Powered by MyBB copyright text should be changed.
MyBB forums powered by MyBB often use the “Powered By MyBB, © 2002-2012 MyBB Group.” text by default in the footer of their forums, but did you know it attracts spammers to your forum? Spammers using URL scrapers use the powered by MyBB text as a footprint to harvest URLs from search engines, scraping all forums that have the powered by MyBB text somewhere on it, and then they use this list of scraped MyBB forums to create automated signups on your forum. Footprints for URL scrapers are used in search engines like:
- KEYWORD(S) “powered by mybb”
- KEYWORD(S) “2002-2011 mybb group”
- KEYWORD(S) “2002-2012 mybb group”
This is actually how most MyBB forums are found and get spam from forum bots, just from that Powered By MyBB, © 2002-2012 MyBB Group. text (to see how to deal with MyBB bots, check here).
It is recommended to remove the entire Powered By MyBB, © 2002-2012 MyBB Group. copyright text, not remove the entire MyBB copyright itself and keep it that way, but to change it to something else since derivatives are allowed, such as:
- Forum software provided by MyBB
- Forum script created by MyBB
- Software for forum made by MyBB
- This forum is using MyBB software
To change the powered by MyBB copyright message, go to Admin CP > Templates & Style > Templates > (your default templates) > Footer Templates > Footer and modify it there.
This helps drop the number of automated bots you’ll see on your forum by a lot, make sure you include the link back to www.mybb.com in your new powered by MyBB copyright text.
A better alternative is to use a image instead of text, as that too is accepted under MyBB’s minimum copyright support eligibility. Here’s an example:
Notice the image says powered by MyBB and still links back to www.mybb.com.
Why should you keep the MyBB copyright? Even though it is free forum software that allows you to remove the copyright, you won’t get any support from the MyBB community forums if you do, and even if you don’t need it, would you like it if someone removed your copyright on something you worked years on to improve?
To show support and the continued development of MyBB, keep the copyright, just change the Powered By MyBB, © 2002-2012 MyBB Group. text to something a little more unique for your MyBB powered forum.