I went into the database directly with phpMyAdmin and replaced the message text string with something like [this message was spam and has been deleted]. I originally tried deleting the database entries for the messages directly, but that still left the new message notifications and message counts unchanged so I got some user inquiries wondering where the “missing” messages went. I eventually figured out what to change in the database to correctly update the message counts, but it wasn’t very intuitive and it’s not practical for many messages, so… I’m frustrated and I wish there was a better solution, but for now that modification of the message is going to be my simple fix.
BTW – I also use a recaptcha on signup, wordfence, a buddypress messaging rate limiter plugin, and CleanTalk – which altogether has significantly reduced the problem, but not completely eliminated it.
I thought Askimet was just for comments – can you also configure it for private messages? I do have it set up and running right now, along with Wordfence, a reCaptcha V2 on registration form (and for bbPress), and a BuddyPress Private Message Rate Limiter.
Right now I’m using these plugins:
– Askimet
– Wordfence
– Advanced noCaptcha & invisible Captcha (On registration form)
– Anti-Spam by CleanTalk
– BuddyPress Private Message Rate Limiter
It helps, but apparently not enough – just had a user sign up last night, receive a spam message, and request to have their account deleted this morning. It’s obviously frustrating, so if Askimet could be doing something extra that I just haven’t configured it for, that would be great…
But I’m not sure how it could even successfully flag the messages based on content? Some are very bland “Hi Dear, I like you profile and would love to talk, please contact me privately via e-mail at xxxxxxxx ” Which don’t seem that different from legitimate messages, except that they’re being sent out en masse from users with profiles that say they’re in US, but with IP’s in Africa, etc.
Does anyone know if these same bots would also send out mass friend requests? I remember seeing a mention of restricting private messaging to friends, which might be my next step… But I don’t want to implement an additional hurdle for users if the bots would also just abuse that. 🙁
Hi @imath! Thank you for your response. Wouldn’t moving them all to the default profile tab make them show up on the registration form? I’m trying to keep the registration process as clean as possible.
Also while I’m aware of the use of templates, and I’m pretty sure members->single->profile->edit.php (or profile-loop.php?) is probably the buddypress template I’d need to modify in this case, I don’t actually have any idea how to do it. It seems like the separate groups are controlled by separate forms displayed on separate tabs, so I’m assuming that at the very least user profile changes would still have to be saved via separate “Save Changes” buttons for each form, even if they were displayed on the same tab?
As another thought, would it be more practical to re-purpose the “groups” functionality for pet profiles? If that would be easier to fine-tune for multiple followers, or having the owner as the “admin”, modifying update posts & info privacy settings, etc?
Thank you so much! It does work, as far as I can tell… And I ended up fiddling with that plugin’s code to restrict it to one name change per user… Works out perfectly for me!
Hey… I know this is old, but did you ever figure out a solution? I’m running a multisite network for some webcomics, (which are a custom post type), and I’m trying to rig something up with the “following” plugin so members can choose to follow certain comics on the network… I’ve used another bit of code you mentioned in another topic to add that post type to the activity stream, but I’d like to figure out how to show ONLY that post type. Any help would be very much appreciated!
