Pond Life wrote:If you don't want to use a mod you can still use the lists from stopforumspam.com to ban by email and IP in the ACP. The lists are updated regularly though so new ones will be added and you will need to add them yourself in the ACP.
I see their lists downloadable as CSVs. What method did you use to get them into that nice copy-and-paste format that the ACP recognizes?
I used a text editor (NoteTab Light), any with find & replace will do it.
find: ,
replace with: ^P
I don't know if I am getting spam bots or not. But I get 10 or so registrations per day for the last week or so, when normally I get only 5 per month. So something is up. I use CAPTCHA.
I have the setting in the admin panel set to approve new members, but I cannot tell who is real and who is not.
You could set account activation to "by user" (email) and "Enable queued posts" to yes for the first post. A lot of spammers don't enter valid email addresses, most of the recent ones on my board haven't been activated. If any do get activated you can check their first post before approving it so if it is spam you will see clearly without it appearing on your board.
ChrisRLG wrote:Other than the anti spammer mod that has already been provided you can use the custom profile fields to provide something similar without any coding.
The amount of spam hitting my phpbb3 forums since Feb 2 has totally reminded me of the phpbb2 days. Not good. I have implemented the custom profile fields antispam mod and it has helped. I also banned large IP ranges. I have also noticed much of the spam is from the gmail domain, I'm not quite ready to ban that domain name because it is popular.
I've made two changes about six hours ago, and (fingers crossed) so far no spam registrations:
1. Implemented the email domain and IP ban lists suggested by Pond Life; and
2. Switched from GD CAPTCHA to non-GD CAPTCHA.
I would love it if someone can develop the same thing for phpBB Captcha update (I've asked the devs if they will release the base coding at least or create a module capable of going onto phpBB boards. Doubt I'll get it).