This is the most active dumbest thread on Admin-Talk. Until, that is, @Paul M, @Joeychgo or @Joe Ward respond to the vBSEO one and keep it going.
I have great respect for those involved in making Xenforo the elite project it is in my opinion. I cross posted this as informational to show that even that which is held in high regard by many is still subject to the shit and abuse of spammers.
Spammers will always get in, if they are real humans. So, I think your ideology about what a great forum software should be doing in its attempt to thwart spamming is a bit off. No online software in the world can stop a human spammer. Scott
My forums are virtually spam-free because I manually check every registration by the data entered, the fields completed or not completed, the IP address, etc and cross-check the information with spamhaus, stopforumspam, projecthoneypot, etc. New members can't spam because new members can't post links to anything anywhere. Most administrators don't have the time or the inclination to bother, and to be honest, it's just as easy to ban a spammer as it is to go through all the nonsense I go through. Probably easier. I'm just O.C.D. about spam. As an aside, this pales in comparison with the spam vBulletin.org was (and probably still is) dealing with.
+1 Over the weekend I was writing a few tutorials for my moderators. When I came to spam tutorial I realized it didn't even need a tutorial. Two clicks and threads, posts, messages, profile messages, etc are deleted and spammer banned. You cannot ask for easier tools than that.
These are all good informational points for those less experienced with spammers. Thanks for the added info guys. I do much the same as @ProSportsForums and manually check new registrations and with the added protection of anti spam add ons to catch the bots, I have never had spam. Xenforo has great built in spam protection but like others have said that alone won't stop human spammers in their tracks.
Yes, and for the first 25 posts they can't post links to anything. That pretty much deters even manual spammers.
How fast are you with the releasing the users? I could imagine any real delays, like more than a few minutes, could be an issue for them. Or do you warn them about the moderation of registration? I've never used manual registration moderation and have never seen it being done either. That is why I ask. Scott
I'm online from 6:00A.M. to 23:00P.M. seven days a week. There isn't much waiting involved for legitimate registrations.
I lose interest in moderated registration forums very quickly. I found a bug in WHM and registered on cPanel's forum to report it or at least see if anyone else had run into it. My registration was moderated - I was approved ~ 6 hours later and I no longer cared to post about it.
I have to admit that I'm not completely surprised by this thread. My experience of using XF is that it is more difficult to keep the spammers out than it is on either VB or phpBB. My XF forum gets hit with a lot more spam than the others. My XF runs on 1.13, perhaps spam protection is easier on later versions.