spam

[the plod]

Recently there has been a spate of spam on the site. This has been despite upgrading the software and installing new anti-spam measures which lasted for all of about 1 week. I try to clear out the spam by deleting the poster and the posts as soon as I discover it. Could I please ask everyone to NOT post in a spam thread, it just adds 2 extra steps for me to delete the posts. Which makes me even more annoyed.

Jeff

[LiamO'Flynn]

Sorry about that , the last thing I'd want to do is give you extra work and by the way thanks for the excellent forum.

Liam

[awilde569]

Ditto what Liam said..

[djm]

The Reeds and Pipemaking Forum needs similar anti-spamming attention, please.

Thx,

djm

[A.Sh.]

I'm sorry, the plod! Never again.

[Mr.Gumby]

I moderate a specialised forum for Irish Traditional Music. We have set the forum so new member need to be activated. Spammers won't be able to access the forum and are deleted from the members list once a week. Mind you, we admit members by invitation only so we know who are about to sign up, everyone else goes.

Depending on the number of new sign ons here the weeding out the spammer before activating could work for you. Mind you, it's still a pain in the neck.

[the plod]

I have considered that but this is an open forum and will remain that way. Spambots tend to try to register multiple (and I mean MULTIPLE) accounts at a time. Usually the spam filters catch these,but if I were to try to approve/disapprove all of these I wold spend A LOT of time trying to figure out who is real and who is a spambot. I tweaked the filters again last night. fingers crossed......

[djm]

Perhaps the application for userid could include a very ITM and UP-specific questionnaire. That would surely defeat any bot, as it wouldn't even be able to complete the application.

djm