When it comes to spam, comments are one of the first things that come to mind. However, unwanted user registrations can be just as prolific on sites with open registration. Leland Fiegel, founder of Themetry, has developed a new plugin called " Stop Signup Spam "Which prevents users from registering an account if their email or IP address is on the database" Stop Forum Spam ".
« Stop Forum Spam Is a free service that saves reports of unwanted registrations from blogs, forums, wikis and more. " Stop Signup Spam » integrates with the online form WordPress registration and “ Restrict Content Pro ". Fiegel launched a new site over the weekend, and while he didn't announce it, he received a handful of unwanted registrations.
After tasting the email addresses of registrants, he discovered that a number of them had been reported to the Stop Forum Spam site. " I had never heard of Stop Forum Spam before, but it is essentially an Akismet equivalent Said Fiegel. " I noticed they had a dead link to a WordPress Plugin. I looked up the Stop Forum Spam API documentation and built a base myself a few days ago. I submitted it to WordPress.org and was approved within a day."
When a user is prevented from registering, the following error is displayed: " Unable to register. Please contact the site administrator for assistance ».
Although users can check the database " Stop Forum Spam "To see if their email or IP address is blocked, the error message does not inform them that" Stop Forum Spam Is what has blocked their registration.
« I wanted to keep the error message vague so that users wouldn't abandon the site administrators who accuse them of being "spammers" but clear enough that the site administrator would recognize a false signal. ", Fiegel told me.
In the description of the plugin, Fiegel is clear about the data sent to the service. Whenever a user tries to register an account, an API call containing the user's email and IP address is sent to " Stop Forum Spam And this data is checked against its database. Although the plugin uses the service API, it does not require users to register an API key. This allows the plugin to work upon activation without having to configure anything. Abnormally blocked registrants can submit a request to have their IP address unblocked.
Fiegel does not intend to integrate support on other forms, but is open to suggestions. I haven't tested this plugin on a live site, but Fiegel says it has significantly reduced spam registrations on his new site. If unwanted user registration is a problem, consider giving this plugin a try.
