Preventing Registration Spam with WordPress MU
- Image via Wikipedia
WordPress MU – Registration Form
If you read my earlier story Stock Market Community For Serious Stock Market Professionals, you may know that I am running the community for stock market professionals which is powered by WordPress MU ( Multi User Platform )
WordPress MU is the most powerful multi blogging software that ever found with web 2.0, comes with versatile features to run a multi blogging platform successfully online. There is no second thought about security of the wordpress blogging software, but spammers became more brilliant and comes every day with new loop holes that made the Blogs those powered with MU Platform suffered seriously with emerging spam.
My story: My suffering
When I get started with my wordpresss Mu powered community portal I nearly got 30-50 spam blog (sblogs) signup every day. It made me seriously think over fighting with the spam because these spammers . But what made me surprise is , I have tried every possible spam prevention tools like captcha and Recaptcha with my blog but everything seems to be sucks .
The sbloggers are
- Stolen my web spaces by creating numerous blogs
- Registering various domains under their name and making not available to the real users
- Directly attacking the quality of portal ( if real customers found bogus or spam users information with our blog they will surely debut with genuine of the information present in the blog)
Solutions for controlling SBloggers and Registration Spam
Block Spam By Math
This Block Spam by Math really smart plug-in will works against automated spam bots register with your blog. This plugin will adds simple math questions with your signup form so only the real users who solve the math will be allowed to register with your blog. To get working with your blog, you need to make small changes with your registration file on your default theme.
Pros : Brilliant Plug-in ,simple and yet powerful plug-in
Cons: Not working with some customs themes and WordPress MU versions
Block Spam By Custom Image
This custom image plugin is an claims to be alternative to the captcha ( studies shows that regular Captcha images are predictable and easy to broke) and this plugin produces custom image protection while registration as did by other captcha concept . The best part is the custom images are works better than regular captcha but it needs little or some modification with your theme
Pros : Alternative to the captcha protection
Cons : seems not working with all web hosting configuration , confusing installation
Forcing Signup Code while Registration
This is what I am using with my community portal to block spam blog registration and I got excellent results. I have found zero spam blogs registered with my blog after installing these techniques when compare with approximate 30-50 spam blog registration in previous days
I am using WPMUDEV premium plugin “ Signup Code “ for doing this, this pretty simple plug-in works better than my previous attempts . I have upload this plugin to my WordPress ” mu-plugins folder “ and added my signup code in the “ options” in the “ Site Admin” menu
And my registration form now is ready to be protected from the prying eyes of spammers. But you may have the question that, How my real users found the invitation code with my portal? ,I have made pretty much simple just added the invitation code with my Signup code branding image which will be displayed with my registration form. Real Users can find the code while registering and effortlessly register with my blog
Advantages of this method
- Fights better than other spam blogging methods easy to install and manage from admin panel, zero code edits required
- Best brand promotion (Only users having Invitation Code will be allowed)
- Can be used as a profit model (you can charge for Providing Invitation code)
Related Posts:
Category: Buddypress, Wordpress MU
