How to reduce Blog Spam

[Wayne Luke]

Links in user profiles can't really be counted as spam as they are not on public display like posts in the forums. There is however a potential problem as the spiders can search profiles (as guests) and if google finds a link to a dodgy (penalised) website, your site can be penalised too. I have enquired to find out if there is a way round this that's better than searching through everyones profile and there is no easy solution. Not sure if you can ban guests (and spiders) from searching profiles?

Usergroup Permission. Can View Member Info. Set to No.

Usergroup Permission. Can Edit Own Profile. Set to No. Promote non-spammers to a group with this permission after a certain number of posts.

Same with blogs, don't let new users create their own or comment on others until they get XX number of posts. Then promote them into a group that can.

[Dave B]

Links in user profiles can't really be counted as spam as they are not on public display like posts in the forums. There is however a potential problem as the spiders can search profiles (as guests) and if google finds a link to a dodgy (penalised) website, your site can be penalised too. I have enquired to find out if there is a way round this that's better than searching through everyones profile and there is no easy solution. Not sure if you can ban guests (and spiders) from searching profiles?

http://www.vbulletin.org/forum/showthread.php?t=256383

[TheLastSuperman]

Perhaps some of you simply have the wrong spam options in place atm.. a change if possible to how your protecting your site from spam may yield better results see if anything outlined here helps - http://www.vbulletin.org/forum/showthread.php?t=276547 because the simplest thing to do is stop them before they can post, if that means stopping them at registration then so be it and of course as I noticed earlier in this thread, do not allow guest/unregistered users to post comments etc.

[stonepilot]

I just wanted to breathe some life back into this, I'm going to create a new thread dealing with the blogs. Spammers on the blogs is one of the top 5 issues I have with vBulletin right now.

[Videx]

Can you tell me step by step?

I wish you had asked back when I did it, because at that time I found a pretty complete step by step on vb.com somewhere. A quick search turns up this. I don't think it's the one I used but it should get you going - it's really not a difficult process.

I made one mistake - don't try to put the new members into the new group you create. Just use the default "Registered Users" (group ID 2) as the spammer catcher.

[Captain_Gossip]

Videx,

I am not sure how to do this: " the only way to prevent it is to make Registered Users a restricted group, and promote them to Members when they get some posts. At least if they post we can use the "delete posts as spam" option which isn't present anywhere but on a post (it should also be in profiles and blogs)."

Can you tell me step by step? That would be very much appreciated!

Thanks.

[donald1234]

Incorrect. None of our spammers post links. Though their latest tactic is to put a link to their ICQ profile in their profile. And I think that mod you mention doesn't stop this.

Links in user profiles can't really be counted as spam as they are not on public display like posts in the forums. There is however a potential problem as the spiders can search profiles (as guests) and if google finds a link to a dodgy (penalised) website, your site can be penalised too. I have enquired to find out if there is a way round this that's better than searching through everyones profile and there is no easy solution. Not sure if you can ban guests (and spiders) from searching profiles?

[Videx]

If no solution is found, I will also remove our blog. Especially the blogs have tons of spam. I expect vbulletin to solve this. vb.org has solutions for this, but I am not allowed to use them since I will have no support if I do so, correct?

Incorrect on a few points. First, I already gave you a solution that doesn't involve modifications, so there's nothing for vb to solve. Next, I'm unaware of any mod that will solve this problem. Lastly, no you don't lose all support if you install mods, but the first thing you may be asked to do if there's a problem is to disable all your mods.

[Captain_Gossip]

If no solution is found, I will also remove our blog. Especially the blogs have tons of spam. I expect vbulletin to solve this. vb.org has solutions for this, but I am not allowed to use them since I will have no support if I do so, correct?

[Videx]

there is a mod on vb.org where you can set a minimum number of posts before members can post a link and since these spammers only want to post links, this is quite effective.

Incorrect. None of our spammers post links. Though their latest tactic is to put a link to their ICQ profile in their profile. And I think that mod you mention doesn't stop this.

[donald1234]

there is a mod on vb.org where you can set a minimum number of posts before members can post a link and since these spammers only want to post links, this is quite effective.

[Videx]

See my signature (Apparently, bots can't see what to type )

I voted for it, but these days the problem isn't bots. These are real people that somehow feel they can make money by registering at forums.

I too had this problem recently and the only way to prevent it is to make Registered Users a restricted group, and promote them to Members when they get some posts. At least if they post we can use the "delete posts as spam" option which isn't present anywhere but on a post (it should also be in profiles and blogs).

PS Watch out for Akismet. Enabling it will throw some posts into Moderation automatically. This wouldn't be a bad thing except vb still has no notifications of posts needing moderation.

[HMBeaty]

See my signature (Apparently, bots can't see what to type )

[ZoDesigns.com]

Well, by utilizing the spam protection offered now, I don't have a problem with spam within the forum. Why are blogs different?

[Zachery]

How is that only a temporary solution? No matter how much protection we add, there will always be ways around it. Having you manually combat it is always going to be the best solution. We've recomend making sure new users are more closely watched and have less permissions than exsisting users for years.