I've never written an API before, so hopefully this will work. I created a simple way to check an IP, email address, or username to see if it exists in our database. I had hoped I could create some type of RBL for forum spammers.
You are welcome to experiment with and incorporate this API in your application. Someday I hope to write some plugins for software packages like phpBB to make it any easier. For now though, here's what I have.
It's a simple HTTP GET, and the page will return some simple XML indicating the type of search performed, whether it appears or not in our database, and the number of times it appears (frequency).
A typical successful response would look like this:
<response success="true">
<type>ip</type>
<appears>yes</appears>
<lastseen>2007-09-18 05:48:53</lastseen>
<frequency>2</frequency>
</response>
Here are some examples:
Based on a return of "yes", you can choose to deny registration. The lookup is case insensitive, too. Note that you will get an error message if your IP address or email address is improperly formatted.
If you have questions or suggestions, let me know! I'd also like to know if this is useful to you, or if you're interested in writing a plugin of some kind.
I've created a simple way to contribute, based on many emails I've recieved. First I'll need you to sign up for an API key. It's fast, easy, free, and your email address will be kept confidential (belive me, I hate spam if you can't already tell). Once you receive your key, you can use the add form to submit spammer data. I require that it be complete registration info, which means including username, email address, and IP address.
This process is still completely beta, but so far I've tested it and it seems like it works fine. In the future I'll add instructions on automating the submission process, so that it could be incorporated automatically into your software.
Contact me with feedback on this process.
