On another forum I frequent they do not allow you to register an account with email addresses from hotmail, gmail, aol, yahoo, (the big ones) etc. It has to be from your personal domain, work, your ISP or something along those lines. I am sure there is a technical term for it, but it escapes me. That is the manner in which the deal with it to curb spam.
...One forum I belong to won't let you register unless you have an email address that is NOT from one of the usual free places (yahoo, gmail etc). That stinks, since alot of people have those addresses and have had to find a different one (by finding one that site accepts or paying for one). As a sbcglobalnet subscriber, I had one from there I could register with.
~Rob
I agree this kind of option is annoying, but who doesn't get a real email account from the ISP? Everyone I know has one, even if their primary is a gmail or yahoo account. It should help control the spamming. Maybe you can require it for registration, but allow another address for thread notifications.
I just quickly clicked though them all like a knucklehead.
I voted the moderated approach; But I would also say, you can go to the regulated posting rule and move to the subscriber model of PPCThoughts. Subscribers don't have the 1 message in 5 minutes rule. So its a good go between. I think those that post often here would be happy to subscribe (for a fee or for free).
That would be a good compromise. Otherwise, first five (or even two) moderated, would really cut down on the quick "Nigerian schemes".
Although, are you sure I can't get a unlocked Sidekick III for $25!
One solution that is can think of is to display an image of characters that a user must rekey before successfully pressing the submit button.
I've seen other sites pair with user name and password, but that may not work here because we have the option to stay logged in.
The image can probably be scaled like any other images for the mobile version.
I'm not sure what the expense to this would be or if there are free versions of this particular verification strategy. But by using this, you don't have to necessarily insert a human (admin) in between the legitimate posters and the community. Plus at most, its maybe 5 extra key strokes.
One solution that is can think of is to display an image of characters that a user must rekey before successfully pressing the submit button.
see the problem with that is it just makes the user do more work. personally i would love to see a method in place where the users of the board are not inconvenienced. i do not mind ding a little more back-end work if it means we can keep the board spam free and the users happy
I don't like the idea of 5mins between posts, because if you are somebody like me who comes on to read a board, and respond to a few messages in the space of 5 mins, it would take a lot longer. 5 min/post rule would really drop the support that this forum can give.
I voted for an admin checking all new recruits, but I don't really see how that would work. I mean what can an admin know about a new user?
I should have voted for the last option.....
__________________ Mitchell Oke - Gear Diary Editor MacBook Pro, Self-Built Media Center PC on 22" LCD
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one thing i noticed about spammers, especially after last night, they like to put the link to the website they are spamming for in their profile. that would be one way we could nip it in the butt. the best solution though would be the one presented by jason, we just moderate the first 5-10 post from a new user. if they're a spammer and they try to spam and see that it won't even show up on the board because it is being moderated then it would deter them from sticking around until we approve them so they can spam.
this really wouldnt be that much more work on the board since you could usually always find either myself, mike, jason, jerry or kris hanging out here doing our thing, so the post would not sit in limbo too long
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