How to stop spam on an SMF forum

Any forum that accepts registrations will be found by spam bots, often within days. Set these up before you share your forum’s address.

1. Choose how people register

In Admin › then Members › then Registration › then Settings, choose the registration method:

• Email activation: a good default. The member must click a link in an email, which stops many bots.
• Admin approval: you approve every new member. Best for private or very small communities.
• Immediate registration: avoid this on a public forum.

2. Add verification questions and CAPTCHA

In Admin › then Configuration › then Security and Moderation › then Anti-Spam:

• Turn on verification on the registration page.
• Add two or three verification questions that only a human interested in your topic would answer, such as a question about your hobby. These stop far more bots than CAPTCHA alone.
• Require verification for guests’ posts and for members’ first few posts.

3. Hold new members’ first posts

Turn on Post Moderation in Admin › then Configuration › then Core Features, then set new members’ posts to need approval. Combine it with a post-count group so the restriction lifts automatically after a few good posts.

4. Limit what new members can do

• Stop new members adding links or signatures until they have a few posts.
• Limit private messages for new members.
• Hide the member list and profiles from guests. Configuring permissions

5. Ban and clean up

• Ban persistent spammers by email, IP or username in Admin › then Members › then Ban List.
• Delete spam accounts together with their posts from the member’s profile.
• Consider an anti-spam package that checks registrations against shared spammer databases. Installing packages safely

Keep the forum secure

• Apply SMF updates when they’re released; Softaculous can do it for you.
• Use a strong, unique admin password and don’t share the admin account.
• Force HTTPS so logins are encrypted. How to force HTTPS
• Take regular backups. Backing up SMF