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Scotty
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Sep 3 2007, 08:11 PM
Post #1
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- Posts:
- 3,580
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- April 1, 2005
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Dealing with Spam Bots
Spam bots are a problem all over the internet. Most forums have had at least one at some point, and there have been countless suggestions on how to deal with them. While there is no foolproof method, there are certain steps you can take to help prevent a large influx of spam bots.
- Disable Guests' Posting Ability
One of the easiest and most effective methods to cut down on spam posts generated by bots is to disable the ability for guests to post. This can be done through the following steps:
ACP ›› Forum Control ›› Permission Masks
Find the row for Guest Forum Mask and click Edit
Uncheck the boxes for Reply and Start for each forum, and click Update Forum Permissions once you are done.
- Validation
There are two types of validation: email validation and administrator validation. Email validation requires each user that registers to click a special authorization link sent to the email address they entered upon registration. This method is useful as a general precaution if your board is receiving only a small amount of bots. Administrator validation requires a forum administrator to manually approve each user that registers at your forum. This is most useful when your board is receiving a large number of spam bots, and email validation doesn't seem to stop them.
To enable either validation method, follow these steps:
ACP ›› System Settings ›› Security & Privacy
Under the Security (Troublesome Users), find the option labeled New registration email validation?.
From the drop down box, select either User Email Validation or Admin Validation, depending on which one applies to your forum based on the descriptions above. When you are done, click the Submit Changes button.
- Group Promotion
Another method used by many boards to prevent spam bots utilizes the group promotion feature. To summarize, this method requires each member to post in a special forum before they are moved into a member group with full permissions. The first step is to create the special category and forum. If you choose to place the special forum in an existing category, you can skip the first part.
Step 1
ACP ›› Forum Control ›› New Category
Type whatever you would like to call the new category into Category Name field, and ensure that the Category State is set to Visible. Once you are done, click the Create this category button.
Now you'll need to create the special forum.
ACP ›› Forum Control ›› New Forum
First select the category you just created in the Add to which parent? drop down box, and ensure that the Forum State is set to Active. Next, give the forum a name and description in the Forum Name and Forum Description fields respectively.
Once at the Permission Access Levels section, check the Read, Reply, and Start boxes for the Admin Forum Mask. All other checkboxes should be unchecked at this point.
Once you have completed the above, click the Create this forum button.
Step 2
The second step involves creating the new permission mask and the new member group.
ACP ›› Forum Control ›› Permission Masks
Find the Create a new permission mask section and select Do not inherit from the Inherit forum permission mask from... drop down box. Once finished click the Create button.
ACP ›› Users and Groups ›› Manage User Groups
Find the Add a new member group section and select Members from the drop down box. Then click the Set up New Group button.
For the Group Title, enter something like Validated Members or Full Members. Select the Members permission mask in the Use Forum Permission Access... section. Select the other settings you would for a regular members group, and click the Add Group button once finished.
Step 3
The third step involves editing the default member group.
ACP ›› Users and Groups ›› Manage User Groups
Click the Edit Group link in the Members row.
Change the Group Title to something like Validating Members. Change the Use Forum Permission Access... to Valdating Members.
Note: Ensure that you are using Validating Members and not Validating Forum Mask.
Find the Group Promotion section, and select the group you just created from the drop down box. Enter 1 in the posts field. Once you have finished, click the Complete Editp button.
Step 4
The fourth step involves editing forum permissions.
ACP ›› Forum Control ›› Manage Forums
Click the Permissions link in the row of the special forum you created in Step 1.
For the Validating Members permission mask, check the Read, Reply, and Start boxes.
Note: Ensure that you are using the Validating Members row and not the Validating Forum Mask row.
Using these three methods on your forum should eliminate most, if not all, bot problems.
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4:21 AM Nov 24
