Understanding spam rules

The following is a list of the out of the box spam rules included with Telligent Community.

General spam rules

General spam rules process all types of scorable content, including forum posts, weblog comments and trackbacks, media gallery comments, wiki pages, and status messages and replies.

Known spam terms

This rule checks content against a configurable list of words that are often used in spam posts. It runs against all types of content supported by the spam blocker engine.

• Points per word found - The points to add for each forbidden word found in the content.
• Forbidden words - A list of forbidden words, separated by semicolons. This rule lives behind the firewall in Telligent Community.

User account age

This rule gives points based how recently a user's account was created. More points are assigned for recently created accounts, as spammers often create new accounts. It checks the user account of the author of all types of content supported by the spam blocker engine.

• Minimum age (in days) of user account - How old (in days) a user account has to be (after getting created) to avoid getting any points assigned.
• Points per day less than the minimum - The number of points to assign for each day less than the minimum age the account was created.

User account status

This rule adds or subtracts points based on whether a user is an anonymous or registered user. If spam is being submitted anonymously, this rule can be used to penalize content created by anonymous users and make it less likely that content from registered users will be flagged as spam. It checks the user account of the author of all types of content supported by the spam blocker engine.

Note: You can assign negative values for points. This is useful if you want to reduce the total score of content by registered users, which would make it less likely it would be rated as spam.

• Points to add for anonymous posters - Number of points to assign to content made by anonymous users.
• Points to add for registered users - Number of points to assign to content made by registered users.

User spam rules

User spam rules run when a new user is being created, such as when someone joins the community.

User creation IP frequency

This rule is used when a new user account is created on the site. It determines whether the user being created is coming from an IP address that is repeatedly creating users. It can be used to prevent having multiple users  created from the same IP address in a short space of time - which would normally suggest activity by a spam bot.

• Points per user created in timespan - The number of points to assign to each user created in the specified time period.
• Number of minutes to track user creation frequency - The time period over which the rule will check for other users created from the same IP address. 

Forum spam rules

Forum spam rules process all forum posts, whether they are thread starters or replies.

Akismet for forums

This rule submits the post content to the third-party Akismet spam-checking Web service. The Akismet service runs its own set of rules and checks and returns a resulting judgment of whether it thinks the content is spam. You must obtain an Akismet API key to use this spam rule.

• API key - The Akismet API key for your site, which is passed to the Akismet service on each check. You can obtain an API key here: http://akismet.com/commercial/
• Points - The number of points to assign if Akismet rates the content as spam.

Forum IP address frequency

This rule is used to determine whether a given IP address attempts to make repeated posts.

Media gallery spam rules

Media gallery spam rules process comments only. Files are not checked by the spam blocker.

Akismet for media galleries

This rule submits the post content to the third-party Akismet spam-checking Web service. The Akismet service runs its own set of rules and returns a resulting judgment of whether it thinks the content is spam. You must obtain an Akismet API key to use this spam rule.

• API key - The Akismet API key for your site, which is passed to the Akismet service on each check. You can obtain an API key here: http://akismet.com/commercial/
• Points - The number of points to assign if Akismet rates the content as spam.

Forbidden word - media gallery

The forbidden word media gallery rule assigns points to content based on how many times a forbidden word is found in the content. It checks the subject, body, username, trackback name, and title URL if available.

Note: This is very similar to the known spam terms rule that runs on all content. This rule can be used to have a second list of words just for media galleries, or it can be used as a list of very bad words that you may want to assign more points.

• Points per word found - The points to add for each forbidden word found in the post.
• List of forbidden words - A list of forbidden words, separated by semicolons.

Links in media gallery comments

Assigns points to content based on the number of hyperlinks in the content. Spam content sometimes includes a large number of links.

• The number of points to assign each link beyond the threshold -The number of points to assign for each hyperlink found above the maximum allowed number.
• The maximum number of links that can appear in the post - The number of links content can contain before the spam rule starts assigning points to each link.
• Ignore default site URLs - When this is checked, any hyperlinks to the current site's domain will not be counted.
• A whitelist of allowed domains - A list of domains that will be ignored, separated by semicolons. Any hyperlink to a domain in this list will not be counted.

Media gallery IP address frequency

The IP frequency spam rule assigns points to content based on the number of times that user has submitted content in a certain period of time. This can be used to protect against a particular IP address attempting to make repeated posts.

• Threshold - The maximum number of times content can be submitted from each IP address within the specified duration.
• Points - The number of points to assign each post beyond the threshold.
• Duration - The time (in seconds) to look for content from the same IP address
• Excluded IP addresses - Any posts from IP addresses in this list will score 0. This is useful if you're testing creating posts and don't want to worry about your posts getting moderated.

Messaging spam rules

Messaging spam rules process status messages and replies to any type of activity or status message.

Akismet for messages

This rule submits the message content to the third-party Akismet spam-checking Web service. The Akismet service runs its own set of rules and returns a resulting judgment of whether it thinks the content is spam. You must obtain an Akismet API key to use this spam rule.

• API key - The Akismet API key for your site, which is passed to the Akismet service on each check. You can obtain an API key here: http://akismet.com/commercial/
• Points - The number of points to assign if Akismet rates the content as spam.

Status message duplicates

This rule detects recent duplicate status messages and replies from the same author. This can be useful if a user is submitting the same spam message repeatedly.

• Number of recent messages to compare - The number of recent status messages from the current user that will be checked for duplicates.
• Points for each duplicate message found - The number of points to assign for each duplicate status message found.

Status message flood

Measures how many status messages a user has recently created. This can be useful if a user is submitting different spam messages repeatedly. It calculates the average age, in minutes, of the user's recent status messages. For example, if a user posted five status messages within the past five minutes, the average age would be one.

• Number of recent messages to compare - The number of recent status messages from the current user that will be checked.
• Minimum average age in minutes - The minimum average age (in minutes) of the recent status messages to avoid having point assigned.
• Points per minute that the average is under the minimum value - The number of points to assign for each minute that the calculated average age is under the minimum average age setting.

Weblog spam rules

Weblog spam rules process weblog comments and trackbacks only. Regular blog posts are not checked by the spam blocker.

Akismet for blogs

This rule submits the post content to the third-party Akismet spam-checking Web service. The Akismet service runs its own set of rules and returns a resulting judgment of whether it thinks the content is spam. You must obtain an Akismet API key to use this spam rule.

• API key - The Akismet API key for your site, which is passed to the Akismet service on each check. You can obtain an API key here: http://akismet.com/commercial/
• Points - The number of points to assign if Akismet rates the content as spam.

Blog comment length

The comment length blog spam rule assigns points to comments that do not meet a minimum length. This can be useful for very short spam comments like, "Good post."

• Points for failure - The number of points to assign when a post is shorter than the minimum body length.
• Minimum body length - The minimum number of characters posts should contain to not fail, and thus be assigned points.

Blog IP address frequency

The IP frequency spam rule assigns points to content based on the number of times that user has submitted content in a certain period of time. This can be used to protect against a particular IP address attempting to make repeated posts.

• Threshold - The maximum number of times content can be submitted from each IP address within the specified duration.
• Points - The number of points to assign each post beyond the threshold.
• Duration - The time (in seconds) to look for content from the same IP address.
• Excluded IP addresses - Any posts from IP addresses in this list will score 0. This is useful if you're testing creating posts and don't want to worry about your posts getting moderated.

Emails in blog comments

The email blog spam rule looks for a comment or trackback that just contains an email address. It uses a configurable regular expression to find email addresses.

• Points per find - The number of points to assign if the comment only contains an email address.
• Regex pattern - The regular express pattern to use to match comments containing only an email address. 

Forbidden word - blog

The forbidden word blog rule assigns points to content based on how many times a forbidden word is found in the content. It checks the subject, body, username, trackback name, and title URL if available.

Note: This is very similar to the known spam terms rule that runs on all content. This rule can be used to have a second list of words just for weblogs, or as a list of very bad words that you may want to assign more points.

• Points per word found - The points to add for each forbidden word found in the post.
• List of forbidden words - A list of forbidden words, separated by semicolons.

Links in blog comments

Assigns points to content based on the number of hyperlinks in the content. Spam content sometimes includes a large number of links.

• The number of points to assign each link beyond the threshold - The number of points to assign for each hyperlink found above the maximum allowed number.
• The maximum number of links that can appear in the post - The number of links content can contain before the spam rule starts assigning points to each link.
• Ignore default site URLs - When this is checked, any hyperlinks to the current site's domain will not be counted.
• A whitelist of allowed domains - A list of domains that will be ignored, separated by semicolons. Any hyperlink to a domain in this list will not be counted.

Recent duplicate blog spam rule

This rule will check for recent duplicate comments. It compares the author name, body, and link in recent comments. This can be useful if a spammer is submitting the same comment repeatedly.

• Points per duplicate found - The number of points to assign for each duplicate comment found in the comments checked.
• Number of recent comments to check for duplicates - The number of comments through which the spam rule will look for duplicates.

Regex blog rule

The regex blog spam rule will assign points to a comment for every match of a regular expression in the configurable list. It checks for matches in the subject, body, username, trackback name, and title URL if available.

• Points per expression Found - The points to assign for each match.
• List of regular expressions - A list of regular expressions to run against each blog comment, with each regular expression on a new line. For more information on Regular Expressions, have a look at http://www.regular-expressions.info/ .

Wiki spam rules

Wiki spam rules process wiki pages only.

Akismet for wikis

This rule submits the page content to the third-party Akismet spam-checking Web service. The Akismet service runs its own set of rules and returns a resulting judgment of whether it thinks the content is spam. You must obtain an Akismet API key to use this spam rule.

• API key - The Akismet API key for your site, which is passed to the Akismet service on each check. You can obtain an API key here: http://akismet.com/commercial/
• Points - The number of points to assign if Akismet rates the content as spam.

Logging Akismet spam activity

Any spam caught by Akismet is recorded in the event log (EventLogViewer.aspx) under "Akismet detected spam."

For example, if there is an error for an API key, the log will record the event with a message such as:

• "No WordPress.com API key for Akismet specified. Rule disabled."
• "WordPress.com API key for Akismet is invalid."