vBulletin Mods

I noticed today on 1 site, its missing many of the IPs that are blocked... Not all, but many / most. I just had to manually delete several members with IPs that have long histories at stopforumspam.

That's the StopForumSpam database. They are still having intermittent server problems.

Any news on that?

I've heard nothing since the original Aug 27 post: http://www.stopforumspam.com/forum/v...ic.php?id=5521

Hmmm, why isn't this mod using a mirror then? That seems more "polite".

Probably cause it is a free mod and does not have the funds to do so.

No read the post right above mine. There are mirrors available, rather than the main server. Shouldn't we be using the mirrors?

What are the mirrors?

The site is down right now, but from that post I gathered that something like http://us.stopforumspam.com used some sort of round robin mirroring. Was I reading too much into it?

I had the same problem -- had to manually delete over 15 long-history spammers today. (Thought I'd messed up my settings till I read this, so thanks for the advisory!)

Does their being down affect Akismet, too?

No. But as far as I know Akismet filters content, not email or IP addresses.

I'm assuming if you change the code in functions_ghsom.php file to use the mirror at us.stopforumspam.org, it will work better. And as I mentioned earlier, is probably more 'polite'.

I have not tested this myself yet, but it should work...

Has there been any update on this? I am deleting literally 50-100 posts/accounts every day on my site.

If this isnt working, does anyone know of an alternative spam blocker that they'd recommend?

Do you have human verification questions setup on your site? Have questions, not captcha.

The other thing you can do to help, its block via htaccess, the countries most likely to register spammers from. ie china

And Russia, Syria, Egypt possibly...
Hard to tell really but Russia is an obvious choice for obvious reasons..

I just gave an example. I have a number of countries blocked...

Tell me, how do you block a country? Example: Russia..
I will take this into consideration...

I live in China and there a a few people that I would allow to maintain their access...
Only a few though.........

In my case, I have no reason for anyone to access from china.

I use this to update my htaccess
http://incredibill.me/htaccess-block-country-ips




.

How to enable the stats to show in forum?

http://www.vbulletin.org/forum/attac...1&d=1381308109

hehe

My bad... I have 3.8.x version and for some reason that version doesnt offer the option of showing the stats on the forum :(

Where did you get that page? I can't find it in admincp/ settings/ Glowhost - Spam - o - Matic. ha ha..

Nevermind, I saw the link up above.

Users have been reporting issues with registering and posting.

They get the following error message:
Fatal error: Call to undefined function SOM_Process() in /home/egpet/public_html/vb/register.php(338) : eval()'d code on line 11

or

Fatal error: Call to undefined function SOM_AkismetCheckComment() in /home/****/public_html/vb/includes/functions_newpost.php(532) : eval()'d code on line 26

or

By the way, you folks could also offload a lot of country blocking (and other bad behavior) by using CloudFlare DNS.

So any clue guys if there is a way of showing the statistics on the forum with the 3.8.x version?

Do the auto cleanup settings send a copy of the spam post to SFS? Their site says that without the post, the user automatically gets their info removed, if requested.

Also, I set newbies to go to a usergroup called "awaiting email confirmation" (id:3), which disallows posting until they respond to the email. Instead, it's putting them into our moderated group (id:2), so with the db down, I'm getting swamped with junk posts to be manually cleaned up. What do I do to get it to assign the correct usergroup ID?

Current settings:
Askimet: Enabled
Askimet Key: Included
Askimet Easy Cleanup – Yes
StopForumSpam IP, Username, Email Check – Enabled
SFS Desired Action – Log and Block Reg.
SFS Query Connection Errors: Block Reg
SFS Remote Expiry: 365 days
SFS Data Fetching Cache: 30
SFS API Key: Included
SFS Easy Cleanup – Yes
Newbies Mgr: Yes
Newbies Group ID: 3 (Awaiting Email Confirmation)
Newbies Auto-Promote: No
…
Easy Cleanup User action: Ban User

Do I need to change something?

Guys i read that it works 3.8.x but the stats is not showing it shows this http://prntscr.com/1wbhcg

Help please.

A screenshot of your settings would be easier

Try posting that question in the right one
http://www.vbulletin.org/forum/showthread.php?t=248470

getting this error when trying to see the stats via cp

http://prntscr.com/1wcdy4

Any ideas how to fix that?

Cant help without full error

Thats the full error, the only thing hidden is 1 directory, which I assume is irrelevant to the error...

looks like you have not uploaded the files from what I see from that picture but without the full error or error logs its hard to tell

Look.. http://prntscr.com/1wctlb

also getting this one when tagging a post and ticking on the spam o matic option. Fatal error: Call to undefined function render_navbar_template() in /home/cracking/public_html/includes/functions_ghsom.php on line 587

what vb version are you running

3.8.7 i know its not for this version BUT people are using it without any of this issues. I wonder why I get them.

are you using this version of the plugin on your forums

yes

Go install the right version for your forums that is why you are getting errors
http://www.vbulletin.org/forum/showthread.php?t=248470
And post in that plugin if support needed
If you told me this in the first place this would of been fixed a long time ago

You didnt read me correctly. I know is not the one for 3.8 BUT if you read here people have given the feedback that it works FINE.. So i wanted to see why I was getting this errors,

The other version works great its just that it doesnt have the show stats option

you could always upgrade ur vb forum or edit the files for 3.8 version and add that part

If i knew how to edit it I would have done it long time ago :/

As I know, there are many different functionality about this plugin for vb3.8 and vb4.x
I run 2 version of vbulletin 3.8 and 4.2.1 and run spam-o-matic too for vb3.8 and vb4.2 and without error.

So I think you better run spam-o-matic with the version of your vbulletin.

All I need is, if someone can make the version for vb3.8 have the stats to show on forum.

Wouldnt go that far for just a simple addition IMHO. But thanks anyways.

Folks how does the auto-moderation on specific words work?

Is it a wildcard or what?

If i have in 1 line to moderate the word thanksssssssssssssssssss
will it also moderate the word thanks? or it has to be the entired thankssssssssssss?
Im getting posts moderated that i have not set a specific word for it to do so and I believe its because it s ready parts of the words i have set and not its entirety...

Can someone explain?

I think its safe to assume that its the whole word, otherwise posts would get moderated if they contained a single letter from the word thanks (to take your example to the extreme).

Thats what I believe its happening..

I have the word thankssssssssssssssssssssss in moderation
but im seeing posts moderated with the word thanks in it or thank you :/

But then why not words with just 'th'? :confused:

Good question,
Would like to see the coder explaining.

But no sign of him/her

*tisk*tisk*

I'll be damned, you're right. Looks like this line is doing exactly what you said.

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

edit: Wait, maybe not. I'll look at it more later, gotta run.

you let me know.. thanks :D

Uninstalled..

Don't use it at all.

Spam Hammer seems to take care of the lot..Although I can't find the original link to what I downloaded..

Anyway...

Thank you sir... Correct you are..

Hopefully someone can help me out here... Sometimes the IP check doesn't work. I have it set to block registration if there is connection errors, yet somehow I am still getting people sent through the registration process when they are on the banned IP list. Example of my log from right now:

The first one is a banned IP for a few days now yet has been passed through, while just moments prior, another user was rejected due to the IP address. Any guesses?
Thanks!
Andrew

The first one is not in the spam o matic db the 2nd one is the plugin is doing its job

What spam o matic db? It says that it pulls the details from stopforumspam.com (SFS) ... which it is listed and has been for days. http://stopforumspam.com/search
Ones that I caught and were not in the above link I submit... I'm not aware of a seperate spam o matic db. ???

Does anyone know if placing the moderated words in brackets {dog} works better?

Like the censorship mod. if you use dog. it will ban any word starting with Dog. Thats what i think happens witg spamomatic.

In censorship mod if you place {dog} it will only ban the word dog not dogma for example

sfs = db its what i call it use to making games so I use this

Why not test it then you will see how it works

so if we are both looking at the same database, why do I see that the IP address has been listed there for a few days yet the IP is getting passed through on my board?

Strange it is now showing. Sometimes there db goes down have seen that in the pass. I use this along with the plugin helps when it does that

Couple of questions:

1. I have v2.1.0 - is it important to upgrade to v2.1.2? If so, how do I upgrade?

2. I am getting some errors:

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

Any idea why?

Maybe deleting the log file?

Talk to your host about this problem "MySQL server has gone away"

Not that simple. I'm getting similar errors with the other mod from which this was derived:

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

They usually also say

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

but that's a red herring. I'm on a dedicated server and that is the ONLY time I'm getting these errors. There are no other MySQL issues at the times these occur and it happens on two different 4.2.2 forums.

It's the Invalid SQL error that needs attention. Note the double occurrence of ";;" at the end. That looks malformed to me.

It may well have to do with upgrading to PHP 5.4.20 after the vBulletin 4.2.2 upgrade. I'm not certain.

A satisfactory workaround for now I think would be to turn off logging since the rest of the functions seem to be still working. There is no option to do that in vbStopForumSpam and I don't recall such an option for this mod either (I found it to be overkill for my needs so I reverted to the simpler version).

MySQL server has gone away is a server issue you need to talk to your host

Agreed. Something is happening to your SQL server. That's a PHP error and is happening at a lower level then this mod.

So which is it? PHP or MySQL? And why is it only happening when this mod or the other one tries to write to the log file?

Seems to me it has more to do with something in the mod that needs to be updated for 4.2.2 or PHP 5.4.20.

It's PHP alerting you that it can't make a connection to the MYSQL database. I take it you recently upgraded to 5.4? Maybe something with that upgrade?

One more point:

The log IS being updated normally and I am ONLY seeing this error when the SFS database can't be accessed: Note the [REMOTEERR] part of the error message. Any other time, there is no error.

I run two forums, four blogs, a directory, and several other PHP scripts on this dedicated server. Nothing else is having any problems connecting to MySQL.

Again, the only errors I am getting are with writing to the log when the mod cannot connect to the SFS database.

That's a little too specific for me to believe it's the standard "MySQL has gone away" error.

Remove the second ; and see what happens. Having a second ; will immediately try to redo the last mysql statement and if you're using myslqi in your vbulletin it will allow multiple mysql statements in a single query attempt.

The key is trying to find it. :o

Did the one I give you work better than the ops version

Awesome how the coder doesnt even pop up here to try to explain some of this issues :D

Just installed it tonight on 2 of the 5 forums. Will let you know.

Update:

On one of the forums, after installing, it demoted me from Admin to new member, des[pite the fact that I was set as an Unalterable Admin in the config file (???!!!???) and I could no longer log in to the AdminCP.

Luckily, I have a co-Admin on that forum who was able to intervene and promote me again.

Thanks anyway but I've reverted to vBStopForumpam again.

I think I might have found a problem.
When it's enabled it turns off the stock Vulletin IP address block system.
I keep getting spammers from the USA and China getting through even though there IP address is in the ban user box.
On a side note, only the spammers that get through and try to post have an ICQ address. I think they are using it some way to do the posting of there Ugg boots and crap. There is a connection between them.

you must of messed the settings up it has never done that to me

Did anyone get this afeter upgrading to 4.2.2? The error dissapears when we disable this plugin

Warning: Function ereg() is deprecated in ..../includes/class_postbit.php(345) : eval()'d code on line 193

Warning: Function ereg() is deprecated in ..../includes/class_postbit.php(345) : eval()'d code on line 193

Warning: Function ereg() is deprecated in ..../includes/class_postbit.php(345) : eval()'d code on line 193

Warning: Function ereg() is deprecated in ..../includes/class_postbit.php(345) : eval()'d code on line 193

Warning: Function ereg() is deprecated in ..../includes/class_postbit.php(345) : eval()'d code on line 193

have you put in the other fixes yet in php.ini, class_core.php, socialgroupdiscussion.php and socialgroupmessage.php

MySQL Server has gone away:
http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.0/en/gone-away.html

Can be tricky to fix, but it's usually done in your my.cnf. You may need to increase the time out settings from the defaults or any of the many other options suggested at the URL above....then make sure to restart MySQL to load the new configuration. This is definitely a MySQL configuration issue.

I've also noticed a problem where some spammers IPs are listed on the SFS database who are able to register and post. We are still investigating that.

What about the usergroups ID'S and User Id's that are set NOT to be moderated are still being moderated for some odd reason.
I keep having those members post send to moderation and me havong to login to ACP to validate the posts..

Its annoying and defeats the purpose IMHO.

First make a new group based of Users Awaiting Moderation Group then give them permissions to post ie:
Can Post Threads = Yes
Can Reply to Own Threads = Yes
Can Reply to Others' Threads = Yes

Spam O Matic settings
Newbies Manager: Put New User Into Newbies Group? = Yes
Newbies Manager: Newbies Group ID = New group id
Newbies Manager: Trusted/Registered Users Group ID = 2
Newbies Manager: Promotion From Post Count = 9 But you can make this what you want Note: once they hit there 10th post it will move them to group 2 the cron job runs once every hour
Auto-Moderation: Enable = Enabled
Auto-Moderation: Post Action = Moderate Post
Auto-Moderation: Apply Auto-Moderation To Newbies only? = Yes
Auto-Moderation: Minimum Post Count = 1

You don't actually want them to be able to edit their posts. We ran into the situation where a spam account would register post something innocuous (i.e. "High my name is X") edit the post and then put their spam in that way since this mod does not check edited posts, only new posts.

After initial installation was unable to reply to thread, as an administrator, or create a new thread. In both cases the process seemed to hang-up and left me on a blank page (as far as I can tell it was blank as I was in safari).

I have tried disabling just the Akismet service but that did not solve my problem. Any suggestions? I would really like to be able to use your software on our forums at www.empirisoft.com/support.

Thanks!

Hi ForceHSS, what fixes are you talking about? I've tried looking for it on this thread with no results. Thanks for your help

its not on this thread

Akismet wouldn't cause that problem. Either turn on error displaying [below] or try another plugin.

To enable error displaying, create a plugin in the AdminCP on the init_startup hook, paste what's below as the php code, and save.

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

Then, try to sign up. It should show the error message ontop of the blank page.

Hi ForceHSS, can you help me with the link to the thread?

Thanks

Tell me have you put any of the fixes in yet for 4.2.2

spammers are actually attacking by posting in blog, article, is there any provision to safeguard and get their posts in moderation, this will help make spam o matic more stronger plugin..

Put new users who first join in a new group this is what I do and they don't have blog access

See this post

I'm getting this error when ever I try to create a new thread or post a reply.

Warning: require_once(includes/functions_ghsom.php) [function.require-once]: failed to open stream: No such file or directory in ..../includes/functions_newpost.php(562) : eval()'d code on line 5

Fatal error: require_once() [function.require]: Failed opening required 'includes/functions_ghsom.php' (include_path='.:/usr/local/php53/pear') in /home/bonifer/public_html/includes/functions_newpost.php(562) : eval()'d code on line 5

What do I need to do to fix this?

Never mind i got it fixed.

glad you got it fixed helps when you upload the files

Hi ForceHSS, I'm checked again all the fixes suggested by the VBTeam and found the problem. This fix was missing:

1. Add the following line to your config.php under the <?php line:
PHP Code:
define('SKIP_ALL_ERRORS', true);


Thank you very much for your time.

Bump

With Spam-O-Matic enabled, nobody can post new threads or messages anymore - they (we) just end up with a blank page.