Sticky How to protect my forum from spam

Hi Guys

I have the same problem with spammers and have some other small issues. One of my categories are open to the public (non registered users). I have enabled the build in Kunena Captcha (and tested it, seems to be working fine). Unfortunately I'm still getting 4-5 spams per day from multiple IP addresses.

The Category: General Discussions ( www.orthokinstitute.com/forum/4-general-discussions ) is set up in the back end to be moderated and approved before showing the posts, which is working fine. However before I can approve/delete the spam posts it is already showing 'live' in JomSocial activity stream and in the recent topics module. (All these components are running the latest release versions).

It would also be nice if the super administrator can have an option to do multiple topic deletes instead of having to access each topic individually deleting it and then having to re-access it again to permanently delete the topic. It is a bit time consuming if you have to do 10 spams a day.

Having open-to-the-public categories (where people do not have to register) is like a red rag to a bull; it's like saying to spammers "Come on in and see what you can do".

We understand the need that some people have for these open categories. It's a pity that spam merchants abuse this kind of generosity. Having said that, if you don't restrict your forums (by requiring people to register and login before they post) you're facing an uphill battle trying to keep out spam.

You can delete multiple topics from the Index view. Check the topics (the checkbox on the right) then choose delete from the drop-down near the bottom of the page.

Hello all,

In simpleboard I used this php code to block guests to post "href" It worked
very well to prevent guest to spam links.

Could this code be added to kunena post.php?

Please help me out,

Groenteman

I appreciate the fact that open to the public categories are dangerous, but until we migrate to J2.5 to have different user access levels it will have to stay.

I do have the following concerns
1. Up to K 1.7.1 I never had these spammers. Upgrading to K1.7.2 and higher using Kunena's build in Recaptcha the spamming started. I confirmed this by upgrading my sites 1 month apart. Every time I Upgraded to 1.7.2 the spamming started.
2. An unapproved post still appears in JomSocial activity stream and in the Kunena Latest topic module. To me this is a bug.

Charl Laas: Have I correctly understood that you're saying that, without the reCAPTCHA anti-spam feature you had no spam attacks and after you implemented the reCAPTCHA anti-spam feature you were then attacked by spam? Is that what you are asking us to accept? :dry:

Please don't complicate this topic by reporting what you see as a JomSocial/Kunena Latest software defect in this topic. That issue belongs in a separate topic and, yes, it may be a bug.

sozzled wrote: Having open-to-the-public categories (where people do not have to register) is like a red rag to a bull; it's like saying to spammers "Come on in and see what you can do".

I couldn't agree more, but you do have to register prior to posting. However, people are registering, spamming, posting lionks etc and then going. One in particular tends to register about 20 at a go using different emails for each one - I'm guessing it's automated somewhere.

I desperately need to get a handle on this situation prior to relaunching as I can't afford to have it hijacked by some unscupilous individual.

Very interesting forum this. Very useful indeed - top marks all round.