Registration problems? Please look here

[penciljack]

I'd like to introduce you all to a nasty critter known as a "spam bot." Two recent users at this forum - celebguydv, and hotgin20 - have proven to be "robot" programs intended to spam forums - in these cases, they both spammed porn everywhere.

As a result of this I've set the forum so that I have to moderate all new user signups. Unfortunately, I can't pay attention to new signups all the time. So if you register and aren't immediately able to post, it's most likely because I'm unable to get to approving your registration.

Please understand this is only temporary, and is nothing personal. You can maximize the speed of your account validation by ensuring you include relevant information in as many fields as possible in the signup form. When I see a signup form that contains only an e-mail address and a username, I have to scrutinize that registration much more carefully.

Please bear with me. I understand there will be a new version of this forum software soon that contains a device to thwart these spam bots. Until it's available, please feel free to contact me if you feel your registration is taking longer than it should.

[Steampunk]

i know this is a serious subject, but i have to comment on the possibility of john being a spambot ;)

seriously, how would a software program be able to tell? there's a limit to how soon you can re-post, but if a new user went all devilman-ish, would they be shut down because the software thought they were a bot?

[penciljack]

No, the new software - if it ever becomes available ;) - thwarts spambots by introducing new methods to the registration process. Ever seen those forms where you have to type in the word you see in a box over on the side, where the word in the box is all garbled, etc? That's the method the new software will use. The idea is that spambots can't get in at all.