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Simple Machines - Spam Free Discussion Forum

May 23, 2007 by debbie T | Internet • Web Development

For the last few years I have been administrating a small discussion forum on one of my other web sites. I use Simple Machines forum software.

Simple Machines has served me well. It was easy to set up, and I loved the vast array of settings. Yeah, there were bugs, especially when upgrading, but I really liked what it offered. The best part it was free!

Starting last summer, spam membership was becoming an annoying problem. Blocking domains from certain countries helped some of it, but it was getting worst. I reluctantly made the decision to require membership approval; it wasn’t an ideal the solution, since it really hindered legit membership and it required too much time to figure out who to reject. I was getting frustrated, but wanted to stick with Simple Machines.

Simple Machines released version 1.1, with the addition of CAPTCHA.

I am happy to report that in the months since my upgrade, there has been not one speck of trouble with a spammer membership or posting. Hurray!

Note: Initially I had issues when upgrading to 1.1.2; mainly, the problem was that the copyright text located at the bottom of the forum was now in giant letters screaming to all my visitors that I was using the software illegally. I use a customized (non-default) template, and I found that temporarily switching to the default template before upgrading solved my problem.

Bottomline, if you are looking to install a discussion forum to your web site, add Simple Machines to your list of prospective candidates. Oh and I also have heard Vanilla Forum is quite interesting, although I haven’t had an opportunity to check it out. It always makes me hungry when I visit their site though.

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