Installation:

  Upload inc/plugins/spammuddler.php --> YOUR_FORUM_ROOT/inc/plugins/ DIRECTORY.

  Activate "Spam Muddler" from Admin Control Panel > Settings > Plugin Manager.

  Identify the forum (by number) you want muddled by changing the settings under Admin Control Panel > Settings > Spam Muddler (3 settings)

  Enter a single forum number or multiple forums separated by commas (no spaces).
  
  OPTIONAL - new in V1.1: Replace the text to display for the link text in the spam posts 
  
  OPTIONAL - new in v1.1: Replace the muddle text words. Word replacement is in order by word length.  The first word in the list will replace all 2-letter words.  The second will replace all 3 letter words.  Repeat through 9-letter words.

Additional Notes:

  Spam Muddler works by acting as a post parser.  

  The first thing it does is check which forums it should be active in - and is bypassed by any forum not in its profile (see above)

  If the post being displayed is in the list of forums it is profiled for:
  
    It first goes through looking for all the hyperlinks and changes the "link text" to the word you profiled.

    It then goes through and changes all the words (with a blank on both sides) that have 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, or 9 letters in them to words you've profiled.
  
    It skips any words that do not have a space on both sides (i.e. followed by a punctuation mark).  This makes for some somewhat silly reading.

    It does NOT change the actual link addresses that the spammer has put in their post though...
  
  This has the effect that any search engine reading the post will not associate the term "designer shoe sale" with their spammy link address, but instead will associate the term "spam link".  Also, the spammer had hoped that all the other text they placed in the post would add a little extra referential linking value to the address, but by changing it to garbage words, it does them no good.

  So instead of getting an "associated text" link boost for their web link, they will get penalized by Google and the other search engines.

How to use Spam Muddler most effectively:

  Designate one forum as the "Spam Graveyard".  

  Make sure it is set to View-only by ALL user groups, including banned groups.  We want Google and Bing to see all the damage we've done to their links - and want spammers to know in advance what we will do to them.  Make sure that permissions for the forum is set that no-one (except admins and mods) can edit or delete their own posts.  We don't want the spammer to be able to undo the damage by removing their post.

  Activate Spam Muddler and put that forum's number in the Spam Muddler settings profile under Admin Control Panel > Settings > Spam Muddler (1 settings)  

  Whenever spam shows up in one of your forums, move the post to the Spam Graveyard forum (do not copy).  You can even set up a custom process in MyBB's Admin > Configuration > Moderator Tools

  Once the spam is moved to your Graveyard forum, it will be muddled and begin damaging the spammer's web site rankings! 

  (You may also want to ban or limit the poster's posting privs so they can't post any more spam)

Have fun causing damage to spammers!  With any luck they'll take your board off their shared list of target sites. If we can get enough MyBB operators to do this maybe we can put some of these spammers out of business!
  