BuddyPress.org

Could this be used as a simple captcha? ie 2+2= “4” and they have to put “4”. I have seen simple captchas like this where the field is labeled name or something, so the spammer put zuingling0234. Normal user just puts 4 and is able to proceed. Your thoughts?

Is this a common problem? Can others who are receiving spam please reply?

Remember – you can turn off emails on your notification settings.

I’m struggling with a lot of spam registrations.

– a lot list country entry as random characters “Ot9XLfiFD7WNCu” Is there a way to set Country so it has to be a legit one?

– a lot come from email addresses such as “myspacee.info” “@mysace.info” Is there a way to force email confirmation … so they have to receive an email and click on a link to confirm registration?

– is there a way to mark someone as a spammer and delete them at the same time in the admin?

Sigh… I don’t have time for this so I may give up.

Would be nice if a site user can “Flag” a spam entry to disable the user.

I’m not aware of any captcha plugins for this, but it’s a good idea. I haven’t time to look into the code atm.

Were you able to resolve the problem?

I have a similar plugin that is fully WPMU and BuddyPress compatible:

SI CAPTCHA Anti-Spam

https://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/si-captcha-for-wordpress/

I also just noticed that buddypress profiles don’t import from wordpress profiles or vice versa. It takes enough tooth pulling to get people to complete one profile. Adding those fields to sign up would be good because required fields would also have some anti-spam benefits.

@ wordpressfan

Did you read this post ?

I give a solution. Not perfect but it works

https://buddypress.org/forums/topic/fighting-splogs#post-22687

I use reCaptcha with askiment in a bundle, well….i will see the result after launch the site

Just an update, Matt Kern just made a post on the BP forums about his manually-approve signup plugin for WPMU:

http://mattkern.com/wpmu-manually-approve-new-members-on-local-install/

Hey wordpressfan, understand that BuddyPress runs on top of WordPress MU so any spam issues are still, at its core, a WPMU issue.

The WPMU readme.txt has some info on how to counter spammers:

https://trac.mu.wordpress.org/browser/trunk/README.txt (read line 165 and on)

For the Darcy Norman link, use WPMUTutorials’ variation for BuddyPress:

http://wpmututorials.com/how-to/spam-blogs-and-buddypress/

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Also, for your suggestion on moderating signups, WPMUTutorials also has an article on that:

http://wpmututorials.com/hacks/how-to-moderate-signups/

Read the last comment in that post for info on modifying the article’s instructions for BuddyPress.

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You might also want to check out SI Captcha:

https://buddypress.org/forums/topic/si-captcha-for-wpmu-and-buddypress

The beta version has support for BP as well.

Hope that helps in some way!

If you use custom profile fields in your registration spammers wont effect you.I dont know why but i havent had a spam sign up since i tried this

i don’t know if robots go directly into db, or use the wp code…

but one thing you can try is to hack a little the register_new_user function in wp-login.php

to ban some email domains like “XXXX@myspacee.info” witch massevely occurs in the past last weeks….

function begins at line 228 (v. 2.8.4a)

add this on line 233

$email_check = explode(“@”, $user_email);

insert also this at line 248

} elseif($email_check[1] == ‘myspacee.info’) {

$errors->add(‘invalid_email’, __(‘ERROR: The email address isn’t correct.’));

insert the same code and change the mail domain name if you need to ban more domains

In use with invisible-defender, wp-ban and wp-spamfree i think you would be quiet for a moment with unwanted registering of blogs or users.

You could also try some WP plugins that add additional hidden, input fields to the registration form:

-Invisible Defender – https://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/invisible-defender/

-NoSpamNX – https://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/nospamnx/

Chances are a spam bot will fill these input fields in, and thus these plugins will block these submissions.

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I’ve been meaning to give this a shot, but I haven’t tried it yet because I don’t need the extra layer of protection (right now anyway)!

Michael, you can also try protecting spam signups by using a RewriteRule in your .htaccess:

http://wpmututorials.com/how-to/spam-blogs-and-buddypress/

This is quite an effective method that will stop most spambot signups (except the manual ones!)

You also have to secure your bbPress install from spam signups (if you have forums installed).

Things you’d want to do is disable registrations in bbPress and redirect attempted signups to WPMU’s signup page.

Hey JF,

Yes, your bp-custom.php file should start with <?php and end with ?>.

I assumed that you did that already! But if you didn’t, put that in your bp-custom.php file.

Give that a shot and let me know if that works!

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If you’re having problems with spam signups, I recommend using this .htaccess snippet by WPMUTutorials.com (by way of Darcy Norman):

http://wpmututorials.com/how-to/spam-blogs-and-buddypress/

Hey Jfcarter,

There is no add_action for this function as the changes require manually replacing the existing message button function in the BP member template.

Were you able to get this working before? Or is this the first time you’re trying this?

Anyway, follow these steps:

(1) Make sure you put the bp_send_message_to_friend_button() function in your /wp-content/plugins/bp-custom.php

(2) Replace the bp_send_message_button() function with the newly, created bp_send_message_to_friend_button() in your BP member template.

If you’re using the default BP member template, you have to replace the function in these places:

* /bp-themes/bpmember/activity/just-me.php

* /bp-themes/bpmember/wire/latest.php

* /bp-themes/bpmember/profile/index.php

If you’re using a modified version of the BP member template, you’ll need to manually find each instance of the bp_send_message_button() function and replace it.

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Just FYI, I’m no longer using this function as we did indeed wanted users to message non-friends.

Either client side spam filters, or one of the mail servers between the hosts refusing to deliver it.

WPMU deals with all the email sending, so I suggest you do a search on their forums to see if anyone has came across this specific issue before.