BuddyPress.org

@JJJ: First off, thanks.

Secondly, is the thought to hook into Akismet for the various actions within Buddypress? Wonder if this is served best by making the existing Akismet plugin Buddypress aware since the same effort needs to happen with standalone bbPress, etc.

Yay!

Thanks jjj!

have they checked their junk mail / spam folders?
If your users aren’t happy about this, just wait until they start using it – lol it’s a crude work in miserable progress imho – the signup issueS are just the beginning. I would consider buddypress more of a hobby thing for those who want to spend long hours in multiple forums trying to hash out why everything does not work well together. You will find spam robots have no problem signing up and activated dozens of accounts daily. Once your users actually get activated they will have a great time trying to sort out real blog posts from spam, they may wish they never signed up in the first place – especially if they create their own group.

I have a similar issue. I know activation emails are being sent. However, some of these emails get sent ot junk and the member doesn’t know to check. When I go to the “Users” section in the admin I see nothing that indicates non-replies as spam and certain no way to “activate” a member.

Is there a way to resend activation?

Spam post and link removed -hnla

@DJPaul @boonebgorges account needs removing.

“WOW, I did the above mentioned items and I am still getting hammered with spam blogs. I have no idea what to do now, I am already making a sacrifice by taking away blog creation during signup. “

Start looking at access logs. If you have no way to check how they are getting in, then you have very little luck in stopping them.

have you DELETED the exisiting spam users? Because if you;re just deleting the blogs they create and leaving the spam users…. they just create more.

@jwack
– Yep

– Yes, it’s not the most accessible-friendly way to prevent splogging but we do require people use the code in order to register at all, instead of a captcha. And we haven’t had a single spammer since. But for the few who don’t know it, we also provide the link where they can easily find out what it is, especially if they feel too lazy to look it up (I would be, heh).

Since our targets are mostly local people or former residents, they tend to know what the zip code is. If you have a genre-specific site, perhaps a similar technique could be applied? Or maybe a developer here could help you to modify the code so it applies only to the blog registration? I’m more of a front-end user/designer so altering other dev’s code is way out of my league >_<;

@jwack

hi, I had similar issues… even after removing the blog signup at registration, spammers would sign up, activate their accounts, and then create a new splog. to help cut down, I tried these steps:

– changed my registration slug in bp-custom.php:
define ( ‘BP_REGISTER_SLUG’, ‘join’ );

– also added a redirect of wp-signup.php inside bp-custom.php:
function register_redirect() {
if (strpos($_SERVER, ‘wp-signup.php’) !== false ) {
$url = ‘http://www.mysite.com/join&#8217;;
wp_redirect($url);
exit;
}
}
add_action(‘init’, ‘register’);

those two helped but didn’t completely remove the issue, this plugin really nailed it for us though:

– installed this plugin: https://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/invitation-code-checker/ (since we have a local comm site, we just used a zip code as the invite code)
Not sure how your site is set up but perhaps you can find a way to use it too, may even allow you to re-enable blog sign up at registration. It says Tested up to: WordPress MU 2.8.4 but I have WP 3.0.3 with network enabled and BP 1.2.6 and still seems to be working just fine.

Most of these suggestions were pulled from helpful posts on BP, hopefully they help you out a bit

Have you also changed the default signup slug and the link text to get to it? Make sure you nofollow that.

many of them come through via google, right to your signup page.

Disallowing bots to follow the signup page link (nofollow on the link), changing the default signup slug and adding new profile fields really really does help. And no plugins either.

I’ve experienced a bit of success with AVH First Defense Against Spam:
https://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/avh-first-defense-against-spam/

Checks the user’s IP against StopForumSpam and Project Honeypot (with an API key) before parsing the entire page.
This won’t stop human spammers but every little bit helps.

We installed the WP Super Captcha plugin on 3 different WP/BP high traffic sites and it cut the spam sign ups down by 80% immediately. Not a beautiful solution, by any means – but it does work somewhat. 80% is better than nothing.

Can be configured to show the captcha on the sign up page and login page – whichever you prefer, or both. Compliant for WordPress (with or without Multisite enabled) and BuddyPress configurations.

https://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/super-capcha/

Good luck!

Get more administrators, and install the BP Moderation plugin. Make a big announcement to all members letting them know there is a new report feature(from the BP Moderation plugin) and you would greatly appreciate it if they would use it to report prohibited content.

Naughty naughty please don’t put words in my mouth, Fair point that maybe my opinions have no value on here never said they didn’t . did, though, express my opinion that I saw no value in your post here on this subject, your opinions are as worthy as any I’m sure.

I left this thread open so that discussion could continue rather than lock it in woeful abuse of power

Now look those flipping spammers have caused more strife and anguish is there no end to their vile actions, if this wasn’t a public forum I would take pleasure in describing just what a bunch of *** **** those *** are and **** their **** lives – fill in the blanks ** shrug**

I missed no point I closed the thread in response to the last to post to it, they were remarking on the level of spam they get on their site.

The thread had no plausible benefit, as stated there are detailed threads on measures one can take and that should be read to simply re-state what we all are aware of can become a little tedious.

As for your post here, equally I see no real virtue or benefit in it do you not think all the regulars and core devs are not aware of the issue or that people like myself that spend a considerable amount of time on the site aren’t driven to distraction by it? Or that we have not mentioned it often and repeatedly and that there perhaps are reasons that direct and swift action can’t be taken.

So sorry but you are wrong to contradict my actions I was not preventing discussion just discussion revolving a subject that simply goes nowhere. We are aware of the issue! Also please bear in mind that this site is manned with volunteers all working away and busy, deleting threads and accounts becomes a very irksome task.

Technically given what I have said I ought to close this thread, but that would just piss you off wouldn’t it ?