How to stop spam on forums?

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doomdragon6

Staff member
No, not these forums.

I'm the webmaster for our university's anime convention's website and forums, and our Forums and Guestbook occasionally get some spam. For the Guestbook, it's usually 1 a day, but up to 5 a day (almost always for Viagra), which I have to manually remove in the Guestbook's php code. It's annoying.

For the Forums, we get maybe 1 to 2 a week, but where the Guestbook is just links, these are posts with graphics, oftentimes very graphic porn, which is just unacceptable for our forum of over half being minors and any parents potentially coming to see what we're about.

I check both every day and remove the spam when I can, but we've already had some users mention they'd seen the spam, and that's still too many.

For the forum, it's phpbb, so I'm pretty sure there's code for add-ons like better spam security, but I don't know how to apply it.

Here's a link to the forums so you can better see what you're dealing with (http://kamicon.forums-free.com/) -- it's hosted by forums-free, so I don't know how to add any code or anything. If someone is willing, I could allow someone I trust (Ame for example, I know she does this stuff) to log into the administrator control to look around.

Here's a link to the guestbook: http://www.kamicon.net/Guestbook.html

All it is is php code, so I don't know if there's really a way to stop spam, unless I could ban specific words from being posted or something.

(The website is built with a for-idiots WYSIWYG program, so I'm well aware that I don't know much code and most things on the site could probably be done better. The only reason I'm the webmaster is because I volunteered and no-one else can/will do it.)
 

Dave

Staff member
I can't tell by looking, but what version of phpBB is this using? It'll make a difference when I'm looking for stuff to help out.
 

doomdragon6

Staff member
I just looked all around the admin control panel, and the best I could find was that it says Board Version: 3.0.4

I'd guess that's the phpBB version, but I don't know.

Even then, I don't really know how to add any additional settings.

Like I said, if someone wants to log in to the control panel, I can send a PM with the info.
 

doomdragon6

Staff member
Haha, I didn't see it go down, but they uprade stuff sometimes which takes it down for a bit.

Anyway, seems to be working now.
 

Dave

Staff member
We had a truckload of spam when we were on phpBB. What we ended doing was to put a mod (or was it two) that had them Email Admins for Approval. We also had something that made a user prove they were Human.

You can learn how to install mods here. It would be a GREAT idea for you to learn how to do it. I mean, I certainly can for you, but once you start putting in addons you'll want to keep doing it.
 
K

Kitty Sinatra

That is the single most awesome CAPTCHA I have ever seen.
And just imagine the possibilities of customization!

A fashion forum could ask you to drag various dresses onto a model.
A furry forum could ask you to drag various costumes onto a model.
A bondage forum could ask you to drag various implements onto a model.
A gangbang site could ask you to drag various men onto a model.

umm . . . yeah, uh, er. This damn internet has corrupted me.
 

doomdragon6

Staff member
Wow, that captcha is amazing.

Thanks a lot, Dave! I'll look into it within the next day or so. If I have any troubles I'll be sure to pester you about it. :D
 

Dave

Staff member
Wow, that captcha is amazing.

Thanks a lot, Dave! I'll look into it within the next day or so. If I have any troubles I'll be sure to pester you about it. :D
No worries, man. No gig this weekend so I might be on more than usual. I'd be happy to go into the Vent & help out.
 
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