Somebody get rid of nsk

[Fairyglass]

I would have thought that a requirement of using this forum (i.e. being able to post, as opposed to view) would be that one has to supply Actinic with the serial number of your program. This way, only owners of the software can post, but those thinking about purchasing can still view and understand the benefit. While there might be a short delay verifying new users, it would still be possible to search for queries if necessary and provide a barrier spammers aren't going to be able to overcome.

[jont]

Maybe a sandboxed board for non-license owners that does not allow hyperlinking? As a honest member of society I would not be too happy about not being able to post on a forum.

[Mike Hughes]

Some forums do seem to have a 30 day + 30 posts (or 7 day + 7 posts) rule that says you can't use URLs in the signature until you qualify.

I don't know if this can also be applied to links in the forum content, but something like this would seem to be close to what we want in terms of:

a) Not needing too much moderation input.
b) Still allowing newcomers to join in without having to wait.
c) Making it too awkward for spammers to be bothered with.

I guess ideally the system would refuse to accept any posts with links until the user had the required privileges. That way spammers cut & paste spam wouldn't even get in the system.

Mike

[Edit] OK. There is a Vbulletin hack for this: http://www.vbulletin.org/forum/showthread.php?t=129390

The filter limits the number of urls that can be included before a post requires approval from an admin. It can also be set so that it has no impact on members who have reached a certain number of posts. i.e only newcomer posts that include a url will require approval by an admin.

[pinbrook]

Personally i can't see the problem with manual moderation - if someone need to use the forum they will wait - and search in the meanwhile

Maybe the autoresponse to register could say something like - most questions already have a response in the forum - please search whilst we process your registration or phone support esp if within 30 days free support

[Ginnys Attic]

One thing i've found with various other forums i use is something as simple as adding a further required field to the registration process asking nothing more than Are you a real human being which requires them to type "yes" seems to confuse and stop the vast majority the spam bots signing up and posting. The bots do still attempt to still sign-up but they fail registration as they usually enter something like America, United Kingdom or something similar and the odd few do still slip though by using USA (which is a 3 character answer as expected by the forum software).

You can also as Darren B says banning email address's or simply use of specific extensions such as:

*@*.fm
*@*.ua.fm
*@*.info
*@*.cn
*@*.ru
*@*.kr
*@*.uk.com

This will stop the use of specific domain extensions and checking your logs for the email address used and simply ban all of the extensions where possible would help slow up the spamming scum bags. You could go a little further and ban *@*.org and *@*.net which are also commonly used but this might affect a few customers so might be a little harsh but a few simple checks would show if it was reasonable.

[RuralWeb]

As all members of this forum are business users ie making money from the knowledge and help gained here then we should has a system where the ability to post costs a registration fee eg a one off payment of £10 used to support the operation of the forum. There is not one user on here that has not gained far in excess of that from the forum - many people would not even have a website/business if it were not for the forum so its time it was supported better.

I am a member of serveral forums that operate like this and in all of them I have gained more that it cost. If spamming continues then all that will happen is people will stop posting/subscribing and eventually a rival forum will be established

[Donna]

This forum is of great value to me and although I’m sure others won't agree I’m more than happy to pay for it.

[Fairyglass]

I recently paid a tenner to another forum I belong to for similar reasons- on that forum the technical articles alone were worth that, and this one's no different. There was a lot of argument before the fee was imposed, but pretty much all the regulars signed up eventually. The money went towards improving the forum structure, software and admin.

[RuralWeb]

I’m sure others won't agree

Im certain there are as well but these are the people who extract the most from the forum IMO

[Duncan Rounding]

The forum for the most part is a sales aid for Actinic - one of their biggest IMO and whether intended or not is often considered as 'product support'.

I have gained from ithe forum n two ways - by getting answers to questions as well as company business and whilst I agree that paying £10 is well worth the money, once you start charging for access you have expectations as to what you should receive and different people will have different expectations.

The simpest way to help with spam would be to just disable bb tags for 30 days so no hyperlinks could be posted - you can still cut and paste them manually in the interim - but this then might defeat the objective of the spammers.

[guccij]

To my mind, while the spam merchants are a pain in the arse, they haven't spoilt my ability to search for posts which are relevant to any particular issue I might have.

With the red triangle now working again, and knowing that real Actinic people do actually read what goes on here, I can put up with a scattering of mad posts about Chinese dresses.

[pinbrook]

IMO even disabling hyperlinks won't stop spammers as they can still leave urls and rubbish posts - i'd prefer simply not to see these posts regardless of whether they have anything clickable

Having said that i tend to get more irritated by repeat questions were people have'nt bothered to search than i do by the odd chinese spammer

[jont]

Generally the forum is very well behaved. The amount of mods has dropped noticeably (especially since the defection of Bruce to the other side of the equation) over the past 12 months so are obviously not as quick to respond to spamming and inappropriate behaviour as quickly.

[cdicken]

I've been having a look at some alternative spam prevention, and I've just seen http://www.vbulletin.org/forum/showt...highlight=spam which looks quite good. Instead of the captcha thing, you have to answer a question when you register such as 'What's Actinic's Tool For Web Designers Called?' or something which humans would know but bots and poor old sweatshop workers won't. I'll get our tecchie boys to check out the patch and try it out next week.

[Mark H]

"What's Actinic's Tool For Web Designers Called?"

Bit of a pain if that's what you came on the forum to find out.....