Forum Software

Hi, I use Simple Machines Forum software for one of my sites and it’s
getting hit by a lot of spambots. I’m just wondering if anyone uses a
more secure forum or has any advice as to which is the most secure.
Free of Paid.

What is the one FreewayTalk uses?

Nathan Garner
Partner

Austin Wells Design Consultants
1 Elmgate Drive, Littledown, Bournemouth BH7 7EF
+44 (0)1202 301271
email@hidden
http://www.awdc-creative.com

Member of NAPP


freewaytalk mailing list
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Update your subscriptions at:
http://freewaytalk.net/person/options

FreewayTalk is a hand-coded production by yours truly. The reason it
was done that way was because we couldn’t find a forum application
that treated mail as a first-class citizen. Since FreewayTalk had its
roots in a mailing list from time immemorial, and there were members
who could not or would not participate via any other means, the
decision was taken to create something new which would cater
specifically to that audience. There are some natural culture clashes
between that approach and a more “classical” forum (I find that pretty
funny, since there have been listservs since WAY before the Web), but
over all it seems to have found a good balance.

Before you ask, the system is not available to download and install.
Parts of it require familiarity with GNU Mailman and the authority to
create scripts that run as root – this binds it particularly tightly
to the server we use and the skill level of a sysadmin like Finlay
Dobbie.

Walter

On Jan 26, 2009, at 7:22 AM, Nathan Garner wrote:

What is the one FreewayTalk uses?


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There are a lot of fora out there, some of which are more spam-
resistant than others. A lot of the cruft can be eliminated (in any
forum) by restricting posting to registered members, and forcing a
mail-confirmation before allowing a member to register.

That is the approach taken by this forum. When you create an account,
you are mailed a registration key link. Until you click that link, you
cannot either register again under that e-mail or do anything member-
like with the site. So if you don’t take that step of confirming that
the server can send you e-mail, you don’t get to post anything or see
any of the private information (about other members).

I have heard really good things about Vanilla and punBB, and used to
use Phorum on a couple of clients’ sites.

Walter

On Jan 26, 2009, at 7:22 AM, Nathan Garner wrote:

I’m just wondering if anyone uses a more secure forum or has any
advice as to which is the most secure. Free of Paid.


freewaytalk mailing list
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Update your subscriptions at:
http://freewaytalk.net/person/options

Thanks Walter, appreciate your responses. I will have a look at those
you have mentioned. Like you said I will fristly go in and restrict
posting of pictures and external links if I can.

Thanks again.

Nathan Garner
Partner

Austin Wells Design Consultants
1 Elmgate Drive, Littledown, Bournemouth BH7 7EF
+44 (0)1202 301271
email@hidden
http://www.awdc-creative.com

Member of NAPP

On 26 Jan 2009, at 13:52, Walter Lee Davis wrote:

There are a lot of fora out there, some of which are more spam-
resistant than others. A lot of the cruft can be eliminated (in any
forum) by restricting posting to registered members, and forcing a
mail-confirmation before allowing a member to register.

That is the approach taken by this forum. When you create an
account, you are mailed a registration key link. Until you click
that link, you cannot either register again under that e-mail or do
anything member-like with the site. So if you don’t take that step
of confirming that the server can send you e-mail, you don’t get to
post anything or see any of the private information (about other
members).

I have heard really good things about Vanilla and punBB, and used to
use Phorum on a couple of clients’ sites.

Walter

On Jan 26, 2009, at 7:22 AM, Nathan Garner wrote:

I’m just wondering if anyone uses a more secure forum or has any
advice as to which is the most secure. Free of Paid.


freewaytalk mailing list
email@hidden
Update your subscriptions at:
http://freewaytalk.net/person/options


freewaytalk mailing list
email@hidden
Update your subscriptions at:
http://freewaytalk.net/person/options

I run and co-run a few small forums powered by phpBB, 2.0 in fact. From the start, we did not allow posts by unregistered members, and I think all of them required admin approval before someone could join. That meant I would get all the junk posters join requests!

I found an add-on that allows you to have questions as a sort of CAPTCHA to prevent bots from joining. Since the questions were targeted at the audience for the forum, this also has kept out the random junk-posting human that wanders by. The questions are simple, yet it keeps them out! They would be on the level like “Who makes Freeway?”

Between the two, we get next to no requests from people who should not be there and zero junk posts.

Like I said, these fora are small, so there wasn’t a heckuva lot of traffic anyway. However, if you saw the number of junk poster join requests, you’d know these places weren’t unknown to them, either.

You may want to look into seeing if Simple Machines has any add ons or features you can enable to filter out the bots. If you switch forum software, you may lose all the existing posts.


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Thanks Joe I will definitely look for any add ons before swapping
forums. I like the idea of Questions.

Regards,

Nathan Garner
Partner

Austin Wells Design Consultants
1 Elmgate Drive, Littledown, Bournemouth BH7 7EF
+44 (0)1202 301271
email@hidden
http://www.awdc-creative.com

Member of NAPP

On 26 Jan 2009, at 14:20, Joe Muscara wrote:

I run and co-run a few small forums powered by phpBB, 2.0 in fact.
From the start, we did not allow posts by unregistered members, and
I think all of them required admin approval before someone could
join. That meant I would get all the junk posters join requests!

I found an add-on that allows you to have questions as a sort of
CAPTCHA to prevent bots from joining. Since the questions were
targeted at the audience for the forum, this also has kept out the
random junk-posting human that wanders by. The questions are simple,
yet it keeps them out! They would be on the level like “Who makes
Freeway?”

Between the two, we get next to no requests from people who should
not be there and zero junk posts.

Like I said, these fora are small, so there wasn’t a heckuva lot of
traffic anyway. However, if you saw the number of junk poster join
requests, you’d know these places weren’t unknown to them, either.

You may want to look into seeing if Simple Machines has any add ons
or features you can enable to filter out the bots. If you switch
forum software, you may lose all the existing posts.


freewaytalk mailing list
email@hidden
Update your subscriptions at:
http://freewaytalk.net/person/options


freewaytalk mailing list
email@hidden
Update your subscriptions at:
http://freewaytalk.net/person/options