Forum Spaming

[kaos]

Hi...

I have a forum that runs SMF (http://www.simplemachines.org). It runs great, but spammers keep posting **** and other crap all over it. I ban them but then there is always anther person that will do it. Any suggestions on how to stop it?

[traq]

I've never used SMF, but it looks like it has features in place to combat spamming. If they aren't already enabled, you need to make sure:

>> Users must register before posting.
>> Users must verify their accounts (via email option).

Some other stuff that may help:

>> Give new users limited privileges (not allowing them to post images or links, for example), allowing you to catch spammers before they have the opportunity to do anything too offensive.
>> If there is an option to use "capchas," that may help too.
>> Change any and all of your passwords (admin, database, etc.).
>> Ask on SMF community forums for specific problems.

[djr33]

If your forum is small with a small and manageable group of users, you can also turn on administrator approval for all new users. This way they can never spam and will hopefully just give up because you can see which ones are spammers (possibly, because usernames, emails and other info frequently point to it).
Of course this means you wouldn't be able to allow the normal users to register automatically, but if you are doing a small forum for a specific group that won't be a problem.
For example, your forum may already have most of the members you expect in the end.
Even a big forum like DD with various non-bot checks, etc., gets some spam, and one problem with spam is that even if you can block all the bots there will be actual human spammers still, and they are almost impossible to block before finding out they've posted spam. So in the end you just have to be aware.

[kaos]

Thank you for the advice...