Actions regarding increase in spam.

[Robbie]

Due to an increase in spam, I've enabled Human Verification for users with less than 5 posts. This means that if you have not yet made your 5 posts and earned PM privileges and guild member status, then posting new threads and using some other forum functions will require you to complete a captcha. I apologize for the inconvenience, but it's yet another step we have to take to make things difficult for spammers since they seem to insist on bothering us even though they get nowhere by doing so.

[Azélor]

Is it active yet?

https://www.cartographersguild.com/s...ad.php?t=35238

[Robbie]

Yeah, but it doesn't seem to be working. At this point I don't think we're dealing with robots.

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[woodb3kmaster]

I feel your pain; I'm an admin at another board and have had plenty of trouble with spammers in the past.

The one solution that has worked for me is to add specific questions to the user registration page - questions a robot couldn't answer. If your suspicion is correct and the spammers here are human, that still might not work, but it may be worth trying.

[Azélor]

Ask a simple question about cartography maybe. The things someone interested in the community might probably know or could find with a simple Google search.

[Steve]

FWIW - I just signed up in the last hour and am indeed getting the Captcha verification to post.

I have seen other sites that do ask basic questions like a what is 3+5...easy enuf answers if you are human. Sounds like there may be a troll problem though. Anyway, wanted you to know this Noob sees the verification prompts.

[Robbie]

I've now turned on moderation for all users with <5 posts. Sorry for the inconvenience and the extra workload for the CL's, but it's a necessary step at least until I figure out a currently working anti-spam solution. It seems our old method is no longer functioning as well.

[ladiestorm]

You know, Robbie, I just recently joined the Dundjinni forum, and they have an anti - spam protection that, while may be a bit annoying, I bet would be extremely effective. Although admittedly it would make more word for the CL's, unless you created maybe a greeter position just for this purpose....

When I joined the forum, I, of course, went through the registration program, and joined the forum. I was directed immediately to a thread just for newbies, where I had to submit an email to one of the moderators. I emailed Bogie, of course, because I knew him.... and I was able to post within an hour or two. It was explained in the thread, that this extra measure had to be taken to minimize spamming.

It is one extra step, and it was a bit annoying to have to wait for an acceptance from a mod.... but those that truly want to be a part of this communitiy, would appreciate the extra step to keep this place spam free, and the spammers? They aren't going to want to jump through extra hoops just to spam.

It's a thought, anyway

[Robbie]

Well, the mod queue is pretty much nailing it. If a spammer isn't willing to make 5 legitimate moderator approved posts in order to be able to freely spam, they're not going to spam, lol. As it stands now a poster has to make 5 posts that get approved by a mod and then wait for the promotions robot to come around and promote them into the guild members group. It seems to be pretty sound and not relying on any specific cl to go through any approvals other than approving their first 5 posts.

So far so good.

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