[Anti-Spam] Which is best anti-spam addon?

aery

Either I can use Anti-Spam or Stop Forum Spam. Which one of them is the best to use?

Other webmasters? What are you doing to deal with spamming issues?

And how does these addons work?

Todd

Stop Forum Spam just looks at people registering on your forum and is complimentary to Anti-Spam. I don't think there's any reason why you couldn't use both.

whu606

@stonemonk

@peregrine recently made this:

http://vanillaforums.org/addon/registrationrestrictlogger-plugin

which blocks any registration which inlcudes a web address.

You can also block by IP or by terms used in reasons for applying.

Todd

Stop Forum Spam just looks at people registering on your forum and is complimentary to Anti-Spam. I don't think there's any reason why you couldn't use both.

stonemonk

I have been using both and they both help a lot. Unfortunately I still get 1-5 spammy posts or comments per day that do manage to get through. These are all very obviously spam and include numerous external links. I am surprised there isn't an approval system, where any post with an external link in it is automatically flagged and not-visible until approved. In the flagged list, the admin should be able to say "Not Spam" and it would become visible, or "This is spam, delete user and all posts". It would really make it easier to manage the forums.

whu606

@stonemonk

@peregrine recently made this:

http://vanillaforums.org/addon/registrationrestrictlogger-plugin

which blocks any registration which inlcudes a web address.

You can also block by IP or by terms used in reasons for applying.

UnderDog

@stonemonk said:
I am surprised there isn't an approval system, where any post with an external link in it is automatically flagged and not-visible until approved.

The Akismet system and other anti-spam plugins are doing a pretty good job. Get peregrine's plugin and see if it helps. If not, let's see if the filters can be adjusted. Or maybe it's a good project for a new plugin (wiki)

peregrine

@stonemonk

I am surprised there isn't an approval system, where any post with an external link in it is automatically flagged and not-visible until approved.

I think the reason there isn't, because it would cripple many forums, or require continuous moderation, for the valid users, who want to post valid external links.

I suppose it wouldn't be too overly complicated to write a plugin like this if you felt it was that important for your forum. You could modify a variety of plugins to achieve those ends. There are numerous posts too learn how to do this yourself, or I am sure the vanilla developers would be glad to customize something according to your needs, they do custom contract projects.

I think the bottom line is too prevent spammers from even becoming valid members in the first place, by being vigilant, and setting up the proper safeguards. Just one year ago, the problem with miscreants flooding forums with hundreds of bogus applicants, was not a problem. As the number of miscreants in the population increase, the spamming will increase, and the tools that were useful once, will no longer be useful.