phpbb v bulletin

What's the spam ratio like?

[Selcouth]

I run a couple of sites which have small but active forums on them, all running phpbb software. The spammers are driving me nuts. I've activated various hacks and things so bots can't come and register and post cr*p all over the forums, but I'm still seeing a lot of spammers registering and posting junk.

So, I'm tempted to go for vbulletin. I'd be interested to hear what sort of spam ratios anyone who has run phpbb and vbulletin has? Are they roughly the same, or are there noticably more spammers on one sort of software?

TIA :)

~ Selcouth ~

[rogerd]

In my own experience, unmodified phpBB forums draw vastly more automated spam. The vBulletin spam I run across is usually human-originated and targeted at the forum demographics. I.e., a real person looks at the forum and decides it's a good place to promote whatever he's selling.

OTOH, if you stick a stock phpBB forum out there with a few links to it, I'd expect spam to start appearing an a matter of days, or a week or two at most.

A spam-hardened phpBB forum should do much better (changed file names, deleted footprints, email verification, image verification, etc.).

[rogerd]

Here's one recent post that relates to this topic, How do the spammers find me? [webmasterworld.com]

[edited by: rogerd at 3:24 pm (utc) on Feb. 27, 2007]

[Selcouth]

Thanks rogerd :)

[camweh]

Add the simple VIP-code MOD to your phpbb board and it'll stop them dead. I went from 3 bot sign-ups per day to zero - not a one in the last three months.

[dreamcatcher]

Me too, I added that mod and nothing for ages now.

dc

[PeteM]

Me too VIP-Mod have killed them dead and has not deterred genuine members.

Pete

[encyclo]

Running an unmodified phpBB can quickly be a problem as it is the target of automated searches for common forum footprints, so spam can arrive quickly once the site is indexed. However, phpBB gives you more liberty to alter or remove those footprints and mitigate the risk, as well as a plethora of available mods for toughening up the sign-up process.

The vBulletin license restricts what can and cannot be changed - for example the required copyright statement is a clear identifying footprint. In phpBB, you can completely change the theme, file names or any other aspect at will without contravening the license.

[Selcouth]

Me too VIP-Mod have killed them dead and has not deterred genuine members.

Thanks. I do worry that if you make it hard(er) to sign up, it will deter users, particularly when the forum is fairly new.

I'm interested to see on the other thread that you are allowed to replace the phpbb link at the bottom of the page with an image. I wanted to do this but wasn't sure if it was allowed, so I asked on the phpbb forums and my account got deleted :(

[encyclo]

> replace the phpbb link at the bottom of the page with an image

Yes, just check out the HTML comment in the overall_footer.tpl file for more details. According to the license, you can actually remove the link and reference completely, however I prefer leaving a reference to phpBB but in a completely different way from the default. Using an image or writing out the link with Javascript is fine.

[rogerd]

These days, registration procedures don't deter signups to any great degree, IMO. I like to start a forum with guest posting allowed, but as soon as spam or impersonation issues start up, switch to registration with email verification. I've never received significant complaints from "regulars", and new arrivals seem to post at about the same rate as before.