Hi guys

Even if i don't write at all in this forum i always read threads so i know that what i'm going to say is boring and has been asked millions of times. I know by heart all standard replies so please if possible don't stress me with the same copy/pasted messages. On Webspell we have a big situation: spam.

- Yes! I'm running the latest version of webspell
- Yes! I've installed all security fixes
- Yes! I tryied with tens of anti-spam modules
- Yes! Even recaptcha

The result is clear and simple. Spammers can spam and skip all these supposed-to-be anti-spam modules. Few days ago i finally decided to uninstall all those useless wannabe anti-spam modules since the result with or without them is the same (spam fest).

The question is simple: what can we do? Is there any official fix or workaround? I see a lot of persons posting links to unknown, untested or unofficial patch and modules. I'm tired to install tens of useless scripts! What's the one that is working for real?

Hey Dr3dd2,

the problem is simply that everyone would like to be rid of the spam, but nobody would do nothing for this. Our team has a free and convenient solution. The problem here is that while all screaming for a solution but no one wants to test this. (Beta on three websites).

With our solution replace the existing files and see if the filter helps or not.
100% security does not exist but we can filter up to 70% of spam. We maintain the filter. If anything is wrong contact us!

*With spam we know here the advertising spam.

Restriction:
- max. 3 links in a message/post
- max. ~1000 Words
- international chars are not supported (accent aigu-grave, tilde, zirkumflex, cedille)
- jpn/cn messages/post are marked as spam

If you're interested on this solution (beta) we want to send you a link for the files you need. Currently we adjusted for the webspell guestbook and forum but its easy to adjust it in another operations.

Regards... .

//update

If you not want to test it on your running system you can copy/paste your spam message into the textarea on this website. Click submit and see if the message is protected as spam or not.
antiSPAM.protection / Demo

To include it in your website you can get the files on the following url.
Hint: If you do that send us a message that we know that you use this add-on because if we change the asp.url to our TLD domain (faster) that we can inform you.

For: Guestbook and Forum (comments update soon..)
direct download

It's not perfect but a good first step.

i had the same problem but sinds i installed member activation http://www.webspell.or...rum_topic&topic=33380 (german) i don't have troubles with spam anymore.
And make sure that when you post newsposts that you turn on "enable user comments" so that only members can reply saves aswell in the spam.

Greetz Bmad

I think it is not user friendly. If a guest want to register on your website they do it because they want anything and want it after the registration and not after hours if the admin comes and activate him. Not all guests are SPAM users or bots. What is when a sponsor for a clan comes to sponsoring you but they must wait of you? But it is your decision what you want to use.

Regards... .

Uhm i see...

I really appreciate your effort to develop custom modules to prevent spammers registering and posting on all our websites but as Getschonnik said they're not user-friendly at all. For sure they're all brillant workarounds but i we can't adopt them on websites. At the moment i've 7.641 registered users submitting tons of threads/posts and comments. I can't manually accept them to prevent them to write a maximum of X chars per message or again limit the number of links they can publish. Maybe it could be tolerable for small websites but not for med-big ones.

I have a question. I'm using Webspell from 2005 (first releases) and i always had this problem. Of course in past spam was very very limited because my website was really small but know spam is a pain in the a**. Is possible that from 2005 dev team of Webspell have never developed a more secure registration module or at least a massive-moderation tool to delete thousand of messages in one click? I'm manually deleting ONE-BY-ONE every single message form years. At least from 2011 i can use this crappy-but-useful tool to remove spam in one click...



But come on! And also i'm still forced to manually delete threads and post and manually ban all spammers. We were forced to turn off our shoutbox because of massive spam. We all have a huge problem on Webspell but it seems to me that it has not been taken seriously by developers. Personally i don't want new functions on Webspell, i want a patch to fix this huge hole. Just think about it. I was forced to migrate my website on a more expensive hosting plan because of high loads on comments and posts tables on database due to spam botters (5AM with no user connected!). Who will ever use a CMS which needs you to rent a VPS because 90% of INSERT INTO are made by bots?

A more secure registration? What do you mean, there is already a captcha to prevent bots which is save enough. Keep in mind, that all spam on your page is done manually by real persons - no bots! That applies also on the registration process.
For your first problem there is already a mod somewhere on this forum..


What "hole" are you talking about? That there is no protection against spam yet or the deleting function?
Prevent non-bot spam is very difficult. There are 100 mods/addons around the web for against spam but most of them are useless for this special case.
The only way is using a so-called "bayesian spam filter". The most famous of these is "Akismet". I made an adaption for this on webspell. It works well but there are some countries where the usage of akismet is not 100%-legal.
The webSPELL team itself - or Phil - is working on an own bayesian filter including database. But this takes also some time, so be patient. This is why webSPELL has this great community, where many people develop addons.

regards

HenningK it's not made by humans. After some time (a couple of years) spent deleting spam i know for sure that they're not humans.

- They start to spam always at the same exact time (hh:mm:ss)
- When they start spamming their links they do the same on other website made with Webspell i know
- They use a sort of necro-thread mode. They spam their messages bringing up all threads in the last page of the that board
- They register with the same exact string on database

It's not made by human. Anyway spam is everywhere on the web but on all other CMS it's not a big problem. Right now on the left i can see a pile of topics about spam and this is the OFFICIAL website! It's depressing and looks horrible for a CMS.



It sounds really really strange to me. Are they joking? Be patient? F-I-V-E years of spam and do we have to wait more? Anyway i understand that this is a free CMS and that i can't pretend anything but imo instead of releasing new exciting versions of Webspell they should fix big holes.

There are no known holes, which will bypass the current user permission to write comments and/or forum threads/topics.
And if you had a spam problem for the last five years, then don't blame us.
There are several solutions available, and most of them don't even require much coding skills.
This CMS is what it is, a CMS. Spam protection was never part of it, and if it was only as an addon.

So if there are several solutions available why your own website (webspell.org) is full spam?

show me the spam...