Second one today

[Dien Rice]

Originally Posted by Sandi Bowman

Is RobT27 one of these or is it legit? Not quite like the others so...hmmmm.....

As for how to stop them, make it so that no one who hasn't posted a certain number of legit posts can use the private messages.

Hi,

I think I know how to fix this, it's a little bit of a workaround, but I think it will work. (Essentially, it's what Sandi suggested, though it's not so straightforward to implement and requires a bit of fiddling around...)

Anyway, I've temporarily disabled private messaging for now. I hope to have it back up and running in a few days, once I've got things hopefully fixed...

Cheers,

Dien

[MMacGillivray]

Thanks, Dien.

Cheers
Margaret

And I thought I was getting all these messages from new friends.
Oh, well.
Actually, I have been getting these for a while.
It's a minor annoyance.
Larry Foster

[Ankesh]

Hi Dien,

The good thing about vbulletin is you don't have to come up with your own hack.

Here is one mod that should stop the spam - and shouldn't take more than a few minutes to set up:

It prevents members from private messaging or adding links / emails to posts before they make x number of posts:
http://www.vbulletin.org/forum/showthread.php?t=123002

You could also do this to prevent private message spam:

Copy the default "Registered Users" usergroup into another group (say "Fully Registered").

Now set the "Maximum Recipients to Send PMs at a time" permission on the Registered Users group to zero to disable sending PMs.

Add a promotion to upgrade users from Registered to Fully Registered at X number of posts.

You may also want to rename "Registered" to "Newly Registered" or so.

Other mods you may want to look into:
http://www.vbulletin.org/forum/showthread.php?t=118421
(to prevent posting spam.)

Every single board/forum that I frequent that has private messaging has this happen.

I think disabling the service is a bit of over-kill.

It may be a pain to Margaret and others, but all you have to do is hit the delete buttom!

That's like me not liking seeing sales flyers in my mail! I'm sure if I tell the Post Office they'll stop all advertising mailings at once. NOT.

Pete

Pete,

Thanks for adding to the thread.

I agree.

And to take it internet related... it' likes stopping all email because some people don't like Spam.

How about this...

=> Dien, re-activate private messaging.

=> Others, if you check your Private Messages and see a Spam Message, send Dien an email to let him know Who the user is and then he can deal with it. And hit the Delete button. Simple.

Michael Ross

[Dien Rice]

Originally Posted by Ankesh

Hi Dien,

The good thing about vbulletin is you don't have to come up with your own hack.

Here is one mod that should stop the spam - and shouldn't take more than a few minutes to set up:

Thanks Ankesh! I did look around for mods to deal with the problem, and I didn't find that one... That (and the board spam one) both look pretty good!

- Dien

[Dien Rice]

Thanks for everyone's suggestions...

I installed the modification that Ankesh suggestioned... You now need to have made 10 posts to send private messages (PMs)... This should stop the people who have been "spamming" everyone with messages (or at least slow them down)...

If you have made 10 posts or more, you should notice nothing different when you send a PM. If you have made 9 posts or less, then you'll see a notice telling you that you need to have made 10 posts before you can send private messages to other members...

By the way, everyone can receive private messages. You only need a minimum number of posts to send PMs, not to receive them.

If you notice any problems, please let me know!

Best wishes,

Dien

[MMacGillivray]

HI, Dien - thanks for that - I appreciate it.

Best
Margaret