spam fighting plugins

Not sure what all you guys use here to fight spam, but thought this thread had some interesting ideas:
http://www.adminaddict.net/forum/general-community-discussion/help-vbulletin-spam-1637/

The isBot thing seemed most promising.

Edit to add on: Guys, I just banned a handful of profiles that had nasty porn links in their sigs etc. It seems to be escalating in both volume and gross out factor. Maybe we should also consider another suggestion from the above link, and that is to limit newbs with what they can do at first, maybe until their post count hits a certain amount (it can be a low count as we usually don't let spammers get more than a few rounds off before we zap 'em)

But a lot are joining and maybe not posting, but their crap is sitting in their profiles, leaving their garbage links for anyone to stumble across including minors (they do this to get backlinks in search engines I guess, so they don't really have to post to achieve some of their goals). Maybe if possible, we can set new accounts to not be able to have links or images in their sigs, no home page links, etc and we can have an automated PM sent to newbs, just like the link above suggested, to explain that it's just temporary (I wouldn't put how many posts it'd take or whatever to raise the restriction in the PM) to fight spam. Perhaps it can be set by usergroup, or post count etc

idk how many legit Russian users we get or might get, but blocking those domains is a thought too.

Anyone else have some thoughts on this?

"Purrsia, post: 35038" said:

Guys, I just banned a handful of profiles that had nasty porn links in their sigs etc. It seems to be escalating in both volume and gross out factor. Maybe we should also consider another suggestion from the above link, and that is to limit newbs with what they can do at first, maybe until their post count hits a certain amount (it can be a low count as we usually don't let spammers get more than a few rounds off before we zap 'em)

I agree with this. I think new users should not be allowed to have a sig, until they have 5 posts under their belt. Like Angie says, we usually nuke em before they make more than a couple forum posts if they are spammers. I think this should definately be implemented.

Chris here...

"blackiecats, post: 35282" said:

I agree with this. I think new users should not be allowed to have a sig, until they have 5 posts under their belt. Like Angie says, we usually nuke em before they make more than a couple forum posts if they are spammers. I think this should definately be implemented.

I also am very much in favour of this great suggestion - however, I personally think it should be 10 posts rather than 5. I have in the past (admittedly before our new "mod squad"!) seen spammers manage to rapid-fire post spam in about half a dozen threads before we've snagged them, but have never seen one manage to hit double figures... :)

I don't think 10 posts is a lot before someone can have a signature - however, I'd stress that all of this is just my opinion and if someone has strong alternative views I'm not averse to being swayed! ;)

Take care... :)

Sounds good to me. The concern I have is not all the spammers may post, or at least not right away, but as I mentioned about the gross porn links, they're sitting in their public profile where any innocent can stumble upon and click. We just can't clear the spam accounts that aren't posting fast enough to maintain that family friendly atmosphere I think we want to project here.
In addition to the sig, any way we can disable newbs' ability to fill in a home page link as well? As I can see that being an attractive alternative for the spammers. A lot of them probably don't post because they're just using the popularity of your forum to spam their links in the profile, and get backlinks in search engines that way.

Heck, I kinda hope if they can't make links at all unless they contribute something to this forum (something related to the subject at that lol), maybe it'll start to discourage some spammers all together and we'll get that added benefit as well. I don't know about the rest of you but my poor ban hammer is getting wore out lol

Sorry its taken me a short while to address this...I have edited user permissions so lets see if it eliminates the ability of spammers to post info on their profiles. In addition Ive been scrubbing IP addresses of spammers and it looks like banning their IP address may work at preventing them in signing up multiple spam accounts

Thanks, Manny.

The IP address thing may prove just as tireless as user banning, because I don't think they're using a fixed address. But it's worth a shot. Also just wanted to add if you didn't already know, to be careful banning a range of addresses as you might snag legit users. Good luck!

Was the restriction on new members having sigs implemented? Reason I ask is because I'm noticing fresh spammers posting links to somebody Kardashian's sex tape in their sigs! :eek::D

"blackiecats, post: 35938" said:

Was the restriction on new members having sigs implemented? Reason I ask is because I'm noticing fresh spammers posting links to somebody Kardashian's sex tape in their sigs! :eek::D

It was but only to a specific usergroup and not Board Members. Seems like some spammers are even validating their registrations. I hate to do it but I had to eliminate the option for using links on signatures for Board Members