I am using SMF as my forum script. But I am unable to stop spamming. I have done clean re-install twice and am fed up of this. More over I don't see any count in my statscounter counter (so these spammer might be using some automatic methods). Can anyone help me in this. My forum ip is http://boldelhi.com
First off, upgrade your forum version to 1.1.7 Secondly, there's some mod you can use that enables a random question in the registration form. Install that. I've NEVER had any spam bots register or post on my forums after installing that mod.
Are you serious?? phpbb is known for spam bot issues. theblogger, I suggest you take a look at the following mods http://custom.simplemachines.org/mods/index.php?mod=1516 http://custom.simplemachines.org/mods/index.php?mod=1519 On another note SMF2.x has better spam protection. And you can add anti-spam questions by default.
Or you can run Mybb without doing any extra mods. Go over to mybboard.net and read the forums. I don't see anyone complaining about bot spam at all.
Thats weird because with the first month of using myBB I got a ton of calender spam using myBB1.4. Besides the fact that myBB is very small compared to its competitors.
Ahh..yeah the calendar spam is true because in 1.2x by default they allowed guest posting but only on the calendar. But no spam issues have arisen in 1.4x...I think discussing current versions of software is probably more relevent for this discussion on spam prevention. Even more reason to use it. Smaller community = less of a target.
Smaller Community = Less Mods, Less % of a support question being answered, Fewer contributors to the software But if you say smaller communities are better so be it. I guess theres a reason more people use SMF. And people are converting from myBB -> SMF daily.
I disagree. I see just about every support question get a reply. I think you have that backwards. http://www.simplemachines.org/download/?converters And if you look at the numbers...the mybb 1.4x converter doesn't have nearly the amount of downloads that php does and ironically even less than the VB3.6 converter. That should tell you an aweful lot about the percentages of those that are switching from other software. And those figures are just downloads not actually conversions. I see all the time people convert to SMF from Mybb then realize their mistake and switch back. http://community.mybboard.net/thread-42151.html That guy had a 400k post forum. Yes if you read the thread he had some issues...the merge system of 1.4x is still in beta. When it's completed and out of beta expect even more converts. http://community.mybboard.net/forum-96.html You can read there about others converting and often it's from SMF. Here is the Mybb -> SMF conversion official support thread. Doesn't appear to be too active and it's riddled with problems in their converter. Plus their converter doesn't actually attempt to convert everything while mybb's does. http://www.simplemachines.org/community/index.php?topic=256073.0 The war continues.
Please tell me When was vb3.6 released? When was myBB1.4? Maybe a bit of some confusion at my end? But shouldn't a version that has been out longer have more converts. vbulletin3.6 was released a few years ago. Also heres a few links for you... Don't know if you want to count or not but there are several people migrating to SMF from myBB. http://www.simplemachines.org/community/index.php?topic=256073.0 http://www.simplemachines.org/community/index.php?topic=258693.0 If more people begin to start there forums with myBB i'm sure SMF would be flooded by now too. Have a happy new year. Good luck to our debates in 2009.
Hey Shadow ... nice to see you here ... I remember you from SMF support forums ... Anyways, I used to run SMF and have upgraded to vBulletin now ... @theblogger : I see you have not implemented the anti-spam or upgraded to 1.1.7 ... You should do this ASAP. I have joined you forum as joyboy2001 and I was not required to activate my e-mail ID. That's a major flaw. Please correct it. SMF also allows "member approval by Admin" as another manual resort to combat forum spam. You might want to look into it.
Guys, no one is going to convince anyone in The Religious Debate about forum software. For mine, I love SMF and it's my first preference on all sites that I build although I would love to reduce the spam as well and will use some of the suggestions offerred above.
I was being spammed by foreign folks at about 10 or 15 a day, then I added the mod to add fields to the profile and put in your country , your city, your zip code and the spam instantly stopped. I hope this helps...
You can't convince someone that already has their mind made up but every day new people want to know about available software packages and their positives. I won't sit idly by and let SMF fanatics keep Mybb out of the equation. I almost always support either SMF, Mybb, or Vanilla for a forum project. Heck even Punbb is a good alternative. The only thing just about everyone is starting to see is that phpbb is a poor choice.
A fanatic (on any side of the equation) is always going to abuse, belittle, or completely ignore the competition/opposition when it suits. As I said, it a religious war with very few prisoners.
After I hacked the heck out of phpbb2 I was very happy with the anti spam results. Unfortunately, it's being retired this new year. I am trying my hand with the new phpbb3 on another site and I have to say that the admin control panel is quite overwhelming compared to that of its predecessor. I hope to do nice things with it once I get the theme settings the way I want them. I'm not sure what anti spam mods are available for it, but I hope similar to the ones I was using: answer a question on registration no links allowed in post until Xposts Xdays inactive/unverified members don't show up on the front page (newest member) no signature box during registration Those are very effective in the old phpbb.... but I'm not sure what version 3 holds for me. If you're set on using Simple Machines board, you may want to do the tedious work of modding it to the hilt. I hope it works for you. If you haven't tried pbpbb3, you might want to give it a test run and check out all the permissions available in the admin panel. Good luck.
I had a go at phpbb3 ... once I installed it and posted on their forum about how to change the template, v3 was only very new, but I was basically abused for wanting to mod the template myself and I didn't want to get someone else to make all the changes for me, I wanted to learn myself. That sort of 'community spirit' was enough for me. Also, phpbb3 doesn't seem to have RSS (out of the box, and if it does then it's not linked properly) and I dislike the way their active topics works.
its been suggested to upgrade to 1.1.7, i agree, don't wait. its simple to do. install the Are You Human mod for your registration page. make your registration settings so new members have to activate their account through an email link or member approval. failure to follow these simple measures will result in your forum going to shit, fast.
The only "aid" I ever get there is by the search function. My questions are rarely answered. As for the themes, I downloaded a bunch and couldn't see them in my admin panel. It drove me nuts for a couple of hours, then I discovered that they were in extra folders like themexyz/ThemeXYZ - not code error, but my error. RAWR! I haven't gotten that far yet. I thought about simple machines, but also thought that I'd be better off with pbpbb3 since I had fairly mastered the phpbb2 after a couple of years. lol. BUT, it's nothing like the old one. (sorry for talking away from the original topic). *concluded*