives?

https://www.vbulletin.org/forum/

berryracer read this post: #1912

I can't thank you enough for this mod, and can't believe I've never used it before! For some reason, for the past few days, I've had an influx of spammers joining, even though I have captcha, security questions and all the rest of it. It was beginning to take up so much of my time.

However, since I've installed this awesome mod just a few hours ago, it's already stopped 12 spammers from joining!

Once again, thank you! :)

My site just went from PR2 to PR3 but still the flood of spammers this weekend has been so strange. I keep checking the logs because I feel like legit new registrations are being banned. Every time though it checks out and is a spammer. I'm just using email as a criteria as well. Something like 80-85 this one weekend.

Thank you so much for this mod. I installed it a while ago and wasn't automatically blocking new registrations because I only got 1 or 2 bad ones a day, starting last week I have been getting about 20 - 30 bad ones a day. I turned on blocking registrations that were in the StopForumSpam database and it has made my life so much easier.

Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Seems to be working ok. Just installed it on 2 forums.

Is there a solution to the blog spammers?

Nevermind, my bad.

I'm having an issue with VBulletin 4.2 PL2 -

When this mod is installed it throws an http 500 error when a user tries to post a reply.

No matter what I turn off within the configuration, it continues to happen.

Any ideas?

Figured out the problem, you need to edit the product-glowhostspamomatic.xml file and change all the lines that say TYPE=MyISAM to ENGINE=MyISAM

I like to have the Spam-O-Matic option when selecting threads, not just when selecting posts.

Thank you to Glowhost.com for this amazing mod! Love it.

With 130 pages in this thread, it was hard to search for info. This has probably already been requested, but just in case....

I would like the mod to write to the user profile Banning area viewable in the admincp where it shows the "Ban Reason" so I will know that it was banned by SOM after the user has spammed. As of now, the reason is blank. Perhaps a definable message such as "User posted url/spam" etc. would work.

Anyway, no need for a reply (unless I missed such a capability).

Thanks again. -- Rik

This is a great addon .. good work!

Option not there from what I remember. It would need coded

Hi guys,

Looking for a little advice here,
A few genuine users have been blocked recently, and the only way I can allow them to register is by disabling the product and then asking the new user to re-register..

The problem is, I can't seem to find the logs OR see the options to allow the new user or deny them access.

Is there an area that I've missed that will show the denied users and where I can allow or deny them registration?

It's bound to be there somewhere, but I just don't know where to look for the logs and to allow users etc..

If it's not in there, or there are no options for this, then that's a major flaw...

Been using this product for a while now and it's superb gotta say! Thanks for this...

I hope someone can point me in the right direction here.
Many thanks

You have turned off the username blocking, correct?

Statistics & Logs>GlowHost - Spam-O-Matic Logs should show you the blocks and allows. Not sure about allowing specific users though that have been blocked.

As fly said above you should of had username from being blocked but as it has just blocked them people it is now stored in the db as being blocked. Now if it says in the logs it blocked them because of there user name first check the spam o matic db to make sure 100% it is not them by checking there ip and email if they are not in the spam db then you will need to run a query to remove them as a bot. PM me that name I can write u that

Thanks for your feedback all!

Yes, he shows in the logs but I have no option to allow/deny etc..

He's in now as I shut the software down and then asked him to re-register.
As this has happened once or twice, I realised that there must be something I am failing to do or sort here..
I was hoping there would be an option to allow on username specific criteria.

The message is "Spam-O-Matic Tagged username - **** - Spammer Found and rejected."
So naturally I was hoping there would be a way to 'allow' him through.

Is it best to switch off username checks then?

Many thanks

Glock.

Yes it is best to turn USERNAME checking off, as many people share common names. It will catch innocent people if you have this on. Checking the email and IP should still be left on, however.

Most of the problems reported here are because people have left username checking on. Perhaps that one should be off by default, for new installs/future release :)

Rhody

Ok will do.

I installed it quite some time ago and go through things regularly, but in all honesty?
1: I didn't know it would cause a problem like this
and
2: it's only recently triggered by blocking someone I know of, I've since checked and although a few more HAVE been blocked they successfully registered with slightly altered names etc...

Will knock it off now.

Thanks for the help!

Just installed and went a ok for me on 4.2 PL2.

If you run that query I sent u in a pm that will allow him to register with that name

I need a german translation for this product :(

or can someone tell me the most necessary settings?

Translate all files and XML before you upload the files

Im having the same issue. . . vBulletin® Version 4.2.0 PL2

Cant Reply or quick reply to anything. when posting with quick reply i get a pop up saying
https://www.vbulletin.org/forum/external/2012/08/1.jpg

I also attempted to edit the xml file with the ENGINE=MyISAM as posted above with no luck.

I do not think this has anything to do with S-O-M. Go to AdminCP >> Plugins & Products > Manage Products

Temporarily disable S-O-M and see if you are still having the issue. It is hard to say, but you may have a different issue to deal with. In fact disable all mods temporarily and see if the issue is still there. If it is not then turn the mods on one at a time while you refresh the page and try again.

ive already disabled S-O-M which fixes my problem. Boards are pretty much brand new and i only have 3 products installed.

This is the best add-on, period. No forum should be running without it, IMO.

GREAT job! I hope it is updated, when 5.x comes along.

It still may be something different. I'm thinking in the board setup. According to the screenshot it looks like the board is not directing properly. I may need a little closer inspection of the forum. Could you PM me a temp user name password and link to your board.

Also is this only happening in the quick reply editor?

I also noticed that you are using IE, have you tried other browsers? IE has a lot of issues, but there is a setting in the AdminCP to make an adjustment. I just can't remember where exactly, I'm on my phone.

That's a problem with vBulletin, not this addon.

Find this in the headinclude template:

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

Change it to

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

Wouldn't it be easier to just set vbforum_url? Am I missing something obvious?

this did not work.

More solutions here,

https://www.vbulletin.com/forum/show...ick-reply-made

can't believe this plugin hasn't been updated for 18 months, yet it still seems to be working generally ok ..

wondering if there's anything that could be done about recent spam posts that seem to be in other languages (besides English) ? Some of them have weird lookin characters as well, not even sure if it's a language or not.

but we should be able to prevent those somehow... no ?

Yes for the most part you are going to have to set up a new user group for new members, limiting permissions and setting up auto moderation in S-O-M. The are instructions on the creators site. Very few get through the block, but selecting the post and using the mod tools you can ban, remove all posts, and submit info to stopformspam at the same time.

I have nothing negative to say about this mod. I admit its probably my skin causing some sort of issues I used this mod in the past and it worked fairly well. as of now i went to Keycaptcha and its working very well.

To each his own however I hate key captcha. My registration is simple using a picture mod by BOP5. This mod blocks 99% of spam. However you do have to set it up correctly, as has been explained in this thread many times. Most with problems using this mod do not take the time to set it up correctly. It does take a little time to set up and test!

HealthCommunity.co

Earlier today, I saw on my forum that 208 people were online with my IP address. What kind of problem is this and what can I do about it.

I use SPAM-O-MATIC and have a subscriptiion to Akismet, and whatever was going on didn't effect my forum with spam.

On 8/29/12, I had 1,172 people online, of which I know was impossible, being that we are a new forum, although, no problems with spam then.

According to your product, there have been 4 spammers denied registration.

Thanks, Bryce

I already have that usergroup for new members.

Still would be great if they could update the plugin, to give us an option to block all posts from other languages. These are practically the only posts that still make it through the filter on our forums.

example : Block all posts not in "English". (drop-down menu to select appropriate language)

not sure how difficult it would be to setup on the developer end though..

Bruce, just for grins disable S-O-M to see if you still have the same problem. I don't think that this mod is the problem, but the only way to know for sure is to test it.

Being a new forum I see that many visitors as almost crazy but if you are using forum runner then it is possible. I did a quick Google search but your forum wasn't on the first page. As far as multiple users having the same IP that I see quite a bit, so how many are you talking about?

I'm sure that if you had a mod check for language it would take time for each post to be scanned before it was submitted to the forum, this would really slow things down. That does not include things like "CUL8r"!

The important thing is to submit these spam messages when they happen. This mod is great for doing that for you. I even get a few from time to time, but not enough for me to break a sweat. The other option that you have is to ban the e-mail and IP in vB. That may help because I believe what you are seeing is Russian.

You wrote, "As far as multiple users having the same IP that I see quite a bit, so how many are you talking about?"

I don't know how to answer this question. I read at the bottom of my forum that there were 208 users online, I clicked on the highlighted in red, 208 users online, and was directed to the page that reflects the IP address for each user. All were my IP address.

Also, I could see that each forum had a number of people reading posts.

You say to turn off s-o-m, to see what happens, what would I then do to protect myself from spammers on my site at that time.

In plugging and products disable. You are only testing, so you can enable it again. Now select "who's online" and see if they all show the same IP. They shouldn't all be the same, although you may see a few with the same.

What mod did you use to view last time? I'm on a cell phone so I can't view the actual forum. I turned that feature off. I also do not use taptalk or forum runner. Mods do not work with them.

Edit: got online and saw the forum. I see what you are saying you clicked that was in red. That should take you to the "who's online" area. Right now you have nobody viewing the forum, so wait until you have 5 to 20 people viewing the site.

I see now what you are talking about. I will disable the s-o-m and see what happens.

how can I disable the Spam-O-Matic Statistics box above the "Current Total Users Online"?

tagged, thanks

got it.

Hello

Automoderation is set to some usergroup when users are moved afte email check. Automoderations is set to prevent post and we have a lont list of bad words.

However anybody can bypass the automoderations by writing any words.

This plugin was working fine until suddenyl stopped one week ago just after set some new parameters.

But it's strange that blocking spammers registration is working smoothly.

Mine seems to have suddenly quit working, I had a huge amount of spammers get by last night including plastering my board with spam posts. Has something changed recently?

Same here, yesterday a lot of spammers grant access to register in my forum. SOM log showed: "Unabe to connect to SOM server,... " in each registration. "Passed to vbulletin,..."

Any problem with the server? Anything we have to change?

Thanks!

I believe this is not an issue. If I'm correct in my assumption, this has to do it the StopForumSpam database is down for maintenance.

If this is set to Allow Registration then you could get some spammers. I wouldn't suggest that you deny the registration, simply because it should be temporary.

Information found in forum at SFS forum


I don’t know what I would do without SFS. Thanks.

In the settings, there's an option about what to do when the StopForumSpam server is unavailable. I think the default is to allow registration since usually there is another layer of protection by new users being placed in a moderated group, and you don't risk blocking legit users. You can change that if you wish.

D'oh.. beat me too it.

Hi,

In the course of de-spamming, when you get to /inlinemod.php, it says "Spam-o-matic has performed the following actions" and displays a bunch of links to user profiles.

These links point to /user.php, which does not exist.

Is this a know issue?

Thanks

N

That list is new registrations, that have not ever made a post. New registrations have to post before they are considered moderated, even if you do not use the S-O-M or vB moderation of posts.

Many people register and read but never post. I have done that on a number of forums. I'm not a spammer, I just don't have any information to post.

The problem is that the links are broken. The names of those users are clickable links. The links point to a non-existent page called /user.php.

Is this a known issue or should I file a bug report?

Thanks.

I'm not sure about that. I though the link should point to usercp.php but that doesn't seem to be correct.

I've personally never worried about that as it has to do with users that share the same IP and so forth. Maybe someone else is a little more familiar with this and could give you more detail. I don't know that submitting the issue would be something that would get fixed. There hasn't been an update on this mod in quite a while.

I just look at the list, but for the most part the information that is given may be accessed through the AdminCP if you need to do anything, but I have never messed with it. Basically the information looks like this:

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

The information is pretty much standard info that you should already know as an Admin of the site. This of course also depends on which modifications that you use, but I personally don't have a problem with it. Maybe someone else could help you out here.:)

I'm getting sick of the spammers on my forum and I've been directed here.. I'm hoping to use this and to stop the spammers on my forum. I've just downloaded the file and reading through the read me information and came across this at the bottom.

'* Please note, for this plugin to work, cURL must be installed on the server
or allow_url_fopen enable in PHP settings'

I don't know where or how to change or do any of those. Do I need to change one of these for this mod to work? If so could someone tell me how?

You can change allow_url_fopen in the php.ini file. I think cURL is a package that has to be installed. In either case, unless you do your own server admin that would be something to ask your host about.

If you're not sure if about those settings, you can go to "View PHP Info" under Maintenance in the admincp. Under the section header "core" it should show the value for allow_url_fopen. I believe if cURL is installed it will have it's own section showing the settings for that module.

Edit: yeah, I should probably have put that second paragraph first, and started out by saying that you may not have to change anything.

I suggest trying it first, to see if it's broken. Most likely those are already enabled, and it'll work fine. :)

I also suggest turning off the nickname check against the stopforumspam.com database. You'll get false positives from legitimate people with this option on. (default)

I got the following error when trying to install v2.0.2 on a fresh upgrade of vBulletin 4.2.0 PL2.

Any ideas?

Yes, replace TYPE=MyISAM with ENGINE=MyISAM There should be 3 instances of this in the XML file. You will need Notpad++ to view and make the changes you may download it here: Notpad++ download

that got it, thanks

Make sure to NOT select the check user name option. Only check e-mail and IP address.

I just installed my Spam-o-Matic last night, and was absolutely thrilled with it until I noticed a few spammers getting on. Took me a while to realise that happened. Stop Forum Spam is down... Drat and darn it!

One of the Glow Host options is: What should happen if the remote connection times out when querying the new registration? And it was set to Allow Registration.

I realised that the remote connection must be timing out and so I tried to get on to Stop Forum Span in another tab, and that's when I found out it was down.

I didn't think there was any point in setting it to Block Registration because that way, a lot of innocent people could get caught by it.

So I've had to stop user registrations totally for a while, while SFS get it sorted out.

I'm wondering though how often SFS gets brought it down, since so many of us are reliant on them?

Occasionally but not often. Everyone has maintenance to do from time to time.

I keep my registration blocked. If they are legit users they will comeback later and register. Rather loose a few than have a ton of spammers mucking up my site.

-A

Hi Alibass, that's good to know that SFS are not down that often.

Yes, I think that keeping registration turned off is a much better option than having spammers all over the site.

thx my friend :D

they changed their api address to api.stopforumspam.org to hopefully avoid future problems like they are having today. Anybody know a quick way to update this in Spam-O-Matic?

I would love to know as well.

Well, after searching the db and plugin files, I realized that there's a file uploaded to includes/ that would surely have the stopforumspam URL and it does! :D

Open includes/functions_ghsom.php and find/replace every instance of www.stopforumspam.com with api.stopforumspam.org

Tested and works. :cool:

Wonderful!