Worried. SPAM problem

[exploreanitha]

Hey guys,

I am using a PHPBB3 installed on a VPS Hosting.
Everything went fine except that I am getting a lot of SPAM these days. I don't know how these people get in. I could see a lot of signup and full of SPAM. I think that is some problem with phpbb3.

I think I can switch over to SMF to avoid this. How about the SPAM defending in smf? If I convert to smf, shall I get rid of those SPAM issues?

[Jasonsj10]

You can set up questions on registeration. That only your members that register SHOULD know. Or do what i do. "Who is the creater of minecraft? No//ch"

[Account Abandoned]

Hey guys,

I am using a PHPBB3 installed on a VPS Hosting.
Everything went fine except that I am getting a lot of SPAM these days. I don't know how these people get in. I could see a lot of signup and full of SPAM. I think that is some problem with phpbb3.

I think I can switch over to SMF to avoid this. How about the SPAM defending in smf? If I convert to smf, shall I get rid of those SPAM issues?

I have never seen a software that gets spam like PhpBB does. I think that is why I left PhpBB because its a software for spammers, lol. SMF has captcha and q&a builtin. I enable them both on my forum. My forums maybe get a couple of spammers a month. I also have the Stop Forum Spam modification installed which blocks SO MUCH spammers from joining that its not even funny.

Hurry up and convert to SMF, ditch the PhpBB Spamware and start to enjoy forums better

[ebayron]

add anti spam see attached

[TheListener]

My forum has been spam free since March 2010.

I currently use the inbuilt questions (2.0 only) and 2 mods.

The 2 mods are Bad behaviour and Avatar verifications.

[Oldiesmann]

I use the Anti-Spam Links mod to prevent new users from posting links, and also prevent new users from editing their profiles (as the other big form of spam is "plaster spam links in your forum profile"). This doesn't stop them from actually registering, but it does stop them from doing anything once they are registered.

I haven't tried any of the other mods, but this works well for me. If you don't like the idea of having tons of inactive users, you might want to try Bad Behaviour or httpBL.

[Xarcell]

I will tell you right now that I have canned a couple of my SMF sites because of spam. There are seo companies scanning sites with certain copyrights in them, such as "PHPBB3" and "SMF 2.0" that make your site a target for spam. The goal of the spam is to increase search ranking by posting backlinks on various sites in most cases.

I have gotten many suggestions for resolving this, but the only one that really works is to remove the copyright, which is either illegal or frowned upon.

For my SMF site, I have forum firewall, bad behavior, and a few others. The only traffic I get is spammers, who still spam my forum. No legit people take my site seriously because of all the spam. Even with the mods, and over 1K people banned, I still on average delete 10 posts along with the spammer, everyday. Some days are worse than others.

I can say that bad behavior as seemed to help the most, or slowed it down. However, I find it frustrating and hate having to install 5 freaking mods to stop spam, which don't really stop it. Although it's not SMF's fault, or the mod makers. It's just companies that people hire to help market their website, which all the company primary does is spam forums and blogs.

[Account Abandoned]

On removing the copyright... Could a forum instead replace it with a image citing a source to SMF and a link to them?

[Illori]

depends on which version you are running, if 1.1.1* you can not change the copyright at all. in 2.0 you can do whatever you want to the copyright but if not in place as original you can get no support from the team.

[Account Abandoned]

Well personally, I am going to leave my copyright alone. I don't often get hit by spammers so I see no need to change it

[ApplianceJunk]

in 2.0 you can do whatever you want to the copyright but if not in place as original you can get no support from the team.

Interesting, I did not know that.

I have no plans for removing it, but it's always nice to know your options.

I would be lost without team support.

[lloydb]

On removing the copyright... Could a forum instead replace it with a image citing a source to SMF and a link to them?

Wow, that sounds really good. You could just do a screen capture of the text of the copy right and save it as an image. Then you could link the image to the url the text links to. Everything would be there to anyone human, but not to text searching bots. If you click on it, you still get to the same place.

The smf team wouldn't even notice the difference

[Illori]

you are not allowed to do that if you are using 1.1.1* and if you are using 2.0 it will make your forum not get support. we can still tell things like that we are not dumb.

[Bookmama]

I will tell you right now that I have canned a couple of my SMF sites because of spam. There are seo companies scanning sites with certain copyrights in them, such as "PHPBB3" and "SMF 2.0" that make your site a target for spam. The goal of the spam is to increase search ranking by posting backlinks on various sites in most cases.

I have gotten many suggestions for resolving this, but the only one that really works is to remove the copyright, which is either illegal or frowned upon.

...

A couple other options that I've seen work (in addition to what's already been suggested)
1) require a minimum number of posts before allowing links in either signatures or posts. 
2) allow policing by members.  Have a "Report Spam" or "Ban this Post" button and some number of members that must click it and then poof the trashy post disappears.

I actually think the first approach of not allowing new members to post links is the most significant, BECAUSE if people are performing SEO, they want to see that link to their website created.  If they can't make that happen in a single visit to your website then you are much less likely to be a target.  Your forum won't make the "Recommended Backlinks" list.

[lloydb]

you are not allowed to do that if you are using 1.1.1* and if you are using 2.0 it will make your forum not get support. we can still tell things like that we are not dumb.

I should mention that I wasn't serious about not being able to tell, and that was why there was a smiley after it.

I don't expect that 2.0 is searched for as much as the earlier versions anyway, so I'm not about to bother with anything like this. The question verification part has helped a huge amount with spam. It is almost like a bit of peace and quiet now.

But I don't understand what would be the problem with doing something like that. You would still have the forum copyright notice for anyone to read. Why would it make a difference if it was in an image, or in text?

[Illori]

because if you have it as an image you have modified the copyright.

[exploreanitha]

Thank you for the insight. Now, I am going to convert to SMF.