vBulletin 4.0 Warning

[Guard Dog]

If you have decided (or are deciding to) move to vBulletin 4.0, be warned that you NEED to turn on ReCaptcha or some sort of registration filter on. If not you will be spammed mercilessly.

I have 2 vBulletin 4.0 forums and both got hammered to the point that it was difficult to remove all the spam

 

[bonusbeast]

Yeah I don't have any forums but a friend of mine said he was hit with over 1,000 spam messages on his forums.

 

[bonustreak]

We have not done the update not sure if it is worth it!

 

[cowboy]

Hi AGD... Other than that, is 4.0 working ok? Are you using the Publishing Suite version?

 

[Guard Dog]

I am using the publishing suite, which is very average IMO. If you have a board with ANY size at all, you will want to be VERY careful.. This is not just an 'upgrade and go'.

While it does upgrade without issue, your URLs and SEO can change dramatically enough to wipe you from the SERPS for awhile So - be careful and test ahead of time.

I was lucky in that I had forums with very little posts. I used them as test beds in the event I wanted to upgrade AGD to 4.0. Result: No way will AGD get 4.0 anytime soon. It's just not worth the risk.

 

[cowboy]

Thanks for the info Guard Dog. I was thinking of launching a new forum - it sounds like maybe because it's a new forum that 4.0 publishing suite might be an okay way to go. I'm guessing the SEO is fine in 4.0 if it's not already established over time in a previous version(?)

 

[Daera]

Hey Andy,

Thanks for the info on 4.0. I've been very interested in 4.0, but from what I've read so far... there's no need for existing VB users to jump right into the upgrade just yet. I guess it's always good to let new products work out some of the major bugs and problems first.

Why do you think there's so much more spam with 4.0 then the older version?

 

[Guard Dog]

Why do you think there's so much more spam with 4.0 then the older version?

My guess is that the 'XRumer folks' are just adding a new query for the software that gets all the new forums. They want as many links as possible and since many are either starting new forums or upgrading existing - they can add the following and find new forums for their link-machine:

Google


That little query will pull back nearly all vBulletin forums of 4.x.x. (Unless branding is removed, which is almost never done)