To prevent spam bots on forum

[shubla]

Captchas should be added.

Yes I know that they can be solved easily with little money. But most spam bots that we see on forums probably are not going to do that.

[Vigilance]

you're really just a highly advanced spambot

are you asking for captchas because you personally enjoy doing them or something

-1

[MagicManICT]

Mentioned multiple times before. Loftar, at least, doesn't seem inclined to think it will help (probably won't, as it's not much harder to pay someone a few cents per account to make a bunch of accounts around the Internet). Other suggestions to help combat this have also been asked.

We don't get that many to make it much of a hassle.

[Fierce_Deity]

Could be set up to require a captcha after posting several times in a short duration. But if its not a big issue then why bother.

[MagicManICT]

Could be set up to require a captcha after posting several times in a short duration. But if its not a big issue then why bother.

That's the staff point--it's not a big issue. We're not a high traffic site, so we don't get much spam. More comes from valid users than from advertisers.

The "one minute rule" (or two or three some places) that was created between posts is an attempt to prevent spam, but it doesn't really prevent spam bots. They can just wait out the timer (assuming it's automated). Even a human ad poster will wait it out and do other posts while waiting.

Best solution I've seen is to default everyone into a "new user" group on account creation that automatically requires moderator approval for posts, and require a 5-10 post minimum. However, that's not going to be very good if there isn't a full time moderation staff to make sure posts are approved. If someone needs help, they don't want to wait half a day (or longer) to get it because staff wasn't around to make sure the message got posted.

[Dakkan]

More comes from valid users than from advertisers.

Eat Arby's.

[shubla]

Good thing that we have hard working moderators so we don't need any captchas!
I'm fairly confident that the current bots could be stopped by adding even the simplest methods of user verification to registration form.

These spammers are probably just bots that look for generic phpBB forums, they are not going to make some sophisticated custom things to automate captchas for HnH forum, even though in theory it is cheap to automate solving of them.

[wonder-ass]

Good thing that we have hard working moderators so we don't need any captchas!
I'm fairly confident that the current bots could be stopped by adding even the simplest methods of user verification to registration form.

no captchas or user verification but we could do with some more active mods.

[shubla]

Good thing that we have hard working moderators so we don't need any captchas!
I'm fairly confident that the current bots could be stopped by adding even the simplest methods of user verification to registration form.

no captchas or user verification but we could do with some more active mods.

Why not? Do you register accounts so often that you would be bothered by them?

Of course there is a slim chance that these are not bots, but some actual, desperate people from countries with cheap labor, maybe captchas are not going to stop them. But something should be done!

[MadNomad]

Best solution I've seen is to default everyone into a "new user" group on account creation that automatically requires moderator approval for posts

there's no reason not to do it like this, is there any?