Sorry about the URL code (temporarily disabled)

[brimstoneSalad]

Or hopefully temporarily.

We're getting a lot of spam now. The forum has apparently reached the point where it's popular enough that it's financially viable for spammers to use human beings to solve the registration questions (question answering farms).

Once you reach that point, the only way to stop the spammers without making it difficult to register for real people is to cut off their food supply: Links.
It's not worth them using human effort to sign up and spam here (only to have them deleted) if they can't post links.

We will try to fix this with an extension or add on or something that makes it so only newly registered users can't post links, and more established users can. I don't know when this will happen.

Sorry for the trouble!

If you have any recommendations, please post them.

[EquALLity]

https://www.google.com/

I'm confused, can we not post links?
I just did, it's just that clicking doesn't take me anywhere. Can't people just copy and paste?

Also, how will they know if they can't post links before signing up?

[brimstoneSalad]

I just did, it's just that clicking doesn't take me anywhere. Can't people just copy and paste?

Right, it's just inconvenient. You can post plain text links.

Also, how will they know if they can't post links before signing up?

I think they sign up, see they can't spam clicky links, then they leave? Not sure really, but it works.

[EquALLity]

I think they sign up, see they can't spam clicky links, then they leave? Not sure really, but it works.

Oh. I'm surprised that works, because wouldn't they notice only after they post something?
It's not like they'd delete it. Maybe it stops them from posting more than once.

[brimstoneSalad]

I think they sign up, see they can't spam clicky links, then they leave? Not sure really, but it works.

Oh. I'm surprised that works, because wouldn't they notice only after they post something?
It's not like they'd delete it. Maybe it stops them from posting more than once.

Well, I think it's usually humans signing up, and then bots posting. The bots would probably not be able to post, because they wouldn't know how to remove the links.
There are probably lists for forums that are good for link spamming, and this one would eventually fall off it.

[brimstoneSalad]

I think we have an answer now.

We had a spammer, and it just made one post, instead of registering a half dozen accounts and making two or three posts each.

So, I guess they register, make a post, realize it's useless, and then move on.

[EquALLity]

^Ah, I get it.

Great!

[brimstoneSalad]

Got another spammer. This one posted a link in the signature.

Luckily, PHPBB allows one to disable signatures for newly registered users. So, I had to do that.

Would be really great to get a fix on this. I haven't heard from TVA yet on the topic, sorry to keep everybody waiting. This no links thing kind of sucks.

[Cirion Spellbinder]

Should I read over the spam messages? I've been able to tell that they were spam based on the titles in the past, but I've generally gone ahead and read them because I'm curious. Would doing this somehow notify the spammers that their messages are reaching people and encourage them to spam?

[brimstoneSalad]

I don't think it matters much. They wouldn't know they were read except for checking the views.

But I guess you shouldn't, just in case. If you can bear the not knowing.