I switched to vbulletin from IPB about a year ago and it has completely ruined my forum. A forum with 2,500 members became a ghost town because people got tired of putting up with all the spam. When I had IPB, i might get a few spam posts a week. With vBulletin, I get 20+ spam posts a day. I have image verification on. I have email verification on. I don't allow duplicate emails. Is there anything else that can be done?
How to stop spam!
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What's the URL to your board?ManagerJosh, Owner of 4 XenForo Licenses, 1 vBulletin Legacy License, 1 Internet Brands Suite License
Director, WorldSims.org | Gaming Hosting Administrator, SimGames.net, Urban Online Entertainment -
Well, firstable you would need to know that vBulletin is very well-optimized for search engines, so this would always results in more traffic to your forum, whether spam or not.
On the other hand, it's very unlikely to be hit by spammers in such a way you've described, unless something really irrelevant had been going on. Did you submit your forum's URL to these low-level web directories? Such link farms are one of the worst sources of getting spammers into your doorstep.
If you could post a link to your forum as already MJ has suggested, we might be able to provide better diagnosis & help.You're spending millions of dollars on a website?!
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my forum is http://www.hilaryduffcentral.com/hilary-duff-forum/
no I haven't been submitting my forum to directories. i think its just people searching for "vbulletin" to get a huge list of forums to spam. that's the only reason i can think of for why i'd get more spam with vbulletin than ipbComment
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I think it's more likely the words "Hilary Duff" than anything.
Anyhow, here's a few recommendations on my part. While you are definitely using Image Verification, it's been known that a select few bots have been able to crack that version of the CAPTCHA so it's useless now.
First, upgrade to the latest version of vBulletin (3.6.7 currently). It offers far more sophisicated CAPTCHAs. Plus it allows you to use custom backgrounds and custom fonts, which makes it more difficult for automated spam to get through. The current CAPTCHA on your site is using a Simple Font, Unicolor, on a white background. It's prime real estate to be spammed.
After you upgrade to the latest vBulletin, make sure you enable:
True Type Fonts
Random Fonts
Random Slants
Random Colors
Random Sizes
This receipe should knock out 99.8% of all spam. Let us know when you update and we can make sure the necessary settings are enabledManagerJosh, Owner of 4 XenForo Licenses, 1 vBulletin Legacy License, 1 Internet Brands Suite License
Director, WorldSims.org | Gaming Hosting Administrator, SimGames.net, Urban Online EntertainmentComment
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Gears: Consider enabling random fonts. Also consider Requiring CAPTCHAs for the Contact Us form.ManagerJosh, Owner of 4 XenForo Licenses, 1 vBulletin Legacy License, 1 Internet Brands Suite License
Director, WorldSims.org | Gaming Hosting Administrator, SimGames.net, Urban Online EntertainmentComment
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I suggest the NoSpam! hack over at www.vbulletin.org (If you wanna be lazy: http://www.vbulletin.org/forum/showthread.php?t=124828)Comment
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I suggest the NoSpam! hack over at www.vbulletin.org (If you wanna be lazy: http://www.vbulletin.org/forum/showthread.php?t=124828)Comment
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I suggest the NoSpam! hack over at www.vbulletin.org (If you wanna be lazy: http://www.vbulletin.org/forum/showthread.php?t=124828)
I don't understand why all software uses image verification when such a simple soloution is out there.Comment
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I'd love to see someone develope an AI to beat this NoSpam! hack -.-ManagerJosh, Owner of 4 XenForo Licenses, 1 vBulletin Legacy License, 1 Internet Brands Suite License
Director, WorldSims.org | Gaming Hosting Administrator, SimGames.net, Urban Online EntertainmentComment
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I have image verification on. I have email verification on. I don't allow duplicate emails. Is there anything else that can be done?
if you want to benefit from actual protection, you must set the captcha up with truetype fonts and other 'special effects' so that the image generated gets impossible to read for the spambots.
the default setting has 'simple font' which can easily be cracked.
it is best if you upload a number of truetype fonts of your own choice, because this improves the 'uniqueness' of your captcha and thereby the difficulty to crack it.
on the other hand, the nospam! hack is much smarter but a lot has been written on that already.
one thing i do not understand is why you have not asked questions about this spam problem before your regulars started walking away.... you say you have been running vB for over a year now??Comment
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The NoSpam hack worked great for me for a really long time, but now isn't working at all. In the last week, I've gotten at least 15 spam registrations. I've changed the questions, with no luck. I think your wish (though I have no idea why you'd want to see it) has come true.Comment
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The NoSpam hack worked great for me for a really long time, but now isn't working at all. In the last week, I've gotten at least 15 spam registrations. I've changed the questions, with no luck. I think your wish (though I have no idea why you'd want to see it) has come true.Translations provided by Google.
Wayne Luke
The Rabid Badger - a vBulletin Cloud demonstration site.
vBulletin 5 APIComment
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The NoSpam hack worked great for me for a really long time, but now isn't working at all. In the last week, I've gotten at least 15 spam registrations. I've changed the questions, with no luck. I think your wish (though I have no idea why you'd want to see it) has come true.ManagerJosh, Owner of 4 XenForo Licenses, 1 vBulletin Legacy License, 1 Internet Brands Suite License
Director, WorldSims.org | Gaming Hosting Administrator, SimGames.net, Urban Online EntertainmentComment
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by rk1708Hi,
I'm getting a lot of spam on my forum for last few days only, there are more than 3500 spam posts made in just last few days,
how can I stop these?
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Channel: Support Issues & Questions
Tue 12 May '15, 11:35pm -
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