We are Upgrading the Forum!!

[Pokey]

I prefer the darker background to the bright white stuff. There's alot of other forums that have the white, and it kills my eyes personally. I like the new look and layout.

[emperorjj1]

i like the smd in the second pic over the other logo in the first (not sure what it was) Good choice david... How much time have you spent on this so far? It looks great but also really time consuming (havent seen many boards with a skin most just use the plain jane stuff)

[David]

i like the smd in the second pic over the other logo in the first (not sure what it was) Good choice david...

are you talking about the lil smd next to each forum? yea i like that too much nicer looking

How much time have you spent on this so far? It looks great but also really time consuming (havent seen many boards with a skin most just use the plain jane stuff)

thanks, I have about 7 hours into the skin.

[emperorjj1]

ya the lil smd. its looking bomb. i thought it would have been more then that for sho

[TechSys]

WHOOOO HOOOO no more spammers !!!!!!!

Don't be so sure about that. A lot of IPB forums are being hit by spammers right now. Some have had to go to manually authorizing new members instead of the normal e-mail authorization.

But, the pics are looking great David.

[David]

WHOOOO HOOOO no more spammers !!!!!!!

Don't be so sure about that. A lot of IPB forums are being hit by spammers right now. Some have had to go to manually authorizing new members instead of the normal e-mail authorization.

But, the pics are looking great David.

if you want I can post a thread link to show you how to stop that, if you do a few simple little procedures you can eliminate the BOTs.

[David]

http://www.ipsbeyond.com/forums/index.php?...showarticle=201

[emperorjj1]

"Sorry, you don't have permission to perform the requested action." 

[David]

ohh yea I forgot u have to be a Invision licensed user.

herez what it says.

I've noticed a lot of posts coming in lately regarding the growing problem of spam bots. I nor anyone else that I'm aware of have a full proof fix for this problem, but what I'm going to go over with you here will help reduce the problem greatly.

The very first thing that you want to do is to activate the Script/Bot Flood Control. To enable this, go to Tools & Settings > Security and Privacy > Enable Script/Bot Flood Control. Click on the drop down box and choose one of the two methods. I personally use the Advanced. Update your settings and move on to the next step.

This next step is optional. You can go to Management > Manage User Groups. Here you have a few options. Set the Validating Group to have NO post permissions. Don't allow them to start topics or reply to them. Don't allow them to send PM and or emails. Next, you can create a new group or use the member group which I would use. What you're going to want to do is choose Manage User Groups and either create a new group or use the existing Members group. Scroll all the way down to the bottom to Group Promotion. Here you'll choose the amount of posts required by the Members Group before promoting them to the next group. Anywhere from 1-3 post would be enough to get a feel for the user. Personally, I think that 1 good post would be fine. All the spam bots that I've seen do their damage in their first post. You can set it to 3 or 50 if you want, completely up to you. Select X amount of posts and the group to move them to and save your changes.

This next step is part of the one above. Still in Management > Manage User Groups you'll now go to the second section and choose Can avoid moderation queues? and select Yes for all the groups except the Members Group. This will allow all other groups to post as normal, and remain unaffected, but will require Admins and or Moderators approve for any post from the Members group.

Next step again, is optional also. You can create a Custom Profile Field. The purpose of this is because the spam bot are not able to input anything in here. This is what I've done and it's stopped them 100% so far which has been a couple of weeks or so. Go to Management > Users and Groups > Custom Profile Field > Add New Field.

Field Title: Spam Bot Control

Description: Please enter 9 random numbers to pass through (any 9 will do)

Field Type: Text Input

Maximum Input 9

Display order: Leave blank (not going to be displayed anywhere)

Expected Input Format: nnnnnnnnn (This will make sure no more or less then 9 numbers are entered)

Option Content (for drop downs): Leave blank

Include on registration page? Yes

Field MUST be completed and not left empty? Yes

Field can be edited by the member? No

Make this a private profile field? Yes or No if you choose yes for the next one. Other wise choose Yes.

Make Admin and Super Moderator Editable/Viewable Only? Yes

Topic View Format? If this - {title}: {content}

- is there, remove it.

Then select add field. With this, every member that tries to register, will have to enter any 9 numbers in to that field. If they enter 8 or 10 they won't be able to register. The spam bots so far, are not able to get past this. The reason for the Field Title and Description that I picked is to let legit members know what it's for. So they are not left wondering what 9 numbers to enter.

One more option which I prefer over the second one (member groups) is Michael's Spam Protection Mod. This is a very usefull and well thought out mod and works very well. I would strongly recommend installing this. It's very easy to install and to set up. I'm not going to go into detail about what it does, but I'll give you the link to it for you to read up on it and decide if it's something you're interested in. It's worth it, trust me.

Spam Protection v1.3 by Michael

this post will die in 24 hours.

[emperorjj1]

nice... sounds like a plan