This spam thing is killing me.

[The Humanaught]

Alright folks, I've installed captcha, better captcha and recaptcha and none of them are helping cut down on spam. I've attempted to install the e-mail verification mod, but cannot get it to work (e-mail is sent, but user can login in the mean time).

I am getting slammed by 10+ spam submissions a day using v9.8.2. Does anyone have a solution that works? I'm specifically asking the folks that have been running larger pligg sites that have been hit with spam in the past and aren't now - what did you do?

[chuckroast]

This may help.
Mods - Blackball for Pligg

and
Pligg Pro Coupon Code: $5 Off

[skarld]

Has Pligg ever considered integration with Stop Comment Spam and Trackback Spam « Akismet

[The Humanaught]

@Chuck: Ugh. There's not even a non-beta version of Pligg yet and the devs have begun the pimping? This Pro thing is a bad idea and such a turn off for a project that's still so young (and slow).

To me it just feels like a complete conflict of interest. How many core features (of which I think we can all agree spam protection is) are going to be left out of the standard install so the main developers can cash in selling mods?

Ajax chat and stuff like that, sure, no problem - as it's completely an optional component - but spam protection, wysiwyg submission boxes, pinging functions - these should all be integrated into Pligg's core.

Sorry to be so negative, but with so many kickass open source projects out there with great communities developing a solid core program, massive amounts of components and plugins and a load of templates/themes... having to pay for a module that "may" help with spam, and "will" load down the submission process... it just causes me to question the Pligg project.

Skarld, you're on the right path - but again, if we're counting on integration of these things while the Pligg devs are looking for ways to monetize such standard protections, there's not much hope for it is there.

[chuckroast]

Pligg Pro was created out of user demand.
There are several "non-affiliated pligg services sites" already doing the same thing as Pligg Pro. Yet I see no mention of those. So I can only assume you are ok with people outside the development process "pimping" as you so elegantly put it.

Pligg Pro was actually made to spur more free code, since developers are only accepted in the shop after they've contributed substantially to the project.
I would also hope you are aware that Pligg has expenses.
We can't all party at Pligg's house and not expect to pay to keep the lights on.

[The Humanaught]

Chuck, sorry, I didn't mean to be negative, and of course I am grateful for what the developers have done thus far on Pligg. I've been around these forums for long enough to know not to speak lightly on things, and think I've contributed enough to at the very least speak my mind about this.

I feel that the energy going into creating the pro section would be better spent on creating a better system by which people can submit themes, plugins, etc. under a GPL. I, for one, would love to create some Pligg themes, but can't be bothered to put the time into it while there's still so much that is hard-coded and therefore needs to be adjusted with every release - a pain for the designer/developer and a pain for the end user who has to go and upgrade their theme and then re-customize it all again.

Of course there's going to be "non-affiliated" Pligg service sites. Look at any OS project. Take Joomla. There are a sea of developer sites (many pay), but Joomla.org maintains its priority as creating strong core code, creating support documents and furthering the project. Sure people can offer pay-addons in the extensions section along side the copious amounts of free ones, and if that's what the Pro section was (a collection of free and pay addons), then I'd agree with it, as it promotes growth, not monetization.

But other than the forum, and a sparse download repository, there's nothing of the likes here.

You say it was created because of user demand, and this doesn't surprise me at all. The reason for the user-demand is because Pligg, relative to other os-cms projects, is a complete pain to work with, and site developers would rather just pay someone to solve the problems for them.

In regards to Pligg's expenses. We're all developers, few of us don't understand the costs involved of running a site such as this. So, if we're just speaking bare costs (and not turning profit), I am not real clear on why all the advertising on the site isn't covering that.

Perhaps it's only because I work with so many open source projects that my expectations are what they are. I love Pligg, I really do. I just hate to see a shop being set up to sell stuff for a product that doesn't even really work properly yet.

And I particularly dislike being told that I need to pay to protect myself against spam - which in my opinion is core functionality for any Web 2.0 product.

[brandondrury]

I've installed captcha, better captcha and recaptcha and none of them are helping cut down on spam.

I don't know why anyone bothers with Captcha. The software capable of crack captcha is insane!! Captcha is ONLY good for making people insane! Bots seem to have no trouble.

The simple logic thing will consistently beat a spam bot over and over and over again without driving the user crazy?

Just ask "2 + 3 ="..... done. Rotate multiple questions if you want to. Luckily there are mods for vBulletinn and Wordpress for this. Pligg will eventually follow suit.

@Chuck: Ugh. There's not even a non-beta version of Pligg yet and the devs have begun the pimping? This Pro thing is a bad idea and such a turn off for a project that's still so young (and slow).

Pligg is obviously not "mature" yet. With that said, what's the fastest way to Pligg to be as powerful as possible? It takes an investment of either time or cash (or both). So I can see the necessity for income to take the sting out of the effort that goes into an undertaking like Pligg.

Of course, how mature does Pligg need to be? While not a speed machine, it's doing fine for many active sites. I'm ready to spend some big cash on promoting my 2 Pligg sites. Could it have been easier? Yes. Would that have benefited the Pligg platform? Not sure.

I was totally turned off when SMF issued cease and desists for guys charging for mods.

[The Humanaught]

Hey Brandon, I'll definitely start looking into implementing a logic or series of logic questions. Will post my results.

Regarding the charging for mods, don't get me wrong, I'm not at all against developers charging for mods. I think that can hugely benefit the community. My concern is that by creating (and rather largely driving focus to it - looking at the header banner) the Pro section, it's going to shift energy away from Pligg's development.

[finalwebsites]

The problem is that Spammy entries are submitted by real people, I have a themed pligg site and warn for removals but nothings helps.
At least you can protect you that those spam stories are not indexed by google but there are still all this entries I need to remove every day

[davemackey]

I'd sure love to see Akismet integration into Pligg...and if someone puts a stable, working one into Pligg Pro for a recent price, count me as a buyer!
David.