spammers using 'powered by SMF' to search google to find you

[2babies=tired]

I've noticed a few times now that spammers are searching google with "intitle: powered by SMF" for example today it was:

intitle:parenting forums powered by smf profile

So how can I stop the term 'powered by smf' leading them to my site or can't I? As I've only ever seen this search term used by real people who then sign up to my forum and spam it, I am wondering how I can change things to prevent it?

[Illori]

if you use 2.0 you can modify/remove your copyright and loose support from the team. otherwise there is nothing you can do.

[2babies=tired]

okey dokey. Thanks Illori

[cjones636]

Wait, you said nothing she can do? Well actually there is allot she can do. Now i'm just getting familiar with smf this may or may not work, but what i did for my wpmu site is change what the bots were searching for. Bot's are program to do cretin things, it's not like they have a personality are anything and can easily be tricked and cant think for themselves.

My wmpu site was getting hammered, they were creating hundreds of blogs a week! What i did was, i went to my host cpanel and got a list of keyphrases of what was being searched to find my site..

What i was finding was stuff like..
"inurl wp-signup.php intext blog details"
"inurl register intext blog details"
"/register/ yes i d like to create a new blog"

and hundreds more.

What i did was, i took a copy of my entire site and stuck it in a folder on my desktop. Then i opened notepad++ (best notepad ever!) went to Search/Find in Files then i set the Directory to the folder containing the full copy of my site, then i typed in the search bar "yes i d like to create a new blog" then in the replace with textbox i typed in what i wanted "Start a Page" (notice the words create or blog is not included) notepad++ will go trough all the files looking for the words "yes i d like to create a new blog". When notepad++ finished it will replace all.

Next thing i did was i looked at every file that had the "yes i d like to create a new blog" i changed the name of the file itself (i.e wp-signup.php was renamed to "Party.php". After that search trough all the files with notepad++ again and let it search trough all the files that was calling the file you just changed (i.e wp-signup.php) and in the "replace with" textbox put in the name of the new file (i.e Party.php).

I Also used notepad++ to change the words and every file name i possibly could (even text links like register) using notepad++

When i did this, i maybe got 2 spam blogs created in a month. Even tough you don't want to loose your support by removing the copyright, then don't remove it; yes bots will still be able to find your site by using that search sting, but once they are on your site, they can't do anything else.

Remember to have a second backup of your site for the "Oh no" moments and always have a database backup before you start. Sometimes you will have to change stuff on the database, if thats the case open your datebase backup in notepad++ and search for everthing you have change.

Also it's better to change the items manually so you can see what is being changed.

[Illori]

you are not allowed to change the copyright text so that change will not work.

[Yiorgos]

powered by SMF 2.0
pοwered by SΜF 2.0

On the second line I use "ο" and "Μ" from the Greek character set, just for the wording
The LINK is not changed.
It is more than obvious (I think) that my intention is not to violate the copy write.

Is that considered to be a violation of copy right ?

[Illori]

you are not allowed to change the wording of the copyright, but in 2.0 you are allowed to remove it but you would loose any support for your issues.

[kat]

Bot's are program to do cretin things

Ain't that the truth?

Bots find VB sites by searching for "VB". They find IPBB sites by searching for "IPBB".

Only way to prevent that kinda thing, one suspects, is to use the Klingon language for your site.

[cjones636]

you are not allowed to change the copyright text so that change will not work.

You wouldn't have to change that.. Change the file names (i.e wp-signup.php to party.php etc).. Ok, i programmed allot of bots like these, most of these bots searches for innerhtml/text clues. First these bots harvest urls for search engines using a string (i.e Powered by SMF 2.0). When the harvesting is completed the bots will go to the sites looking that was harvested.

Look at this, this is how the bot finds the register link.
<span class="last firstlevel">Register</span>

now, i would change it to.
<span class="lasst firsstlevel">Start Gaming</span>

Lets say, a bot finds your registration page trough google

Once the bot is on the page where you input your details, most of the expensive bots ($1000+) uses about all the code bellow to help input the correct details in the right field.
<input type="text" name="user" id="smf_autov_username" size="30" tabindex="1" maxlength="25" value="" class="input_text">

name=, id=, tabindex= and maybe class= will all be used to the bots advantage (when i was making bots, this is what i had my bot search for)

Change the above and 90% of your spam will disappear.

It may be allot of work to beat these bots, but well worth it in the end.

[Illori]

that will not stop human spammers though.

[2babies=tired]

indeed, the only way I know about the google search query is because these spammers are human. Statcounter only ever shows me actual people accessing my site, project honeypot shows me the hits by the bots but no idea how they got to me in the first t place, just glad I dont have much spamming problems! 

[Ricky.]

you are not allowed to change the wording of the copyright, but in 2.0 you are allowed to remove it but you would loose any support for your issues.

Hmm.. I am getting ignorant, Illori, can you mention how and where removal of copyright is allowed in SMF (I am not intending to remove but I should know ..

Also, back to topic:
Stopping 99% bots is easy.. but stopping even 1% human spammer is hard ! But luckily we have 99% bots who are spamming.. so spam prevention is easy..

[Illori]

you are allowed to remove the smf copyright in 2.0, but no prior versions including RC releases, but keep in mind if you remove it you may get no support on this forum

[Ricky.]

And you can remove copyright through Admin Panel .. from where exactly because removing from theme for a casual user is not possible though for coder its not hard...

[Illori]

no there is no built in function to remove the copyright, unless you paid for 1.1.1* copyright removal.

[Ricky.]

Ok, I gave a quick google search, was not able to locate any doc/ reference for removal of copyright by payment..  here is one I found but then ..
http://www.simplemachines.org/copyright/index.php

So, can you direct me to the page / info where all this has been discussed / posted / shared ?

[Illori]

there was some, but it seems like the feature was disabled on this site for some time http://www.simplemachines.org/community/index.php?topic=434092.0

[Ricky.]

Well, I think this feature should be there ie. official way to get copyright removed because sometimes client wants a forum without copyright of vendor / author then you have to move suggest software like VB to client (as they are willing to pay to get copyright removed). Happened to me, because of copyright stuff, I have few VB forums too

[Illori]

well at this time the team does not support any way to remove the copyright and i think it should stay that way.

[Ricky.]

well at this time the team does not support any way to remove the copyright and i think it should stay that way.

So, it should be there because lately I found few site without copyright notice. Anyways, thanks for the link, but what I am wondering, under BSD license you are supposed to provide link / copyright notice with source code, its not explicitly mentioned that have to use it in output / web also. Certainly copyright is there in every source file. Preserving copyright is not a issue, rather it should be there at it is kind of small pay back from user for using such a great free software. Just in few cases where people are willing to pay, one should allow removal..  I remember, I had discovered SMF with one such footer link from a forum

[Illori]

but the team has stated that for support you must have the copyright in place in the footer of your forum, if we find it missing then we can deny the user support until it is put back in place.

[cjones636]

What will keep a user from just removing the copyright and replacing it for just long enough for them to get support? They should be something where you can donate certain amount of money to have the to legitimately remove the copyright and after each release, the user donates again to get the copyright removed and still receive support..

[Illori]

there is nothing to stop them from doing that, and no way for us to stop them from doing it.

[Gargoyle]

if you use 2.0 you can modify/remove your copyright and loose support from the team. otherwise there is nothing you can do.

With response like this I am surprised more people don't... I mean really ?? Pure Garbage.

To the OP: To answer your question there is not a whole lot. But in 2.0 there is a section in your admin area for meta tags that you can edit. I believe the way to get to it is go to Features and Options then its under General. Like I said it isn't perfect as many search engines don't even use meta tags anymore but it may help a little.

Another thing I have found very useful is the "Stop Forum Spam" modification currently supported by snoopy. That mod is awesome! The mod can help eliminate the issue before it is one.

[2babies=tired]

thanks Gargoyle 

[Aleksi "Lex" Kilpinen]

Seriously - The problem is NOT how spammers find you. As long as legit users can find you, spammers can find you as well.
More important than worrying about some search terms ( there are dozens of ways to find an SMF install really ) is to make sure spammers that do find you, can not do anything.

For that, I suggest using verification question and captcha (both built in to 2.0) combined with some of the mods available.
I highly recommend HttpBL myself.

[Kindred]

And since we were on the topic of copyright for s little bit, let me clarify, please.

SMF 2.0 was released under the BSD (3-Clause) license, which requires that the copyright is maintained in the Source. (i.e. the bit in the php files at the top where we indicate that the file is SMF)
It does not require that the output/displayed copyright be maintained.
This means that, yes, you may remove or alter the copyright statement that is displayed on the bottom of the generated forum pages as long as you are running SMF 2.0.
However, as stated, the SMF team will not provide support for sites with an altered or missing copyright.

Do note that the above statement is true for the 2.0 series....  under the SMF license for 1.0.x and 1.1.x, admins are NOT allowed to alter or remove the copyright. (with the exception of the version number)

(for the comment on changing the "o" to an "o" from another character set... technically this is altering the copyright. With the 2.0 design, you probably won't be called on it. However, if you were running 1.0.x or 1.1.x, that change would, technically, be an issue.)

As for discussions on how to remove the copyright...  while 2.0 ALLOWS it, we (Simple Machines) do not ENCOURAGE it. So, there are no public discussions on how to do so...   mind you, it's not actually all that hidden either.

Finally, for the comments on renaming the functions or files...  doing that won't actually help much at all...   there are too many points of intersection for the bots to search for -- and, unless you really know what you are doing, doing that can lead to major problems with your system, especially with mods.

[Ricky.]

And since we were on the topic of copyright for s little bit, let me clarify, please.

SMF 2.0 was released under the BSD (3-Clause) license, which requires that the copyright is maintained in the Source. (i.e. the bit in the php files at the top where we indicate that the file is SMF)
It does not require that the output/displayed copyright be maintained.
This means that, yes, you may remove or alter the copyright statement that is displayed on the bottom of the generated forum pages as long as you are running SMF 2.0.
However, as stated, the SMF team will not provide support for sites with an altered or missing copyright.

Do note that the above statement is true for the 2.0 series....  under the SMF license for 1.0.x and 1.1.x, admins are NOT allowed to alter or remove the copyright. (with the exception of the version number)

(for the comment on changing the "o" to an "o" from another character set... technically this is altering the copyright. With the 2.0 design, you probably won't be called on it. However, if you were running 1.0.x or 1.1.x, that change would, technically, be an issue.)

As for discussions on how to remove the copyright...  while 2.0 ALLOWS it, we (Simple Machines) do not ENCOURAGE it. So, there are no public discussions on how to do so...   mind you, it's not actually all that hidden either.

Finally, for the comments on renaming the functions or files...  doing that won't actually help much at all...   there are too many points of intersection for the bots to search for -- and, unless you really know what you are doing, doing that can lead to major problems with your system, especially with mods.

Yap.. that is what BSD license say ..

However, I had once tried playing with changing words in PHPBB (when I was new to forum world) , kinda helped a lot when I changed PHPBB powered by stuff at bottom , it helps but not too much. Now, I don't care for anything, I have my custom stuff and practices and by which I generally stops 99% bots / spam in WP, VB or SMF too , just to add here, SMF now already have MODS for those which I used to do manually so.. SMF is good for fighting spam !