Sub ...

I've met lots of neat folks on the Internet because they CAN leave comments, but if you want to turn OFF comments for non-members ...

a quck search on "member and comments" yielded a bunch of related posts, most notably [url=http://forums.b2evolution.net/viewtopic.php?t=2438&highlight=member+comments]THIS POST[/url]

Not that you should be discouraged from using the DOC (that's a good place to start), frankly, it's just not very comprehensive in its coverage of b2evo (because it relies on volunteers, I suspect) ... I'd recommend searching the forums. It's a very good resource!

Hope this helps. :D

There's also this manual entry

http://b2evolution.net/man/2005/03/02/members_only_comments_howto

stk wrote:

Sub ...

I've met lots of neat folks on the Internet because they CAN leave comments, but if you want to turn OFF comments for non-members ...

a quck search on "member and comments" yielded a bunch of related posts, most notably [url=http://forums.b2evolution.net/viewtopic.php?t=2438&highlight=member+comments]THIS POST[/url]

Not that you should be discouraged from using the DOC (that's a good place to start), frankly, it's just not very comprehensive in its coverage of b2evo (because it relies on volunteers, I suspect) ... I'd recommend searching the forums. It's a very good resource!

Thanks, I guess I was using the wrong keywords to search. I really don't want to turn comments off, I think it will hurt my blog a lot, because a lot of the visitors are "non-technical" users. I have many people who view every item on my forums for instance, but never register. However, spammers are hitting my site everyday, even with the blacklist. I guess I will put more time into banning the spam, and leave comments on.

There are some pretty easy changes you can make to help with the comment spam, many of which have been covered on these boards.

(1) First and foremost ... utilize the b2evo blacklist, by adding addresses when you GET spam and by grabbing the latest list. This helps ALL b2evo users.

-in addition-

(2) alot of auto spamming is done because "comment_post.php" is an oft-used name. Try renaming this file to something unique. (There are three occurrences that you would subsequently need to change - _edit_showposts.php, _feedback.php &, of course, the file itself.)

(3) try adding [url=http://forums.b2evolution.net/viewtopic.php?t=2976&highlight=comment+spam]"captcha" code[/url] (requiring a commenter to retype a word, series of number or simple question, as a means of adding a unique field that would thwart auto-filling of normally-used fields)

(4) Search for "comment and spam" and you'll turn up a bunch of threads on this.

By no means, am I an expert, but I am aware of the issues and will become further armed with defensive/offensive tools should the need arise. Fortunately, renaming files has kept comment spam at bay on our site (so far, anyway). We haven't needed to add the captcha (yet). Your smileage will vary.

Cheers

EDIT - Your pages are great for a community discussion and I believe you really need to have comments open to non-members, in order to spark a lively discussion about Hattiesburg, MISS!

(2) alot of auto spamming is done because "comment_post.php" is an oft-used name. Try renaming this file to something unique. (There are three occurrences that you would subsequently need to change - _edit_showposts.php, _feedback.php &, of course, the file itself.)

thats been simplied to the point of "everyone should do this", check that thread we discussed it on .. over (goes to look)
http://forums.b2evolution.net/viewtopic.php?p=16303&highlight=rename+htsrv+dir#16303

the trick is to rename the dir, and change the name in your config .. fixes it for comments AND trackbacks, graham did it, I have yet to hear if its helped or no .. my post explaining is on the second page i believe

heres grahams post about it, easier than searching that thread :
http://tin-men.net/blog/how_i_ve_killed_all_spam_on_my_site?blog=2&c=1&page=1&more=1&title=how_i_ve_killed_all_spam_on_my_site&tb=1&pb=1&disp=single

Interesting ... thanks for the tip. Like POOH, I'll have BOTH! (Mostly because the undoing of the first is more work and if one is good, two is better).

I suggested on Grahams site that maybe this should be an install "feature" ... gen up a random dir name for "htsrv", unique to each install.

BTW ... whatever name you choose DOES show up in the trackback address (publicly displayed on site), so be mindful of the verbage ;)

I agree it should be one of those changables in the admin area (sorta) .. after all it really is changable if you actually read those files -- trouble is we dont. I had an epiphany when it occured to me that was the simplest method, trust me :)