[Blog] Spam

[schuhby]

Well I thought I'd set the forum up well until I woke up this morning.. Loads of blogs about cheap watches and cheap dresses.. All new members have to go through moderation for their first forum post, and that works fine.. What do I need to do to prevent new members abusing the blog?

Help please?

Philip

[josiah]

If you moderate first post, check location of member via IP address, this will give you a good idea as to the intentions of the member, most, but not all, spam comes from the middle and far eastern countries.
Use Q&A to stop them registering.

[schuhby]

Hi Josiah1

I have first post moderated on the forum, do I need to do this with blogs too? Also, can I set the system to check ip? I already have a question set for registration.

Thank you

[Trevor Hannant]

Have you considered not allowing newly registered users to use the Blog?

[schuhby]

I hadn't, but you're right, there is no reason why they should have that facility. I'll only allow long time members use the blog.

Thank you Trevor

[Apokalupsis]

To do this, wouldn't you have to create a new user group?

If so, then how would you set this up exactly so that the new usergroup is "Newly Registered", but automatically promoted to registered usergroup after X time/posts, etc...?

And before even that promotion happens, how would you set it up so that the member goes right into the "Newly Registered" group instead of the "Registered" group after they have registered on the site?

[Joe D.]

First you would create a new usergroup- make is "based off" your Registered Users group- so the "New Group" will have the same exact permissions as Registered Users currently do.

Next change your Registered Users group- take away all permissions you don't want newly registered users to have.

Finally setup a Promotion in Admin CP -> Users -> Promotions and promote users from Registered Users to "New Group" based on your settings (# of posts and/or # of days registered).

Now after a few minutes all your users who meet the promotion criteria will be promoted to "New Users" and everyone new will go into Registered Users. Over time as new members meet the requirements for "New Group" they will get promoted as well.

Note- Promotions are not instantaneous- the scheduled task runs a few times an hour I believe so there is a small delay before being promoted.