Message to Rejetto: forum's email is broken

[LeoNeeson]

Hi!, this is a message to Rejetto. I have his email, but I don't want to bother him with this, so I use this space to report that the forum's email system is completely broken. The forum system DOES NOT send any email. This means the following:

- Users doesn't get notifications of new 'Private Messages', neither of emails sent through the forum.
- Users doesn't get notifications of new posts, in case they were subscribed to get email notifications.
- New users can't signup/register, since they can't get the verification link, sent by the forum via email.

» Summarizing: any email sent through the forum, is lost and never sent...

Since this forum is using "OVH Web Hosting", perhaps the following link helps you:
https://help.ovhcloud.com/csm?id=kb_article_view&sysparm_article=KB0052915

@Rejetto: I hope you can fix it, but there is no pressure on doing it.
Take the time you need, but please don't forget about it.
Thank you, and sorry for opening this thread.

Cheers,
Leo.-

[mzw18667]

good to know, thanks.

[rejetto]

it should be fixed now.
sorry guys

[Mars]

works as expected, bots will be able to have fun again

 

[LeoNeeson]

it should be fixed now.

Yes, I confirm that now it works...

works as expected, bots will be able to have fun again

To avoid bots, according to forum's documentation, "the most efficient anti-spam method provided by SMF" by default, without having to install any -Mod- (modification), is enabling "Verification Questions". I've read that adding three simple (but not so obvious) questions stops most bots. I highly recommend adding this to relieve Mars's task of cleaning the forum.

[rejetto]

i think the email is not working again.
my provider interrupts the service because a lot of emails fails, because of spammers who register on the forum with invalid addresses.
i think "questions" don't work because i installed the "stop spammer" plugin.

[LeoNeeson]

It's still working here, and I agree that the main reason of all this problem (and also of having too many spam accounts), is the use of fake/disposable email address to register (like you said 'invalid addresses'). If we filter that registration comes ONLY from common respectable email providers, like: Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail, Yandex, GMX, QQ, etc. then those spam accounts will be much less.

Reading a forum thread on SMF Community Forum, about "Restrict email providers on registration", I've found THIS mod, which works with current SMF version, and has a very useful option named "Only allow these providers" (along with preventing people using their email addresses as usernames).

PS: nothing is perfect, since one Gmail account could have MANY email alias (and register many accounts on the forum using those alias). So, it would be great if we could 'clean' the email username from any "+" (plus symbols) and "." (dots), when someone is using Gmail to register to avoid the 'alias' trick. Perhaps that mod that I mentioned, has this feature too (I don't know).