Spam :(

[Arseen]

Could the change I suggested in mod's lair and in PM be tried?

The one about activation...

[Mert]

I'm guessing you're talking about some sort of membership by approval scheme where an admin has to activate your account manually. I generally dislike and disagree with such a setup, as I think it discourages new members, but I'm not particularly opposed if it only prevents registrants from posting on the forums and doesn't interfere with downloading covers. Having to register to download covers is a minor annoyance, but it's acceptable since it only takes a minute. Having to wait an unspecified amount of time until an admin (busy people with better things to do) finds time to authenticate your account would be infuriating.

[AppleQueso]

with the absolutely insane number of bot registrations I can't imagine admin approval of new account would be at all feasible.

[Arseen]

Correct you be.

And as it seems spammers get their activation e-mails and real user seem to have problem getting them, the harm would not be big.

And I have time, and ignoring/and deleting clear spammers before activation is easier than picking them from forum.

[AppleQueso]

How exactly would you differentiate spammer accounts from real users before they post?

[Seraph Man]

Many of them tend to have wild links to whatever they want to link to at around the same place you have the word vark on your profile, as well as in signatures. That's what I've noticed at least.

[Arseen]

How exactly would you differentiate spammer accounts from real users before they post?

read PM

[UncleBob]

Probably similar to the way it's done now.

Which is why we have so many members sending e-mails asking why they were banned and people's accounts mysteriously getting deleted.

[lcvolt]

i'm not a very involved user on the site, but i can guess 2 things:

i've found this forum to be vey exclusive and somehow hard to find. therefore there aren't too much unwanted visits.

administrators wipe it out quickly

[sheep2001]

Probably similar to the way it's done now.

Which is why we have so many members sending e-mails asking why they were banned and people's accounts mysteriously getting deleted.

I'm not usually one to stick up for arseen, but that's out of order.  Without him and me clearing out the overnight spam, you guys across the pond would wake up to a ridiculous amount of porn, pills and uggs.
And how many mysterious deletions are we talking about here?  I remember 1 regular member from 3 or 4 months ago......

Recently it's been worse than I've ever known it around here.  And worse than any other site I am a member of.  Just because you know some sites that are worse, doesn't mean its fine to leave things around here as they are.  I'm not sold on manual activation, but if arseen thinks hhe's got the time to administer it, I'd be all for giving him the chance!

[Arseen]

Thank you sheep2001.

I know 3 active members whose accounts have been deleted. None which I have deleted with 100% certainty.
I have deleted few newbies by accident.

I admid I have banned few accidentally, all which i have unbanned as soon as I've got message.

But yes recently there has been more spam by far.
And yes I have time, the wait time would be around few hours, less if I'm not working.

Manual activation takes less time than hunting the spam accounts afterwards. There is about 8-9 times more clear spam accounts semi-dormant than there is those that activly spam.

[tiktektak]

I want my porn!!!!!!

[Arseen]

I want my porn!!!!!!

Wel... (*)  <-use your imagination on that.

[ShoothimNow]

I've been viewing this site less because of all the spam =\.  It's been making me kinda upset and annoyed personally =\

[simonbelmont2]

From my point of view the best decision for the moment is to close the sign-ups until the scammers will go away (maybe; I WISH).
If was my case I will implement something like this:
When someone wants to sign up he must complete the registration section, then a form and finally send an email with the form or something like that to a moderator (admin, or someone with big power) and based on his form the moderator will grant or not the registration.
That form will contain lots of questions about him, about his collection or something like that and maybe provide some uploads with cover scans.
I think in this case a spammer don't have the time to stay to complete the registration section then the form and finally wait for the moderator to grant him the registration; he must be fast with the time.
What do you think about my point of view?