Spam Prevention Method Changed

[Tyler]

Since the level of spam has really been increasing over the past few weeks, I have switched our method of spam prevention back to a human-logic question instead of using a CAPTCHA verification form.

We'll see how this change fares in comparison...

[Chowhound]

Whew. Good thing I registered yesterday then. I'd hate to miss the question.
lolol

[Mama]

Me too Chow...me too....

[Big Daddy's House]

Thanks, Tyler.

Me too, Chowhound & Mama!

I've been catching it, but at times it makes me think of THIS phrase; "We's Bebe's Kids. We don't die, we multiply!"

Tyler I thought that this was very important info, so I Stickied the thread so that is can be found easily by those who would like to read it. Thanks again!

[Tyler]

Have you noticed any reduction of spam as a result?

[Big Daddy's House]

Yes, some.

I've been keeping my eye out though, and I've had to ban new members for blatently spamming the forum 3 times or more.

[mcnerd]

Actually it seems to have increased in the last day or two. There was a rash of 3-4 of them almost at the same time.....probably when BDH took time to blink. :) You can look at the online members list and see all the ones with the numbers.

[Tyler]

Hmm...

The only other option is to require new members to be approved manually upon sign-up. There are a lot of downsides to this though, such as not being able to really know beforehand who is a spammer and who isn't, the delayed time in which members have to wait to post on the forum, and of course the added extra effort on staff...

[mcnerd]

We'll just continue to do what we are doing and try to catch the scum as quickly as possible.

[Big Daddy's House]

Tyler, that's a good idea, but a spammer is a spammer, and like you said, we wouldn't know anyway until they begin posting.

I've had to ban at least 3 or 4 spammers in the last 1-1/2 weeks or so. Members whom I've warned and gave them a chance to clean up their act, that doesn't work any more because those same members come back later before their infraction period is up and post a 1/2 dozen spamming posts! And they get banned.

As mcnerd pointed out, we'll just have to catch the scum and filter them out as quickly as possible.

[Big Daddy's House]

Just to let everyone know;

I just banned both Realistic & Nurit from the board.

That Realistic and Nurit have both been permenantly banned from the forum due to their compulsive, repetitive and abusive spamming in the Off Topic section. All of their abising posts have been deleted, cleaning up and ridding the board of all of their spamming nonsense posts and threads.

Hardly any of them were related to food or cooking. Very few, if any! Noncontributive and non-productive!

I found myself having to moderate too many of their threads & posts, and I got tired of it, so I took the most severe disiplinary action against them. The only thing that would stop them from posting altogether!

The complaints that were furnished against them also were enough to justify their ousting anyway, from the membership roster. They both NEEDED to go!!

My mission and efforts here are to seek out, single out and ween these abusive individuals out, delete all their abusive and spamming posts and then ban them from the forum as expidiciously & as quickly as possible. Immediately!