The sites enabled so far are:

Android Phone Forum
Windows 8 forum
Windows Server 2008 Forum
Mac Mini Forum
Forum SEO Help
Microsoft Visual Studio .Net Programming Forum
Just BS Chat Forum
Computer Help Forums

I will be adding this site and the last 2 forums soon.

I am in the process of buying a database from a site that closed a couple months ago. It is a vbulletin 3.8.6 database. I am leaning towards using vbulletin 4.1.1 for this site. I haven’t touched vbulletin in almost 6 months. The reason I am considering vbulletin on this site is to see how far the software has come. Judging by the comments and threads about 4.1.1 on the vbulletin forums it seems as if it is going in the right direction. Yes there are some negative replies, but, if you really look at those comments you’ll see it’s from the same group of disgruntled people. The users that left for another forum product that for whatever reason still hang out at vbulletin to make everyone uncomfortable.

I am willing to give anyone a second chance and this is vbulletins second chance. I have 3 unused licenses that I never sold with the rest I had so nothing is lost if it turns out that vbulletin isn’t really getting any better. If vbulletin 4 doesn’t work out I can convert to IPB down the road.

Even though I will be using it on a new site it doesn’t mean I will ever spend any more money on more licenses. That will never happen. If I buy any forum licenses for future projects you can be sure the money will be spent for IPB and not vbulletin.

Internet Brands. This is your second and final chance. You’ll never see any more of my money, but, you could get good PR from me, Lord knows you need it, if you keep me interested and keep vbulletin up the standards it used to follow.

The domains for sale are:

• justbs.me – This would be a good domain for an off topic or general chat community.
• microsoftforum.me – Would be a good domain for a Microsoft help community.
• newsgroups.nu – You could use this domain for a number of things. Usenet gateway for one.
• windowshelp.me – This domain could also be used as a Microsoft help community.

Contact me with your offer. I will sell all domains in one package or each separately.

To stop the post spam I use reCaptcha.  It seems to be the most effective against spambots, but, for the low life spammers that still do things manually even reCaptcha doesn’t help. The main purpose of these spammers is to get backlinks to their sites and services. What I did was create a new usergroup called Registered Members. The new group has the same privileges as the default Registered Users group.

Read on to see how to set up the registered users group and the new registered members group permissions to help combat vBulletin forum spam.

First thing we do is edit the registered users group. Disallow usage of the link bbcode. If a spambot or a low life spammer that is doing things manually registers the first thing they will do is post some spam. When they try add a link to a post they will get the no permission error. This stops them in their tracks. This is not completely fool proof. If they check the option to not automatically parse links the spam links will be posted they just will not be linked. Akismet will even let the post in since no links are actually posted.

Some of these spammers know it isn’t as easy as it used to be to post spam in threads so they have come up with a new type of spam. Private message spam. A spammer signs in and the first thing they do is head to the control panel and proceed to PM every user except for admins and moderators. I’m not sure this is automated since the bot would have to know who is an admin or mod. Either way it is the most annoying type of forum spam and has caused many forum owners and users pain. This is very easy to stop.

Open the usergroup page and edit the registered users usergroup again. In the private message settings use these settings.

1. Maximum Stored Messages:  0
2. Maximum Recipients to Send PMs at a time: 1

Those settings disallow sending private messages for Registered Users.

Now we don’t want to disallow PM’s for everyone except mods and admins so we create a new uer group called Registered Members. Create that group and give the group the default permissions that an unedited Registered User would have. Turn on bbcode and setup private messages. For private messages I use this.

1. Maximum Stored Messages:  10
2. Maximum Recipients to Send PMs at a time: 2
3. Message Throttle Quantity: 2

This will allow the new group to have a max of 10 PM’s stored in their PM folders. Will allow them to send 2 PM’s at a time and will not let them send another 2 until the time limit set in options is expired. You can set it up any way you want. After all if the users meets the requirements to be promoted to this group they aren’t there to spam.

Save your changes. You’ll need a way to move users to ths new group without doing it manually. This is where the vBulletin promotion manager comes in to play.

In the usergroup menu in the left frame click the promotions link. Select add new promotion. Set up the promotion like this.

1. Reputation Level: 0
2. Days Registered: 30 or more if you choose
3. Posts: 3 or any number you choose
4. Promotion Type: Primary User Group
5. Promotion Strategy: Posts
6. Reputation Comparison Type: Greater or Equal to
7. Move User to Usergroup: Select the Registered Members group

After a user has 3 posts they will be promoted to the new Registered Members group with full posting and PM permissions. This will stop 90% of all post and PM spam.

Why is this effective? A drive by spammer is only interested in one thing. To post links to to their wares. They use a bot to register or do it maunually. Once they register their only goal is to post spam. This will not allow them to do this. They will try and fail. When they fail they move on to another forum. Sure you’ll have a user that will never be seen again, but, your community will be spam free. It’s munch easier to prune users then to contantly clean out spam posts.

If you have any question or think this post was helpful post a comment. No need to regisiter to comment. I use a very effective anti-spam measure on this site.

Users can submit articles easily and the moderating team makes sure that only the best articles are added to the site.

If you are a Visual Basic.Net or Visual Studio.Net programmer what not check out Extreme VB and Visual Studio.Net.

Schwarz Network is the brainchild of me, Bob Schwarz. I own a wide variety of sites and until now never had one place as a news hub to keep the visitors up to date. Our network consists of a wide variety of sites that cover a wide variety of topics.

Most sites are community oriented running vBulletin software for users to interact and share knowledge. Our sites range from technical like Computer Help Forums to off topic like Just BS and everything in between.

We also offer services to help get your own sites online. We offer server setups and Windows Server management as well as custom software installations.

Browse the site to check out all that Schwarz Network has to offer.