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prevent spam users from posting in activity

Hi, I'm fairly new to using vanilla (and running a forum in general). I'm wondering how I can prevent the following spam in the activity:

Spam users are registering accounts and then posting in their profile. I'd be fine with disabling profiles all together, since they're not necessary on my forum.

thanks!

  • Taylor

Comments

  • Here are some other sites which exhibit the same sort of spam:

    http://forum.audiob.us/activity
    http://createdigitalnoise.com/activity

  • if you go into roles an permissions edit the roles like Member. look for the profile row, and the view column, you can uncheck this.

    grep is your friend.

  • edited January 2013

    @x00, If I do that, can they still change their picture? I'd still like to have profile pictures.

  • aeryaery Gtricks Forum in 2.2 :) ✭✭✭

    Go to /applications/dashboard/views/activity/helper_functions

    Then replace

    <?php echo $Excerpt; ?>

    by

    <?php if ((preg_match("/http/", $Excerpt)) || (preg_match("/www/", $Excerpt))) {$Excerpt = "<span style=\"color:red;\">Sorry, you cannot post links here."; echo $Excerpt;} else echo $Excerpt; ?>

    There was an error rendering this rich post.

  • edited January 2013

    @aery, will that replace all the posts with "Sorry, you cannot post links here."? Or will it stop them whilst trying to post?

  • aeryaery Gtricks Forum in 2.2 :) ✭✭✭

    That will replace links with text.

    To stop tem, use stop spam or akismet plugin

    There was an error rendering this rich post.

  • edited January 2013

    This need not be complex or require a monthly fee (akismet). How about just not showing the text field where they can enter the spam in the first place?

  • whu606whu606 I'm not a SuperHero; I just like wearing tights... MVP

    @tayholliday

    How are they joining?

    Wouldn't it be more effective to stop them joining?
    BotStop (http://vanillaforums.org/addon/botstop-plugin) is a very good plugin for stopping bot signups.

  • @whu606, I'm using "Basic" registration, so I presume they get past the CAPTCHA somehow.

    I'll give the BotStop a try, thanks!

  • whu606whu606 I'm not a SuperHero; I just like wearing tights... MVP

    @tayholliday

    There's a thread on that plugin which shows a mod to make the plugin work with Registration approval.

    Since I activated BotStop I haven't had any bots get through.

  • @whu606 said:
    There's a thread on that plugin which shows a mod to make the plugin work with Registration approval.

    Yup!

    http://vanillaforums.org/discussion/comment/167592/#Comment_167592

    There was an error rendering this rich post.

  • Shouldn't Captcha stop bot registrations, i.e. if I have Captcha enabled and I'm still getting some "spam" postings on my Activities page, then they must be posting that activity manually, ya?

  • peregrineperegrine MVP
    edited March 2013

    botstop with approval is better for stopping bot registrations, and no "then they must be posting that activity manually" not true.

    9 out of 10 forum administrators say so.

    I may not provide the completed solution you might desire, but I do try to provide honest suggestions to help you solve your issue.

  • SrggamerSrggamer HardCore Gamer ✭✭✭

    @peregrine said:
    botstop with approval is better for stopping bot registrations, and no "then they must be posting that activity manually" not true.

    9 out of 10 forum administrators say so.

    Vanilla forums for experience is the only one that I never get spam, MYBB Had spam always after 1 night I have over 5 thousand posts. Valina I use Botstop, captcha and that means no spam!

  • For both MyBB and Vanilla, I found that adding questions to the registration process helped a lot in reducing the number of bots joining.

    Add Pages to Vanilla with the Basic Pages app

  • vrijvlindervrijvlinder Papillon-Sauvage MVP

    Yea and to further your filtration, you can ask a question like :

    Who Cut Down The Cherry Tree?

    answers:

    1. Washington

    2. George Washington

  • AdrianAdrian Wandering Spirit Montreal MVP

    Keeping my fingers crossed with this plugin. I guess my forum is going well now that I am being slammed by spam :)

  • vrijvlindervrijvlinder Papillon-Sauvage MVP

    Yea it works ,now I miss not having any applicants lol

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