Time to close registrations for some time?

[katzenjammer]

Is it any easy way of keeping the spammers out of the forum?

[idler]

It might help to check the eMail addies and send the first password by hand - with more than 6000 members, that might be a fulltime job...

[wafaschaanti]

I fully endorse the views expressed above, however, what if the new entrants are First Loves and want to make contributions. I think before acceptance the entrants may be asked to write something about themselves.

[Quickone]

I like that idea of an introduction. Helps get people to post as well. As there is 6000+ members. Only a handful of us post though.

[FLL]

Anything that increases the admin workload significantly won't happen. If there are addons for this BB software they might help.

And I think a required intro would simply scare off most real pospective posters.

Most of these bots (the ones recently anyway) probably create an account, post, and move on, so if there is a way to delay their first post for 1 day after registration that might help this latest attack. But in the one a couple of months ago the same user kept returning day after day so that wouldn't always work.

Some sites have had success with a non-CAPTCHA question in registration, like "What is 6+7?" But as time goes on the bot writers will program for that, maybe already have. And a text question here would cause problems due to language I think.

There is no good answer, and almost every blog/website deals with this. What we have started doing (again) is moving the spams to the private admin forum so ghost can see them to ban IPs, he's the only admin with that ability. That's worked in the past, but botnets change and adapt as their targets become good at blocking them.

If the mass spamming continues maybe a temporary registration closure would be necessary.

[loverboy]

Unless I'm missing something it maybe annoying but it hasn't reached epidemic proportions (yet)
As long as admin are happy to continue regular deletion & nobody is daft enough to click/open links then there probably isn't a great deal that needs to be done. The very nature of this board would make email verification impossible with I guess, few new arrivals willing to divulge a valid email address. Same goes for introductions.........it's highly unlikely newbies would want to be that forthcoming initially either. I like the idea of an IP ban & it goes without saying, spammers should immediately have their membership deleted. (I have actually noticed offenders still browsing the forum AFTER their post has been removed!)
There are still over 50% of members using Internet Explorer so now would be a good time to remind people about using a more secure browser that doesn't automatically allow scripts to run!

lb

[popdrome]

Unless I'm missing something it maybe annoying but it hasn't reached epidemic proportions (yet)
As long as admin are happy to continue regular deletion & nobody is daft enough to click/open links then there probably isn't a great deal that needs to be done.

Agree 100%

Moderation team: if you need assistance, feel free to drop me a line.

[Debaser]

I seem to remember a certain model forum where new members had to prove there worthiness in a newbie section before being able to access the main site.
I always thought that was an excellent feature, but im not sure how easily it could be implemented here.

At the moment though, im finding the job of deleting spam therapeutic, so it’s not a problem for me.

[idler]

At the moment though, im finding the job of deleting spam therapeutic, so it’s not a problem for me.

Go ahead, mate!

[loverboy]

A sense of humour can always be counted on from idler..........
Not to be outdone! .........