Stopforumspam - best settings

Jon12345

Well-known member
I am getting messages to approve for moderation every day. What is the best setup so I don't have to do that, where the stopforumspam flagged people get nuked automatically?
 
Here's what I use:

XF-SFS-settings.png

Remember that one of the SFS fields is "name" so I don't recommend that you auto-reject registrations with only 1 flag: require at least 2 unless you want to reject everyone named "Bob". :)
 
My settings are 1,3,7,5. So today, I got this: StopForumSpam matched (email: blacklisted, ip: 2)

Not sure what it means but it would be nice if that was autonuked without me having to moderate it.
 
My settings are 1,3,7,5. So today, I got this: StopForumSpam matched (email: blacklisted, ip: 2)

Not sure what it means but it would be nice if that was autonuked without me having to moderate it.

The only way to have it automatically nuked would be to set this setting:

1568990910783.webp

to 1. But then any flag will trigger a rejection automatically. I have had the odd "false positive", esp. on IP, so I am reluctant to reject based on a single flag. I am currently at 1,2,blank,blank. So strict but still with a bit of leeway.

That said, I am currently putting all registrations through manual approval because I had a bunch of spammers slip through early this summer, like due to them hitting my site before their email or IP got blacklisted anywhere. I get so few registrations overall that it isn't a burden.
 
No. You can set Reject registrations when this many warning flags are detected to 2. (Not to 1.)

That would auto-nuke the example from @Jon12345 above:

StopForumSpam matched (email: blacklisted, ip: 2)

It would also nuke name + IP or name + email but never just name.
 
No. You can set Reject registrations when this many warning flags are detected to 2. (Not to 1.)

That would auto-nuke the example from @Jon12345 above:



It would also nuke name + IP or name + email but never just name.

D'oh. Missed that his had an IP flag as well. Thought it just had an email flag (I get those more and more frequently now).
 
Just got my first StopForumSpam message today: StopForumSpam matched (email: blacklisted, ip: 55)

Based on the discussion here, I chose Reject (with no reason) and deleted his membership. Thanks!
 
I am still trying to understand what this filter is telling me. Does anyone know what this means?

  • Checking: (email of person) , (ip of person)
  • +3. StopForumSpam hit: ip
  • ASN54133, UNMETERED, CA
  • Hostname detected: (IP)
  • Registration form completed: 31 sec
  • accept. Unknown email domain: yandex.ru
  • Total score: +3
  • Moderated. Score exceeded (+3 >= 3)
 
Excellent thread as I have added it to my notes to study for a future migration to xenforo

For above (unless I am mistaken about a point)

#1 checks email and ip of someone trying to register
#2 adding the hit on the ip
#3 checked service provider of ip
#4 recognized hostname the hit on the ip
#5 length of time for registration
#6 accepted registration by allowed email address (not a duplicate and allowed email domain)
#7 score total
#8 reg set to moderated based on score against settings

If any of what I think to be the explanation is incorrect, please correct me as I am trying to understand it better as this is difficult to test in a lab environment that is restricted to a specific vpn access only

Also, where is the default location of this log, or ease of access from the admin control panel?
 
With the stopforumspam plugin on a VBulletin installation, the logs can easily be viewed to determine why a signup was denied such as bad username, email address or ip address.

We have a situation where there are times a user might get rejected and they contact us asking why, so we need to be able to see the results of the rejection so we can notify them of a work around.

Where is the default location of this log, or ease of access from the admin control panel?
 
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