Spam and new users

[Dragonheart]

Topic split - CJ

I seriously think theres a major problem with the site and spammers lads! I logged in there and there were porn pictures put on from a spammer, 'eagenheart' or some crap is the username., I'm sure one of the mods have got rid of it by now. Now I know theres not much that can be done but there must be something to be able to prevent porn pics being uploaded surely!? Is there something that can be done to make new users have their posts checked by mods first before posting? Say for the first 10 posts or something? Grace is on a website and thats what they done. New users have no privilages until they pass a certain post mark. Its not ideal and it creates more work but I think maybe it would be worth it seeing as its getting a bit nuts lately.

[CJ]

MJ, Its a not a major problem in terms of volume but its a problem nonetheless. The sign-up process requires manual intervention, its not possible for spam bots to sign up (if this were not the case, we'd have 20 new spam users per day). I've said this before but this is unavoidable problem inherant on public forums, you can employ control mechanisms to reduce the impact, the downside is genuine users (i.e. 99.9% of the people on this forum) are impacted when they sign up.

We'll investigate the options in terms of moderating new users.

CJ

[Dragonheart]

Ya I know what you're saying CJ, I thought maybe it was always there but its just that I only really notice it know cause I'm online at a different time of day to when I used be before, (ie its now midnight for me but 1pm for FTO-Ireland, I used be logging on after 6pm before at home), so I dont know if thats part of it or not, that I'm just noticing it more.
I always thought the sign up was automatic, but if its manual then there really isnt much more you can do then is there. I think the auditing of first time users is restrictive too, personally I think it may even turn some people off, but if people are really dedicated or interested then they wont mind the first 10 or so being audited, but like I said, its un-necessary work for admin and mods on a forum that its not possible to have someone watching over it all the time due to work, etc. Its probably just one of those things that is unavoidable.