what is with that spam ?

[Ludens]

Rename them Introduction forum.
Make the subtitle, introduce yourself here before going into the forums

Nah! Even better names:
The Drawbridge or The Gatehouse
With the caption:
Welcome to the Org new members. Before you can enter and pass through the great walls and the huge Citadel of these mighty forums you must post here to introduce yourself to our community.

And while on the topic of the EH: I think Members/Senior Members should not be able to start new threads there, but they should be able to reply.

It sounds good, but many patrons never introduce themselves. I don't think I ever did. Most of them see an interesting thread, register, and then try to post there. They probably won't have looked very closely at the forum index.

Anyway, what's the point of preventing (senior) members from starting new threads in the Entrance Hall?

[caravel]

It sounds good, but many patrons never introduce themselves. I don't think I ever did.

I don't think I did, off hand, though I'm not sure. I think it may be off putting to a new member having to introduce themselves before posting anything. I would avoid that. The best method to reduce this spam is to look to the registration process and the anti robot registration function. Repeating myself but, if that's letting bots through then it's not working as it should.

[Ludens]

I don't think I did, off hand, though I'm not sure. I think it may be off putting to a new member having to introduce themselves before posting anything. I would avoid that.

I quite agree.

The best method to reduce this spam is to look to the registration process and the anti robot registration function. Repeating myself but, if that's letting bots through then it's not working as it should.

TosaInu already mentioned an explanation for the spambot's ability to bypass these features. If this explanation is correct, then no anti-robot function will work.

[caravel]

What I understood from board 'support' forums: a real person signs up and then hands his account over to a bot.

It's an arms race. Spammers want to annoy or advertise, admins want a clean board.

TosaInu already mentioned an explanation for the spambot's ability to bypass these features. If this explanation is correct, then no anti-robot function will work.

I know what you mean. Not all bots will arrive here using that method however, so it still may be worth looking into.

The problem is that, if a human spammer signs up then it will be difficult for any software based protection to recognise them. The only solution for now is probably to nuke them once they're identified by just locking their accounts. Banning the originating IPs risks blanket banning legit users also. Besides it's not like these spammers stick to the same IP addresses for long.

The idea of not allowing them to complete the website part of their profile might help, as well as restricting links in their signatures.

[Ludens]

I know what you mean. Not all bots will arrive here using that method however, so it still may be worth looking into.

Why do you think so? I wasn't aware that the current anti-robot feature could be bypassed by an unassisted bot.

[caravel]

The anti robot key images are often covered with random lines, this is because some bots can simply process those images and retrieve the key from them in the same way that you can convert scanned documents to text using Optical Character Recognition. The org's is rather clear, and may be circumvented in this way.

[TosaInu]

The problem is that, if a human spammer signs up then it will be difficult for any software based protection to recognise them. The only solution for now is probably to nuke them once they're identified by just locking their accounts. Banning the originating IPs risks blanket banning legit users also. Besides it's not like these spammers stick to the same IP addresses for long.

Correct.
Instagib.
Correct.

[MSB]

Anyway, what's the point of preventing (senior) members from starting new threads in the Entrance Hall?

Perhaps not Senior Members, but certainly members. Members clutter the place up by posting threads there that would go much better in other forums such as the Citadel or The Mod Discussion forums etc.

It sounds good, but many patrons never introduce themselves. I don't think I ever did. Most of them see an interesting thread, register, and then try to post there. They probably won't have looked very closely at the forum index.

Perhaps when they try to post they should be given a link to the forum where they should say "hello" telling them to post there first before joining the main community.

[Ludens]

The anti robot key images are often covered with random lines, this is because some bots can simply process those images and retrieve the key from them in the same way that you can convert scanned documents to text using Optical Character Recognition. The org's is rather clear, and may be circumvented in this way.

I see. I wasn't aware that spambots had grown this sophisticated.

Perhaps not Senior Members, but certainly members. Members clutter the place up by posting threads there that would go much better in other forums such as the Citadel or The Mod Discussion forums etc.

I fail to see the problem. All threads that have been active this week are on page one, so it's hardly cluttered up there.

Perhaps when they try to post they should be given a link to the forum where they should say "hello" telling them to post there first before joining the main community.

That's one option.

[MSB]

And now we have a spam-bot than nearly killed my computer.

It's still printing out blank sheets of paper now

[caravel]

Ahem... Take the paper out of the printer...

[Admintestc3]

[John86]

Thats nothin!

Take a look at this forum I moderate:
http://www.chemicool.com/forum/

We get up to 50 bots a day, everyday. And the Admin went akf and isnt coming back.

[MSB]

I think I just found a solution to the Org's bot problems:
http://www.vbulletin.org/forum/showthread.php?t=131568

[Caius]

I have a solution.
Make a image. But this image, will have 5 numbers and, when the new member is going to write it, he or she have to make the following sum:
If the number is 23423, he will have to write 34534, adding 1 number. If the bots decodificate the number, they will not can sucefully create they accounts, and voila!

[MSB]

The humans sign up and then hand their accounts over to bots. No solution will stop that.