Simple Machines Forum SMF in short is a free, professional grade software package that allows you to set up your own online community within minutes.
Its powerful custom made template engine puts you in full control of the lay-out of your message board and with our unique SSI – or Server Side Includes – function you can let your forum and your website interact with each other. It is designed to provide you with all the features you need from a bulletin board while having an absolute minimal impact on the resources of the server. SMF is the next generation of forum software.
Once you have installed SMF one more task remains is to restrict bots from your forum. SMF can be installed with one click via Softaculous.
How to restrict bots from your SMF installation :
1. Email Activation
- Turn on email activation for all new registered members.
- Login to Admin panel » Administration Center » Registration » Settings
- Choose the method of registration for new members.
- This will not allow new members to post unless they activate their account.
2. Code Verification before posting for new members
- Login to Admin panel » Administration Center » Security and Moderation » Anti-Spam
- Change the value for “Post count under which users must pass verification to make a post” value to 10 (or more if you want).
- This will ask the user to pass verification unless they reach the above amount of posts.
3. Code Verification for new Registrations
- Login to Admin panel » Administration Center » Security and Moderation » Anti-Spam
- Enable “Require verification on registration page”
- This will make all the new registrations to enter a verification code in order to register on your forum.
- Choose among the various verification methods available.
4. That’s it !!
- We have made the registration process difficult for the bots.
- And even if they manage to register they wont be able to mess up due to code verification added in step 2.
Source : codefap.com