Spammers?

[tigerroar]

Hi, I'm about to re-purchase a license for vbulletin after running a phpbb forum for the past ten months. It's fine for a free board but what really gets me is the amount of spammers it attracts.

If I install vb365 will I be spammed like I am now (1200 members - 1000 spammers) or is there a way to repell them from the start?

[Reeve of Shinra]

vbulletin 3.6 has a robust image captcha to help prevent automated bots from registering on your site. You can also require email verification to help ensure users are legit and if its a real issue, you can manually verify all new registrations.

Although not offically supported by Jelsoft, there are also a number of plugins available at vbulletin.org to further reduce automated spamming.

[tigerroar]

But they can still register can't they and they'll still appear in the members list like they do on phpbb? Thats my probelm :(

[Steve Machol]

If you allow registration, then anyone can register.

How to Reduce Spam and Registration Bots (http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/showthread.php?t=211647)

[tigerroar]

Thanks for the link Steve, it's very helpful. Am I able to download a copy of the forum to make sure that it works on my server before I buy it?

[Steve Machol]

No sorry. We do not have a trial version available.

[jason|xoxide]

There is a test script though. If your server passes then you shouldn't have any problems.

http://www.vbulletin.com/download.php

[tigerroar]

Thanks for the help guys. My prospective new host says that it should run fine.