UBB.threads PHP Forum Software Community Forums UBB.threads Version 7/8 Support Stop Forum Spam questions

I finally updated my forum to 7.5.8, partly to take advantage of the "stop forum spam" features. But I am not sure how SFS works. I hope someone can help explain...

Example:
Today I have an obvious robo-spammer signup. They are really easy to spot with the nonsense entries. If left alone, in a few days, they will post spam to the forum.

IP Address: 221.150.243.183
Email Address: ooodhhu@outlook.com
Username: sbqotxls
Display Name: abcdef568906

I check on the SFS site and see the IP has been entered:
Email Address: ooobnjg@outlook.com
Username: wgcxslld
Date is about 7 days prior to now.

If that IP is logged on SFS, shouldn't they be blocked from registering on my site?

Thanks in advance!

Dumb question, did you turn it on?

I have a Wiki entry here on the various settings. There is a modification to extend the feature here at UBBDev.

What setting are you using ?

Manual with 1-click check
Semi-Auto with Member management checks before display
Auto with Message
Auto with Silent Fail

They may have no been submitted as a spammer at the time of registration.

i'm using
Manual with 1-click check, just to see how the sfs works over the human eye

ive had mine going about 5 days

It's quite common actually when it's human's registering for them to slip through (you may think, hey these are really good bots, but in actuality it's humans being paid pennies per submission); that's why the Login Detection portion was created, which is not in the stock product.

I use "Suto with Message" for all of my SFS configurations.

Dumb answer: No. Didn't know I needed to. That's why I came here. Thanks for the pointer, I found it in CP > Master Settings (Primary Settings) > Tab=Stop Forum Spam. Nice!

And thanks for the links. I'll get to them next.

Just to Hijack this one,

Stop Forum Spam.
I'm working toward auto as a setting. What happens to a registration that only meets 1 of the criteria.

Good e-mail
Bad Ip

or

Bad e-mail
Good Ip

Is that user dropped ?

Actually not a hijack at all. I'd like to see the answers to all the questions here in one place.

Just a thought, and don't know how difficult it would be to program: There is no way we can test to see what happens to a user or registration flagged by SFS as bad. It would be nice if there were a specific username we could use that would trigger the same action as "SFS bad". Something like a special username such as "ubb_sfs_bad"

They should be denied, but if they're matches at all the user is a spammer unless they request to be removed from their database.

For a test why not just visit SFS.
Find a vaild spammer and attempt to login as such.

You would need to logout as admin. register , then login as admin again.
The unique email feature in ubb would be the hurdle.

Oh! Will that work? I thought it was primarily IP-based.

http://www.stopforumspam.com/search

Search for "batman"

Well nice:

I deleted the one signup today, after reporting it, and tried to register. I have the Level 3, "Auto with Message" SFS Protection Level set in the CP.



...but... I have the email response turned off (too many emails are blocked due to my server being shared), so registrations appear to be getting through. I don't see an option to simply reject the registration. Is that correct?

There is a login detection addon at ubbdev that you might find handy as well.

I edited/added to my post above.

Login detection would still allow the registration to get through, no?

Hmmm... Burned my fingers on the oven! ... I registered using one of the spammers usernames & email, and now MY IP address is flagged in SFS.

Now I get to try to clear it.

Edit: removal was easy, so no worries.

Yeah, they're pretty cool about removing legit users who've gotten tagged.

Login detection simply won't load the login page for users who're flagged; think of it as detection for spammers who register only to come back at a later time and mass spam sites (sleeper spammers).