bbProtection

[Jan]

Has anyone ever tried [url=http://www.bbprotection.net/]bbProtection[/url]?

I'd like to get some more opinions before using it...

[Noobarmy]

well no1 can try it as they haven't got download links ect yet, due to various things. it does look good though, and its managed by some of the top people in phpBB who should know what they're doing

[Jan]

I was talking about [url=http://www.bbprotection.net/support/forums/viewtopic.php?t=75]bbProtection beta![/url]

[igorw]

I've heard of it, but i'm unsure if i want to use it. I bet it will be good in terms of spam prevention, but what i don't like about it is sending any of my data (usernames, ip adresses, email adresses) to a 3rd party website. That's a little privacy issue of mine.

[Ganon_Master]

I wouldn't use it either...(same reasons that evil<3 mentioned)

[EY]

I wouden't use it same reason as evil. And also all my boards have never gotten any spam bots or anything like that. Lets hope it stays like that

[drathbun]

I tested it during their beta. I think your concerns about privacy are valid, but that's the core component of how it works. If 20 different boards get the same username / email registration data within a few days, odds are really good that it's a spammer. So the fact that I send my own unique registrations along with all of the spammers is a small price to pay, in my opinion.

There's absolutely nothing to worry about with sharing IP addresses. Usernames are just bits of text, nothing associated with privacy there. The only "real" piece of information is the email address. Everything sent across the 'net is encrypted and decrypted at the source site, so the traffic is secure.

Having said all of that, the code I beta tested has been recalled and they are going to rework the system, so I don't know what it ultimately will look like. I have decided that I probably won't use it on my own boards, primarily because I have enough boards to make my own "bbprotection-lite". Using the same principals, it is highly unlikely that the same user will register at two (or more) of the boards that I manage, thus if someone does they will go into a "suspect" list where I can review and remove them all from one central location.

And no privacy issues, because they're all my boards. I won't be using any of the code from bbprotection just some of the basic concepts.

[damnian]

[url=http://blog.phpbb.cc/2007/01/22/the-voice-of-reason/]0.1.1 beta released[/url]

[igorw]

I totally forgot to reply to drathbun!

I think that is a very good idea you have there! It's great to have it for yourself with your own server, and with full control. It uses the concept of bbprotection (not saying they invented it though ), but not have any privacy issues.

If i have enough time, this could become a "shared banlist"-mod

damnian, nice blog post there

[drathbun]

A brief comment that I made on the blog post, will summarize here:

There was already a discussion about whether a service like bbprotection has to be 100% GPL'd software on the phpBB Mod Writers forum. The example used was Spelling Cow. In that case, the service is hosted on a remote server, and a stub is installed in phpBB. But the service software is not released. Is this legal?

The argument was this: the code that directly modifies phpBB is GPL'd. Cannot be any other way. But Spelling Cow is not a "phpbb" service, in fact it works with any web-based form. So it does not have to be GPL'd. It does not use any phpbb code or database features. It truly is a remote service.

bbProtection is the same. The software they install within phpBB must be GPL'd. But the software used to run their server does not.

[mrstarware]

Personally I just find it rather considering that they've already banned so many IP addresses.
There just seems to be something wrong with that to me. Maybe I'm just a little ignorant of how this works, though the idea of banning over 4k usernames and over 1300 IPs makes me think that if I did use this beta that I'd lose non-spamming members. I mean what would stop me from signing up with some username like "bob" and then getting myself IP banned on dozens on these forums, then changing my IP and doing it all over again? Then everyone who wanted to use "bob" as a username couldn't. The worst part of this is some of those IPs could theorically be dial-up IPs like AOL.

What would happen if 10-20 people starting "messing around" causing problems?

For myself I don't think the privacy risk nor the chance of losing members is worth keeping out a couple of easily banned spammers.

[damnian]