Partial fix Every user approval references nothing on StopForumSpam

[Rasmus Vind]

Every single time I get a user that awaits approval because of a match with StopForumSpam and I search said website, I find nothing, absolutely nothing. Why does it say that there is a match if there isn't?

Am I missing something?

 

[Chris D]

We're starting to see this sporadically.

Notice it says (email: 255). This is apparently not listed in their database but there's something they don't like about it still.

This is the second time I've seen this where it is flagged with 255 and it looks like it could be a spelling mistake... gamil instead of gmail.

If this has some special non-spam meaning I think we need to do something to address that. Likely, in fact, skipping them altogether.

 

[Mike]

When SFS returns 255 for a field, it indicates some form of hard blacklist being triggered for that field.

 

[Rasmus Vind]

While you're at it. Couldn't you link to an entry on StopForumSpam for further information? I never manage to find anything on the site about the reported person.

 

[Chris D]

We're not necessarily going to make a change here. We will look into it, though.

I've noticed more false positives with this 255 flag than usual. This may just be down to the fact that they blacklist the domain gamil.com which IIRC is actually a "bad" domain and it just so happens to be a common spelling mistake. This isn't the only example, though we may need to look at some more data.

 

[Biker]

I generally take a look and see where they're coming from as well. If it's a normal provider such as Compcrap, er, Comcast, AT&T, etc. I'll assume it's a typo. I'll then approve it and PM the individual to make the change to his email address.

If it's coming from a known spam source such as a hosting company, India, Pakistan, etc., that sucker gets the spammer treatment.

 

[Rasmus Vind]

Yeah I started doing this yesterday. It would be nice with a "Resend Activation Email" action inside the Admin CP.

 

[Mike]

We now list the 255 results from SFS as being blacklisted by them. Further, we're doing some really basic email typo blocking which should help prevent then gamil.com issue (as it's almost certainly a gmail.com typo). This typo checking really isn't designed to be super flexible or robust. A future step might include some JS validity checking rather than just explicitly blocking what its likely a typo.

 

[Mouth]

It would be nice with a "Resend Activation Email" action inside the Admin CP.

https://xenforo.com/community/resources/resend-activation-mail.4311/

 

[Chris D]

You have been able to re-send a user's activation email from the Admin CP by default since XF 1.5.0.

 

[Rasmus Vind]

We now list the 255 results from SFS as being blacklisted by them. Further, we're doing some really basic email typo blocking which should help prevent then gamil.com issue (as it's almost certainly a gmail.com typo). This typo checking really isn't designed to be super flexible or robust. A future step might include some JS validity checking rather than just explicitly blocking what its likely a typo.

Sounds good.

You have been able to re-send a user's activation email from the Admin CP by default since XF 1.5.0.

Weird, I couldn't find it.