this thread is the ultimate resource on directory scripts: http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?t=55170 but I'd like to know which scripts are using decent spam protection. captcha doesn't cut it for me. I need more! like akismet and bad behaviour running in the backend. WSNLinks doesn't have either and it's mighty hard to retrofit. It does captcha though but that's proving ineffective. What about the others?
I have not tried all the scripts out there and has been a while since I use the WSN links, but I think phpLD 3x is very good even with capcha is set to off, my phpLD 2.1 on one directory is spammed by bots. I also have a directory scripts list here that if any one wish to try out or see if the features of that script offers a better spam protection. phpLynx seem to be proud of it's anti-spam feature but that too I have not tried.
Hey Jesse -- I am using the phpLYNX for my newest baby - Net Catalogue - But I have not yet opened it for submission--I have just been arranging categories --and learning its different funtions. It seems to have lots of built in untions for ctatic SE friendly contents. If one works really hard --It could really give phpLD a run for its $$$. @OP --before I was using phpLD2.1 -- and was gtting lots of SPAMs --but since I upgraded to phpLD3.1 -the spams have decreased to almost nil.
Are you talking about an image captcha? They aren't generally very effective, unless they are unreadable. Then no-one can get in. If you want good spam protection, you need several layers of defence. PhpLynx has a text captcha that you can edit yourself. I think it also has the ability to ban by IP, email and domain. The Snowblind Directory script has a word filter feature. There are scripts out there that apply email confirmation, and the email has to come from the same domain, but I can't remember which. I've been doing some manual submission, and every so often the script won't let me submit because of its spam filters, I suspect because I send a blank referer in FF. So some spam protection measures can end up throwing the baby out with the bathwater.
For now phpld 3.1 and captcha set to on are doing a great job for me. With captcha set to off I was receiving spam submissions.
I wasn't receiving that many, just a few per day, but with captcha set to on (the simplest one), I've received none so far.
I'm more than proud to tell you that php Lynx has a superb protection against SPAM, we have a great protection against spam. People using php Lynx are satisfied, some haven't ever even receiven any spam, which is great. WatchOut
Frankly, i havent seen a script either which integrates features like bad behavior or akismet. Would be most interested if anybody can point some out here.
WatchOut is a staff member/developer of that script and has been my buddy for a long time. Most people do not know about this script because it has not yet been released commercially. They have finalized their commercial script which would be released soon and will have a very very competitive price --realting to other directory scripts. I am using the Free version ( as the comercial version is not yet released but slated to be released within next few days) and it seems there is virtually endless SEO features like ---you can create as many static Content pages as you want from your directory Admin panel--you can hace Meta Tags/Description/Keyword for each and every sub-category --so many. At present I am just tweaking with my directory ( it will take some time for a technical fool like me to muster the full features of its SEO friendly features)--and I am getting AMAZED --as there are so many new things to learn . So if you have any question --you may directly refer to them to WatchOut. I am just thrilled to say the least learning how to best get results from the built in features of this script. There is one good directory that got PR6 using this script and customising the template-- Please CHECK HERE
Why would you need either of them two if a script already has features such as word banning, url/ip banning, auto-force payment and so on? Problem I see with Akismet and that is they may well stop spam from getting 'live' posted but they still clog up your system with the spam which you have to go through to check if it has inadvertantly caught any genuine posts. Have to agree with Watchout on this one, phpLynx does have an anti-spam protection that's worth shouting about.
As for the topic goes....NO Spam protection method for web applications truly works 100%. Any CAPTCHA can be defeated once the army of slaves record all the possible combinations. I am really interested in your "superb" method though. Whats the concept and how does it exactly prevent SPAM? I never used your directory script, but for phpLd3.1+, those who don't use CAPTCHA and think they are safe, they're really not. Well, actually then again, they are maybe safe now since theres probably been no bot made to take advantage of their current spam protection method.
The benefit of something like Akismet is that there is a community effect in the spam awareness. As for clogging up the system - I can live with that. I use it in my blog and I get false negatives but not false positives.
It's a central database to catch spammers. You can develop an application to call it and it will report if it's likely to be spam. It's built into WordPress (and by one of the WordPress team) and blog comments can be passed through it. You may get a benign comment but if that person has misbehaved on my site then they'll get flagged. There's a real trend at the moment to post "Wow, great blog, keep up the good work", but what they are doing is trying to build up a track record of good comments so that when they drop a spammy one they get given the benefit of the doubt. Needless to say the Akismet team have seen it all before...
LeopardAt1 It is impossible to record 'all possible combinations' for the phpLynx system as its 'ad infinitum' as to the limit of questions/math problems/graphics that can be used. There's none of this 'folder of xyz amount of captcha images' that you quite rightly point out can be beaten pretty easily. More to that I think what makes these guys method stand out from others is that it uses a combination of text/math/graphic together with a customised ban word/phrase/url/ip feature and then combined it with an 'auto-delete' 'unqualified' submissions preventing them from even getting into the database, pretty impressive i'd say. Watchout has good reason to say its "superb", because it bloody well is. @ Sarahk, Akismet faces the exact opposite problem that phpLynx deals with, as soon as a 'phrase' such as "Wow, great blog, keep up the good work", gets flagged spammers come up with 'another phrase', it's a never ending scenario. Best way simply has to be stopping them at the front door before they get in.
Hey, yeah I meant the captcha's that include questions or series of phrases. http://www.cs.sfu.ca/~mori/research/gimpy/ http://www.puremango.co.uk/cm_breaking_captcha_115.php - check if phpLynx uses one of those captcha's mods. If something new came up that made captcha's impossible to break, please let me know...that would be good to hear. So the first layer is a CAPTCHA, and the second one isa "spam word detector" that doesn't allow anyone to submit at all? First before I say anything about this, I would like to see it in action. Do you have a live url using the directory script. As a new directory owner, I would like to compare each directory script features. For example, if you were to go to a directory, lets say Aviva, and to search the database for all the site descriptions and titles, how many listings would be marked as spam according to your detection? Would this second layer of defense then be losing potential customers? Anyhow, it does seem like an effective approach into stopping spam submissions. Thanks, Leopard