The Silencer
Member
Lately there has been an increase in spam on this forum. New "accounts" either spam links and stuff in a message, or have a signature with spam links and then spam topics with "interesting info" or "valuable information" or something like that. I keep reporting to those posts whenever I see them (I'm not sure if the moderators like the flood of mails they receive because of this, if you prefer me not reporting the stuff because you possibly see the messages anyway let me know).
I was wondering if there isn't a way to stop it, or at least try to cut back. In the old days, spam was done by guests. This has been combatted by requiring an account. But even that doesn't work anymore evidently. Perhaps it is possible to implement a CAPTCHA challenge/response for creating new accounts (you know, where you show an image with letters and you have to type those letters). If those new accounts are automated actions (which I think they are), that might prevent crap accounts from being made that simple. It's no cure all of course as spammers can still make accounts by hand, but I that takes slightly more effort and the point of spam is to do it automated for maximum effect.
Another solution would be applying CAPTCHA to making posts, but I don't think we should go down that road. That impedes all the regular users on this forum as well and the spam isn't that much (yet). Or perhaps make user categories with "trusted" users who can post without restrictions and a user group for new users who get CAPTCHA images and may be promoted to "trusted" when it's obvious they are not spambots.
Just throwing in some ideas here as the spam starts to get annoying.
I was wondering if there isn't a way to stop it, or at least try to cut back. In the old days, spam was done by guests. This has been combatted by requiring an account. But even that doesn't work anymore evidently. Perhaps it is possible to implement a CAPTCHA challenge/response for creating new accounts (you know, where you show an image with letters and you have to type those letters). If those new accounts are automated actions (which I think they are), that might prevent crap accounts from being made that simple. It's no cure all of course as spammers can still make accounts by hand, but I that takes slightly more effort and the point of spam is to do it automated for maximum effect.
Another solution would be applying CAPTCHA to making posts, but I don't think we should go down that road. That impedes all the regular users on this forum as well and the spam isn't that much (yet). Or perhaps make user categories with "trusted" users who can post without restrictions and a user group for new users who get CAPTCHA images and may be promoted to "trusted" when it's obvious they are not spambots.
Just throwing in some ideas here as the spam starts to get annoying.