Heh, I never thought of looking around for anti-spambot modules for yabb, so I went and hacked in my own .

So, at http://dbug.kicks-ass.net/dbugforums/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl the CAPTCHA that needs to be entered isn't the whole string displayed. After this was deployed, 0 spambots got through (we used to get about 1 per day the last few months).

I guess if anyone wants to implement such a method, I can dig out the changes I made and post them here...

That would be very nice of you!

The partial quote below is from this post since the YaBB quote button isn't working for this topic; at least for me (actually; only with the post I quoted) ...

Quote:


Brilliant!

Thank you! So far at least, not a single spammer has been able to register since I made these edits, although it's somewhat early for me to confirm this entirely.
Edited:


I made the edits as instructed, tested its implementation, and it worked wonderfully.

On an unrelated note as I indicated above, the YaBB quote button isn't working for this topic; at least for me (actually; only with the post I quoted). I improvised.

I join Bill Myers in thanking ggn for the antispam hack for YaBB 2.4. I would just note that the language about the characters to be omitted when entering the captcha should be changed not only in Register.lng, but also in:

LogInOut.lng
SendTopic.lng
Post.lng

George Maschke wrote on Jan 15^th, 2012 at 2:34pm:

Thank you George!

Evidently, unless it's a bug, YaBB's moderators aren't allowing modifications in posts to make corrections after a certain amount of time has passed (or possibly Corey if he's the only one who can change the settings).
Edited:

Corey Chapman wrote on Jan 16^th, 2012 at 6:27pm:

Yes, that's been my experience as well. Admins and moderators can modify posts without restrictions. I've always felt that members should be able to do the same, which is why I've continued to allow it. To do otherwise seems overly restrictive, and user-unfriendly.

But to each their own. 

On a personal note about restricting the ability of members to modify their own posts, when a member is unable to correct a mistake, especially when it comes to giving advice to others, a lot of bad, and incorrect information stays online. That can't be good.

Of course, human nature being the way it is, corrections to bad information isn't likely to be updated, so I guess bad information will stay online no matter what.

Thankfully, at least we can point out previous mistakes with corrections in new posts even if older posts can't be corrected. 

Wow, I didn't expect anyone to take notice of it! I'm glad it helped some people .

A couple of notes:

1. I wasn't aware you can add CAPTCHA to logon/logoff/post/send topic, so I didn't know about the extra files needed to be modded. Thanks for pointing that out.
2. You can insert as many letters as you like instead of "XX" in both left and right parts, just make sure you modify the instructions accordingly

This forum doesn't allow the modification of posts after 5 days even when information needs to be corrected or updated. As such, there will be misinformation throughout this forum, at least certainly in some of my posts, so take things with a grain of salt.

Common sense solution: Always be mindful of newer posts in case older ones contain errors.

---

Possible important update to ggn's anti-spam hack (verified for YaBB 2.4):

It came to my attention in this post that a possible error can be made with ggn's anti-spam hack if you aren't careful about typing text exactly as it should be typed. This should include spaces and characters in the coding that you see in the instructions below.

As such, please make note of the following instructions to implement this very effective anti-spam hack to stop spam-bots from registering in your forum.

Human bots, or "Hu-bots" can be effectively stopped by selecting Pre-registration with admin membership approval.

---

This anti-spam hack is a 2-step process that involves 5 files:

First file to edit: cgi-bin/yabb2/Sources/Decoder.pl

Find the line (near the end of the file) that reads:

&captcha($captcha); 

Change the line above as follows to:

&captcha("XX".$captcha."XX"); 

Note: You'll want to let people know that they have to omit those 4 letters (XX and XX), or any letters you choose, so the following 4 files should also be edited as instructed below in the code boxes:

cgi-bin/yabb2/Languages/English/LogInOut.lng

cgi-bin/yabb2/Languages/English/Post.lng

cgi-bin/yabb2/Languages/English/Register.lng

cgi-bin/yabb2/Languages/English/SendTopic.lng

- The following change should be made in each of the 4 files above -

In the line that reads:

'casewarning' => 'Please type exactly what text appears in the image.<br />The characters must be typed in the same order,<br />and they are case-sensitive.', 

Change to:

'casewarning' => 'Please type exactly what text appears in the image,<br /><strong>without the first two and last two characters.</strong><br />The characters must be typed in the same order,<br />and they are case-sensitive.', 

To the left of your auto-generated Verification Code, this edit will produce the following result:

Your Verification Code is:
Please type exactly what text appears in the image,
without the first two and last two characters.
The characters must be typed in the same order,
and they are case-sensitive.

---

As always, it's recommended that you keep a copy of the original files you are changing in case a problem comes up, and you need to upload any one of them again.

Remember to upload all of these files in ASCII; not binary.

Another recommendation is to sign up for a test registration to see what the public sees. You can obviously delete that test membership after you've confirmed that everything is working properly.

Verification note (YaBB 2.4): As of a week or so ago in the forum that I operate, this anti-spam hack has stopped over 300,000 attempted registrations by spam-bots.
Not one single spam-bot has been able to register! 

Recommendation: Even though I can personally confirm that this anti-spam hack works as advertised, thanks to ggn authoring it, and I recommend it, it's probably better to install an anti-spam mod that's been written for YaBB if you know how to install mods.

I don't know how to install mods, which is why I implemented ggn's anti-spam hack.

Unfortunately, spammers will most likely come up with a new way to spam our forums. Meanwhile, we have this anti-spam tool, and others to stop spammers cold.

Good luck.