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Stop Spammer

Started by M-DVD, December 31, 2008, 07:31:43 AM

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madfitz

Quote from: madfitz on February 08, 2010, 02:24:14 PM
The mod here states version is 2.3 not 2.3.7?

http://custom.simplemachines.org/mods/index.php?mod=1547
Quote from: snoopy_virtual on February 08, 2010, 02:41:50 PM
Quote from: madfitz on February 08, 2010, 02:24:14 PM
The mod here states version is 2.3 not 2.3.7?

http://custom.simplemachines.org/mods/index.php?mod=1547

Please read a little of what we have been saying here lately before you say something like that.

Version 2.3 have been obsolete since December 2009

Yeah, obsolete, nice... my point is the mod download page STILL says v2.3. THAT is confusing when you keep talking about 2.3.7 being the latest and greatest.

Put simply: can't you update the info on the download page to clearly state v2.3.7 ?

EL34xyz

Ok,
My forum did not go crazy last week as some people here reported.
Your Yellow bug.php file reports no yellow bug found.
See the screen shot

I uninstalled all previous versions of Stop Spammer and then installed 2.3.7.
It 2.3.7 installed perfectly without any file flag errors

My post at reply #568 still stands.
I can reproduce this error exactly every time.

snoopy_virtual

Quote from: madfitz on February 08, 2010, 02:57:54 PM
...
Put simply: can't you update the info on the download page to clearly state v2.3.7 ?

No I cannot.

Please read these:

http://www.simplemachines.org/community/index.php?topic=283309.msg2398594#msg2398594

http://www.simplemachines.org/community/index.php?topic=283309.msg2398942#msg2398942

http://www.simplemachines.org/community/index.php?topic=283309.msg2406267#msg2406267

http://www.simplemachines.org/community/index.php?topic=283309.msg2407288#msg2407288

http://www.simplemachines.org/community/index.php?topic=283309.msg2409661#msg2409661

http://www.simplemachines.org/community/index.php?topic=283309.msg2416537#msg2416537

Or this one:

Quote from: snoopy_virtual on February 05, 2010, 02:38:17 PM
...
The Mod author, M-DVD, has not been coming to SMF for more than 3 months already.

Last December (2 months ago) I told him I wouldn't mind to be responsible for updating the mod when needed, because anyway I have been working with M-DVD developing this mod since he started it 2 years ago and I think I know every line of code in it.

The problem is, to do this properly, I need to have access to the mod's main page, to upload new files when needed, to change the FAQs when needed, etc.

As far as I know, M-DVD asked SMF's Customization Team on the 6th of December to add my name in the mod's main page as a co-author.

A month later, the 4TH of January, I sent a PM myself to SMF's Customization Team asking them what was happening about that.

I didn't have any answers yet about it.

That's the reason why I have not been answering here a lot of questions lately, because I was fed up answering ten times the same questions and I thought it would be easier just to wait until I get access to the mod's main page and I will just add all these questions and answers to the FAQ.

Anyway this is not happening and I don't know why.

If any of you knows anybody inside the SMF's Customization Team could you please send them a PM asking them please to look into this ridiculous situation?

I don't see any point of having a mod here out of date.

The version 2.3 you can find in the mod's main page is too old and out of date.

The mod's owner (the only one with access to that page) has not been coming to this forum for 3 months and (as far as he told me the last time I talked with him) he is too busy with his work and has no intentions of coming back here for some months or even years.

The actual updated version of this mod 2.3.6 (at least the version working properly until a couple of days ago) is not in SMF site but in my personal server.

As I said before I think all this is ridiculous and somebody should sort it out as soon as possible.
...

etc etc etc

El verdadero sabio es aquel que lo ve todo, lo estudia todo, lo analiza todo y molesta poco.
A true wise man is he who sees everything, studies everything, analyses everything and hardly ever annoys.

snoopy_virtual

Quote from: EL34xyz on February 08, 2010, 03:06:33 PM
...
My post at reply #568 still stands.
I can reproduce this error exactly every time.

I suppose you mean reply #468

Did you read my reply #469?

More to the point, Did you do this?:

Quote from: snoopy_virtual on February 08, 2010, 01:15:10 PM
...


  • Go to your Admin => Registration => Settings and inside the StopSpammer settings un-tick the option "Check their username:". Leave the another 2 options on though, "Check their email:" and "Check their IP:"

...

El verdadero sabio es aquel que lo ve todo, lo estudia todo, lo analiza todo y molesta poco.
A true wise man is he who sees everything, studies everything, analyses everything and hardly ever annoys.

busterone

Good job snoopy.  :)
Hopefully they will get it fixed so you v=can update the page here soon. I referred several to your site and the update until such time.

snoopy_virtual

Quote from: busterone on February 08, 2010, 03:39:50 PM
Good job snoopy.  :)
Hopefully they will get it fixed so you v=can update the page here soon. I referred several to your site and the update until such time.

Thanks.

Keep the good work.  ;)

El verdadero sabio es aquel que lo ve todo, lo estudia todo, lo analiza todo y molesta poco.
A true wise man is he who sees everything, studies everything, analyses everything and hardly ever annoys.

EL34xyz

Listen Snoop,
I am not trying to be difficult, but why would I want to do this???

QuoteGo to your Admin => Registration => Settings and inside the StopSpammer settings un-tick the option "Check their username:". Leave the another 2 options on though, "Check their email:" and "Check their IP:"

I want Stop Spammer to check user name, Ip and email adress against the stop forum spam data base.

Why do you want to turn off one of the spam checks????

snoopy_virtual

#487
Quote from: EL34xyz on February 08, 2010, 03:06:33 PM
Ok,
My forum did not go crazy last week as some people here reported.
Your Yellow bug.php file reports no yellow bug found.
See the screen shot
...

Sorry, when I answered you a minute ago (reply #483) I haven´t seen the screen shot attached.

I can read very clear in it this sentences:

Quote
We haven't found the yellow bug, as not all your forum members are suspicious off beeing spammers. Anyway we have found some of them in your DB

.... 

If this is because you had the yellow bug

....

click the button "Apply medicine"

....


Ok, you didn't had the same symptoms of the yellow bug other people had, but you had some.

If I were you I will press the button.

Still I would do the rest of the things I was recommending you in my reply #469, as this one was just the first one of them.

And I would do them in the order I was suggesting.

El verdadero sabio es aquel que lo ve todo, lo estudia todo, lo analiza todo y molesta poco.
A true wise man is he who sees everything, studies everything, analyses everything and hardly ever annoys.

snoopy_virtual

Quote from: EL34xyz on February 08, 2010, 03:57:30 PM
Listen Snoop,
I am not trying to be difficult, but why would I want to do this???

QuoteGo to your Admin => Registration => Settings and inside the StopSpammer settings un-tick the option "Check their username:". Leave the another 2 options on though, "Check their email:" and "Check their IP:"

I want Stop Spammer to check user name, Ip and email adress against the stop forum spam data base.

Why do you want to turn off one of the spam checks????

My goodness me!

Is you who is telling me you are having problems because a lot of your forum members are legal people (not spammers) and every time you check them the mod is marking them red as spammers.

If you don't want the mod to check them as spammers, either turn off the option checking usernames or don't check the members you know are good ones.

I was telling you what I would do to be sure that all your database is clean.

After that it's up to you the way you want to leave the settings for any new members from now on.

El verdadero sabio es aquel que lo ve todo, lo estudia todo, lo analiza todo y molesta poco.
A true wise man is he who sees everything, studies everything, analyses everything and hardly ever annoys.

snoopy_virtual

Since M-DVD left SMF forum and I started updating this mod on my own I have added 7 new lines already to the language file, so all the languages in the language_full.zip package were incomplete.

As nobody was sending me any new translations, the language_full.zip package in the mod's official page was up-to-date, but this has change today, because mbreber has send me the full translation into Croatian, so I have updated the language_full.zip.

As I still haven't got access to the mod's official page I have put it in my server with the rest of the files concerning this mod:

http://www.snoopyvirtualstudio.com/trankos/portal/index.php?option=com_smf&Itemid=36&topic=296.0

This is the updated list of languages in this package:





QuoteLanguages (normal & utf-8)

  • English
  • English_British
  • Spanish_Es
  • Spanish_Latin

   
QuoteLegend
  • Included in MOD package
  • Included in language_full.zip and translation complete
  • Included in language_full.zip but translation incomplete

If you can complete the incomplete languages or add a new one please tell me either here or in my forum.

Thanks

Cheers 

El verdadero sabio es aquel que lo ve todo, lo estudia todo, lo analiza todo y molesta poco.
A true wise man is he who sees everything, studies everything, analyses everything and hardly ever annoys.

EL34xyz

#490
QuoteMy goodness me!
Is you who is telling me you are having problems because a lot of your forum members are legal people (not spammers) and every time you check them the mod is marking them red as spammers.

Ok, there is something wrong here, you should be more careful with your comments.
Try to follow along with this and please read everything carefully.
If you really want to test this, please do the following.
If you do not want to test this, then can someone else please test this bug for Snoop.

Log out as admin on your forum
Register a new member as a
The user name is a, just lower case a

Now log back in as admin
The mod will check the database and flag a as a spammer

Do you think a is really a spammer?

This happens with many user names, many user names are flagged as spammers when they are not spammers. Their name is part of another name, etc.
The name Madison is flagged as a spammer and I have a long time forum member with the user name Madison who is not a spammer!!!!

As admin, approve a as a new member
Now a is a member of the forum
Find the admin member page that a is on
Check a and have the mod check a in the spam forum data base to see if they are a spammer
a is now flagged as a spammer and not a member anymore
a was a legit member, not a spammer and now a is not a member anymore

The smf data base has been changed from 1, a legit member to 3 a member waiting to be approved as a member.

Snoop, I respect that you are trying to fix this mod, but I feel your comments are out of line and that you have not even bothered to try and reproduce the bug I have documented.

EL34xyz

#491
Here's a couple screen shots to go along with what I said in my post above

Madison is a friend of mine.
He is not a spammer
But guess what, he is in the spam database.
His user name is part of many other user names that have the word Madison as part of the user name.
Do you see that madison is also part of madisonsmith and holly madison?????

I do not want to turn off or stop checking for user names, because the mod does find real user names that are spammers. This is something I look at in the Spam forum database and decide if the spammer is legit or not

I need user name, IP address and email to be checked.
I do not need the Stop spam mod to flag Madison and delete him as a member!!

butchs

Relax dude, the guy lives in Spain.  He is doing a great job trying to understand us
and help.
I have been truly inspired by the SUGGESTIONS as I sit on my throne and contemplate the wisdom imposed upon me.

snoopy_virtual

Quote from: butchs on February 08, 2010, 09:41:10 PM
Relax dude, the guy lives in Spain.  He is doing a great job trying to understand us
and help.

;D ;D ;D

Yes I live in Spain, but I have vampire live.

Actually I am writing the answer, but is coming a little long, as I am trying to explain every thing as best as I can.

Will be just a few more minutes

El verdadero sabio es aquel que lo ve todo, lo estudia todo, lo analiza todo y molesta poco.
A true wise man is he who sees everything, studies everything, analyses everything and hardly ever annoys.

snoopy_virtual

#494
@EL34xyz

First of all I want to apologize for the way I talk.

This always give me problems with my students when they just met me. Usually the first year they are too scare to ask me questions, but after the first year, when they realize that I am not angry all the time but this is only the way I talk, they relax and then they just don't pay any heed to my shoutings and swearings and ironic comments.

I know I loose my temper too often, but that's the way I have always been and I don't think now that I'm 53 I can change that.

Anyway, sorry about that. I will try to keep it to the point. (As much as I can, at least.)




Now.

I understood what you were saying since the first time.

What I have been trying to tell you is that this is not a bug.

That's the way the mod is intended to work.

I think is you who don't understand how the mod works.

Let's see if I can explain it better:

Everytime a new member try to register or everytime you check an existing member the mod does exactly the same:

It takes the username, the IP and the email of the member trying to register (or the member you are checking) and compare them with the database inside the Stop Forum Spam servers. If any of the 3 things (doesn't matter which one of the 3) is already in SFS database it changes the value of is_activated to 3 (waiting for approval) and change the value of is_spammer to a number from 1 to 7, depending on which ones of the 3 things where already in the database.

I have no control at all over SFS servers or the way they build theirs database. In SFS I am just a normal member and the only thing I can do there is give them my opinion about how they should run their database, but I cannot force them to change it if they don't want.

I also think is wrong to have all these normal usernames stored as spammers, but as I said I cannot change that.

Even the IPs can also give you some wrong positives, as I was saying in reply #469

Quote from: snoopy_virtual on February 08, 2010, 01:15:10 PM
...
If it catches somebody because their IP can be 3 options:


  • It's a spammer.
  • It's a legal guy but the computer has a trojan and it's part of a botnet sending spam without the owner knowledge.
  • It's a legal guy but he has a dynamic IP (the ones changing every time  you restart your router) and today he has an IP which uses to belong to a spammer.

So if your program catches as spammer somebody you are sure is a legal person, just because the IP, you should tell them so they can scan the computer looking for trojans (or just restart the router and get another IP).

If you are interested in this subject, I have written a lot about it.

For example:

http://www.snoopyvirtualstudio.com/trankos/portal/index.php?option=com_smf&Itemid=36&topic=297.msg1230#msg1230

http://www.snoopyvirtualstudio.com/tutoriales/index.php?estudio=httpbl

etc.

That's why I like better the way they deal with the IP problem in Project Honey Pot than how they do it in SFS. (That's why in all my forums I have 2 anti-spam programs, this one checking SFS and mod httpBL checking PHP and I always recommend everybody to do the same).

The only thing sure is the email.

If the email is in SFS database you can be 99% sure that guy is a spammer. (I leave 1% out just in case, because I suppose one of this days spammers will start using legal people email addresses and then we will have a real problem to differentiate them).

Anyway, going back to my main line of argumentation, I was saying I cannot change SFS database. We already had many times this argument about the usernames inside SFS forum and a lot of people ask them to erase from the database common usernames as the one you were saying (Madison) and many others.

I can understand they having in the database names like:

britney_spears_nude
free_viagra
etc

(Don't laugh, this 2 and many others with similar names had try to register in one of my forums)

But I don't understand why they keep names as Jimmy, Margarita, etc.

They say it's for practical reasons. Everyday a lot of new names are added to the database and they cannot have somebody checking every 2 minutes to erase the normal ones. And they say that anyway who is going to mark the line between what is a normal name and what is not. And they say etc etc.

So we just need to accept that they are not going to change that and that's it. Theirs database is not 100% perfect, but still it's one of the best anti-spam webs I know and my forums work a lot better with this mod.

Then, the only thing I can control is not the way SFS works, but the way this mod works and that's what I am doing..

We already had this argument about the false positives before a lot of times. Not only false positives due to username, but also the ones due to IP.

I don't know if you have read the full 25 pages of this post, but I have done it several times and I can give you a lot of examples of different opinions about it.

I could even send you copies of the PMs I sent to M-DVD and his replies talking about this since I started working with him more than a year ago. The problem is if I put all these copies together it will be a lot longer than this post. And anyway they are in spanish.

M-DVD's opinion was to keep the mod as simple as possible and he always said it was up to every admin to study every new catch the mod does and to decide if they will allow the new one inside the forum (approve it) or not (reject it).

One year ago I was doing just that.

Every day I was checking one by one every new catch.

The problem is I administer 10 different forums, and every one was catching every day around 10 spammers.

That's more or less a 100 to check every day. Too many.

That's why I started doing my other anti-spam mod using PHP database (when I say PHP I mean Project Honey Pot).

Now I only have to check 5 new spammers every day (counting all the forums together) and that's a lot easier to do, because the another one using PHP is fully automatic and you don't need to check anything. It even report itself new spammers and all, so you just need to install it and forget about it.

But I'm diverging again from the subject. Let's go back to the username false positive problem.

As I was saying, you can see if you read the post a lot of different options about it.

A month ago I added to the mod a possible solution that wasn't there in earlier versions:

If you are having too many false positives due to usernames or IPs you can go to the mod settings and tell the mod don't check any one of them you want.

Whatever the case I wouldn't recommend nobody to turn off the "check email" option. (For the reasons I stated above).

There is another possible solution another friend suggested (I haven't forgotten about you SiL) I still would like to try because I think is even better, but I haven't had time enough with all this problem with the yellow bug and all the writing I'm doing here lately.

Then now, trying to put it easier.

I understand you don't want to turn off the option to check usernames. I have it off in most of my forums because my experience tells me in all my forums all the false positives I had where due to usernames.

And anyway I don't really mind when a spammer register in one of my forums.

With the other anti-spam mod (the httpBL) usually it just goes as far as registering, but to actually be able to say something in one of the posts is almost impossible. They get caught in one of the honey pots sooner or later.

No one of them have been able to do it yet.

I suppose you have seen on top of my forum a sign encouraging them to try.  ;D

(By the way, if anyone of you want to copy that picture for your own forum it's not copyrighted. It's copylefted. Even more, if you don't know how to put it in your forum to reflect the actual number of spammers caught by your mod, let me know and I will write a tutorial about it. Even more, you can see in my forum I have it in english and in spanish. If anyone of you wants to translate it to another language just let me know and I can send you the PSD file with all the layers ready to modify with Photoshop.)

I am diverging again.

Back to the point.

Then, as I was saying, if you don't want to turn that option off, then you need to remember that everytime a new guy try to register in your forum or everytime you check an existing member, the mod is going to check if the username is in SFS database. And if it's there, it's going put him "under approval" (is_active = 3) and it's going to change the value of is_spammer to a value different from 0

So, again:

If you know that Madison is a good guy and you don't want to mark him as spammer, don't check him with the option to check usernames on.

If you want me to take Madison's name from SFS sorry but I cannot do that.

Any other suggestions?

Ken what I mean?

Slange var 

El verdadero sabio es aquel que lo ve todo, lo estudia todo, lo analiza todo y molesta poco.
A true wise man is he who sees everything, studies everything, analyses everything and hardly ever annoys.

snoopy_virtual

Quote from: EL34xyz on February 08, 2010, 08:31:35 PM
...
His user name is part of many other user names that have the word Madison as part of the user name.
...

I forgot to tell you:

The mod checks if the exact username, the exact IP or the exact email address are in the database.

No just part of it.

El verdadero sabio es aquel que lo ve todo, lo estudia todo, lo analiza todo y molesta poco.
A true wise man is he who sees everything, studies everything, analyses everything and hardly ever annoys.

giveaway365.com

smf has uploaded the 2.3.7 version... is this the same file which is on snoppy's server.. or do I need to get the smf's server and install it?

giveaway365.com

The one which I installed from snoppy's server yesterday says :
Ad Managment      2.3.6.1

Actually it was suppose to be 2.3.7 and zip file also was 2.3.7

What to do?

snoopy_virtual

Quote from: giveaway365.com on February 09, 2010, 06:54:08 AM
smf has uploaded the 2.3.7 version... is this the same file which is on snoppy's server.. or do I need to get the smf's server and install it?

yes, that's mine

Quote from: giveaway365.com on February 09, 2010, 07:03:10 AM
The one which I installed from snoppy's server yesterday says :
Ad Managment      2.3.6.1

Actually it was suppose to be 2.3.7 and zip file also was 2.3.7

What to do?

Ad Management have nothing to do with Stop Spammer

El verdadero sabio es aquel que lo ve todo, lo estudia todo, lo analiza todo y molesta poco.
A true wise man is he who sees everything, studies everything, analyses everything and hardly ever annoys.

giveaway365.com

oops sorry... just saw 2.3.6 and got confused...

so its the same file !!

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