Registration temporarily disabled

[BasiliskWrangler]

We've temporarily disabled new registrations due to a large wave of SPAM bots that have bombarded our forums in the past 24 hours.

We will enable registrations again very soon. Sorry for the inconvenience.

[ManusDei]

It's fine, I registered a few years ago already :p

[BasiliskWrangler]

Ok, we're going to reopen registration again. You bots be good or we'l close it back up for the rest of the week! :Insert emoticon of parent scolding child:

[blatherbeard]

another one already reported

[IJBall]

We've temporarily disabled new registrations due to a large wave of SPAM bots that have bombarded our forums in the past 24 hours.

We will enable registrations again very soon. Sorry for the inconvenience.

BW - have you thought about putting either a 24-hour or a 1-week "hold" on new registrants to prevent them from posting during this "probationary" period?

I think even a 24-hour new registrant "hold" period for posting would cut down on the 'bot' problem.

Just a thought...

[BasiliskWrangler]

Not a bad idea, IJBall, but I just solved our SPAM problems forever. I simply made it so that I have to approve of all new registrations. As I get requests, I can just ignore accounts that are obviously bots.

It might sound like a lot of work to approve of each new registration, but it's not going to be any more (and probably less) work than cleaning up the forums when a spammer has dropped a bunch of posts.

The only problem is possibly ignoring a request from a real human, but I will do my best to not let that happen. If anyone thinks their registration request has been ignored, please email me.

And with that, I am going to lock this thread so this final message doesn't get buried.

[BasiliskWrangler]

Oh, how naive I was. I woke up today with 200+ registration requests, and trying to sort out 1%-2% of legitimate users from that pile is too much work.

So, we'll go back to the old way. You guys report when someone SPAMs and I'll nuke the account.

Also, new rule: I will regularly nuke all new accounts with ZERO posts. There are some people who register just to get announcements, or to reserve a username. That's okay to do, but from now on drop a quick post to prove that you are human, and that you are here for good and not evil. Our other users are pretty good at figuring out who is human and who is not, so if they target you as SPAM, sorry.

As long as you have at least 1 legitimate post, you will not get deleted in our regular cleaning cycle.

[SpottedShroom]

I don't know how comfortable you'd be with this, but I imagine you could recruit some of the forum veterans to act as moderators, with power to delete posts and ban users and instructions to only use it on obvious spammers.

[IJBall]

I don't know how comfortable you'd be with this, but I imagine you could recruit some of the forum veterans to act as moderators, with power to delete posts and ban users and instructions to only use it on obvious spammers.

I still suspect the "best" solution is to institute the 24-hour wait period before allowing someone to post after registering. I dunno if this would completely solve the 'bot' issue, but I suspect it would cut the problem down to a smaller size.

[Painted Lady]

I don't know how comfortable you'd be with this, but I imagine you could recruit some of the forum veterans to act as moderators, with power to delete posts and ban users and instructions to only use it on obvious spammers.

This might not be a bad idea. It would take a load off of BW's shoulders so he could spend more time doing what only he can do - write Book III.

[BasiliskWrangler]

I still suspect the "best" solution is to institute the 24-hour wait period before allowing someone to post after registering. I dunno if this would completely solve the 'bot' issue, but I suspect it would cut the problem down to a smaller size.

Perhaps. I don't see such an option in our forum software. I'll dig a little deeper.

Until then, registration is closed again. I don't know why, but we are getting BOMBARDED with spam, and it is all coming from Russia this time. I will likely need to put up IP blocks for that country as well.

[Kilvain]

I am human, and I hate spam! Hopefully, you can find a convenient way to eliminate the spam bots that doesn't break the bank or require a team of fifteen ninjas guarding the place.

[Randomizer]

Spambots are getting more intelligent to mimic humans. There is one that posts a seemly useful question and then hits a few days later with a new account with the spam links. Another uses quoted text from an earlier post in a topic.

[IJBall]

Also, new rule: I will regularly nuke all new accounts with ZERO posts. There are some people who register just to get announcements, or to reserve a username. That's okay to do, but from now on drop a quick post to prove that you are human, and that you are here for good and not evil. Our other users are pretty good at figuring out who is human and who is not, so if they target you as SPAM, sorry.

As long as you have at least 1 legitimate post, you will not get deleted in our regular cleaning cycle.

Hey, BW, have you cleaned out the "zero post" accounts yet?

I ask because we currently have about 3400 accounts on this board, and I'm just wondering how many of them are "real" paying customers...

[Lord_P]

I didn't know you had to be a paying customer.

But luckily I am!