Combatting the Bots

[Paul]

The war against the bots continues..

You may have noticed recently the new user group "bit".  Members with fewer than 10 posts fall into this group.  The group permissions prevent users in this group from customizing their profile.  This prevents fake accounts from being created for the sole purpose of having a website link in their profile or signature block.  Now the only way a new member can create an advertisement link is to actually post it on the forum (which will result in Melinda or I immediately banning their account), or after posting 10 legitimate posts to graduate up to the "byte" user group.

I must now go through the tedious process of removing thousands of advertiser accounts that were created before this measure was in place.  I began this process today by removing all accounts with a website defined in their profile who had zero posts and hadn't logged onto the forum in over three months.  This only put a small dent in the problem, but it is a start.  I am in the process of writing some more intelligent scripts for identifying advertiser accounts.

If your account accidentally gets deleted in the crossfire, just create a new one (only takes a minute anyway).  I will not delete any account that has actual posts on the forum, so nobody should lose anything if they are deleted, other than their account which can be recreated.

[shuy3n]

could the question on sign up be captcha it mite make it harder to make an account then, also email activation only

[Paul]

I tried a ton of things to make it impossible for a computer to create an account, but apparently there are actual people creating the accounts so it had virtually no effect.  I've had to look at other alternatives than making it difficult to create an account.  Honestly, the question about what dairy cows produce should be enough to block bots without making it difficult for the real people.