[ducado]

Maybe an idea to get rid of all spam.
This new forum ( IP Board ) seems to have a function called "verification by admin"
which is something the admin of this site has to enable. With this function enabled new users can subscribe, but not until the administrator or moderator ( David ) has approved the new user, he can send topics.

I think it is a small inconvenience you put on new users, but it will be more effective for spambots, as the admin will be able to ban a user, even before he send one message to the board.

The suggestion on the IPBoard website is to Google the IP and the username of the new user. If the same IP shows up on many forums, it is a very strong indication that it is a spambot.

This forum is anyway a forum in which I don't think it is such a big problem for a new user to wait for approval.

Just a suggestion to try limiting the amount of spam on this board, as basically it is unreadable at the moment.

[steven]

ducado, on 31 July 2009 - 01:37 PM, said:

Maybe an idea to get rid of all spam.
This new forum ( IP Board ) seems to have a function called "verification by admin"
which is something the admin of this site has to enable. With this function enabled new users can subscribe, but not until the administrator or moderator ( David ) has approved the new user, he can send topics.

I think it is a small inconvenience you put on new users, but it will be more effective for spambots, as the admin will be able to ban a user, even before he send one message to the board.

The suggestion on the IPBoard website is to Google the IP and the username of the new user. If the same IP shows up on many forums, it is a very strong indication that it is a spambot.

This forum is anyway a forum in which I don't think it is such a big problem for a new user to wait for approval.

Just a suggestion to try limiting the amount of spam on this board, as basically it is unreadable at the moment.

Doesn"t this forum have such a thing called "spamguard" to prevent this spam from occuring?

[ducado]

steven, on 31 July 2009 - 02:36 PM, said:

Doesn"t this forum have such a thing called "spamguard" to prevent this spam from occuring?

It has a 'Captcha' but I suppose the spambot software can automatically read them, so the defense for spammers is hacked.. Thats why I do my suggestion. Because with an approval of a moderator, there is an actual human of livinginperu.com verifying new members, instead of the failing captcha.

[Southbound]

Another highly effective deterant against the bots is to ask a "human question". For example "what is 2+4?" or "Are you a Human Being?" Many bots can't process this type of questioning.



Charlie

[Southbound]

I found this site while pointlessly searching the web:


http://forums.invisi...toring-service/

Maybe the admins/mods will be implementing this soon


Charlie

[AJ y Lorena]

How to improve a forum is not changing the style but adding more mods, to give you a good example of a forum that has never had major problems with spam is DDRFreak.com I used to participate in that. I think the best thing would be is to add more people who can help out David and change the style back if people prefer.

[David]

To address the OP question/comments.

LIP's old system had an "moderators approval" system in place but for what ever reason it was bypassed by many. Don't ask me to explain why/how but it is/was.

I alone with all of you are hoping this works out and I am sure it will.

I spoke with Carsten (the owner) via e-mail and he assured me that the LIP staff was working on this problem and the lost posts.

I have not had much time to learn the new format but will be giving it a good going over shortly in hopes that it will become old hat just as the last format did. I myself am not a fan of change but this may have been needed (for reasons I don't undertand).

I'll be in touch as soon as I can pass any more info on. PM's are always welcome!

David