WordPress MU

Is there a way to block all domains that end in ".info" ?? I get only spam registratiosn from those domains but they are all different domain names. The only comment charactersitic is that they share the last ".info" portion of the domain.

Can I do a *.info in "Limited Email Registarations" section of WPMU Admin Options?

Interesting. Not exactly what you're asking but you can block access for these domains via the WP-Ban plugin. Personally, all the sites that I've caught scraping my blog have been .info domains. All originating from the same hoster, with which I've begun a DMCA complaint.

block access? Does that mean they won't be able to access the site at all?

I'm really interested in stopping e-mail registrations coming from those domains.

In theory WP-Ban blocks by domain or IP, and shows the blocked visitor/robot a html page that you choose. I currently only use the IP-blocking so I can vouch for that. I don't know if it's an issue in your case but I don't think the plugin is fully WPMU-compatible; I think that if you block a domain, it will be blocked for all the blogs in your install (probably what you want anyway, but you never know).

I'd actually go find the domain checking code and add in a line where if the email address contains '*.info' to go ahead and return a "can't use that email address" result.

Does that make sense? If not, I can give you better specifics tomorrow.

got it, i'll try my hand at that and let you know what turns up dr.mike.

I really wish WPMU had better management over blog registrations...

I like to take "spammers" and redirect to a site I find humorous.

"I really wish WPMU had better management over blog registrations..."

And you've submitted suggestions to trac? Only way it's going to be taken under consideration. ;)

But aren't you then punishing the humorous sites that you like?

good call luna, I suppose when i'm done with my site redesign we can begin the submission to trac process :)

I'd hazard a guess that the same .info idiot who spammed you also spammed me. I talked to their host and showed them a quick google search of the domains that hit me and darned if there weren't well over 1000 spam blogs listed (all of which were on wpmu sites it appeared).

Maybe it's time for an invite only based blacklist discussion list email group?

But for reference, not every *.info domain is a spammer. I host a couple hundred of them without issue.

Agreed Doc, me as well.
But, I would say there are probably more spammers on the lower level TLD's than on .com, .net, and .org though.

Then again, those bastards are everywhere. Or so it seems.

God I hate spammers, and the idiots keeping them in business.

i have a suggestion.
after the user signup, they will be asked to click on the activation link to activate the blog.
why not make it so that the activation link is activated by the admin.
after admin has activated the link, the normal email with the password is send to the user.

What good is that do? How can you tell a splog from a regular blog before it's been setup?

The creator of Blogdesk does the same thing and I still can't get an account on his support forums because he thinks most fot eh new accounts created on his board are spammers.

the thing to do is setup a captcha. I installed Patrick's plugin to get this integrated and voila, no more splog signups.

I wish that five months out I could still say the same. The spammers have caught on, and this time they're bringing out all the guns.

I'm looking at 10+ splog registrations a day :(

Are you using our security signup question plugin?

http://wpmudevorg.wordpress.com/project/Signup-Security-Question

I was going to James but then I saw this comment:

Posted 2007-08-24 23:28:06 by dbasulto.

if you enter "" in the security question, it breaks...

<b>EDIT:</b> I tried to install this but it didn't install any additional fields in the signup.

Scratch that, it works, just not in conjunction with the Captcha solution from earlier.

I'll try this out and see if it reduces spam signups.

I hacked it to moderate signups. Now instead of wakign up to a half-dozen splogs, i just have a dozen activation emails to delete once I see it is, in fact, spam.

suleiman, you know how to reach me if you want it. ;)

Andrea, I am not sure where to best reach you, but maybe you can posts a version? Do you have the Captcha plugin as well?
I also noticed that it does not work together with the sign-up question plugin, though it would be nice.

Cheers, Bike

ps: happy hug-day

:D (The pink-haired girl says HI!)

Mine is a hack rather than a plugin. Gimmie a couple days and I'll post it somewhere. Or email me at andrea AT atypicalife.net.

I basically edited it to send the activation link to the admin instead of the user, and it also sends what email it came from and the blog title. That's usually enough to determine if it's legit.

I also moderated *user* signups, because if you block blog signups, they'll just hook into the user part and then create a whole pile of splogs.

It was kind of interesting to watch how they did it.

I might have a solution for anyone wanting this. I don't like .info either so I added a function to one of the wordpress core files that only 4 lines. Checks for "info" in the $url of the submitted comment. If it finds it rejects them with an error.
Read more:
http://www.lazyhat.com/2008/05/how-to-block-info-domain-in-wordpress/

Also try submitting a comment to that blog with an info domain in the website field, it will block you. You need some basic php skills to implement. (Sorry to noobs haa)