Dear Admin,

[noludoru]

The spam is getting kind of ridiculous. Our mods are amazing and do their best to get rid of it right then and there before anyone notices, but they're not online and refreshing pages 24/7.

Could we have some sort of updated spam filter to make their jobs a bit easier and to scar our eyes a bit less? I have never been on another forum with so much spam. The technology is out there, it just needs to be found and applied.




With love, as always,

Saurus

[Renee750il]

Thank you, Saurus.

I've banned at least 6 in the last 15 minutes.

[Brattina88]

I agree!

[noludoru]

SIX!?!?!?

Good god.

I know we've had this discussion before, again, and again and over again times a thousand, but it's getting ridiculous which is why I brought it up. I'm on a few other forums with double or several times the traffic as chaz, and they just don't have this problem at all, so it's obviously not the traffic that's the issue here - it's the spam filter that needs some serious tweaking.

Maybe everyone who wants to join should have to create an introduction thread before posting anywhere else, and then, pending approval, be allowed to post on the rest of the forum or make replies to anything but their own thread. It allows real members to make one immediate post if they need help and respond to the replies, but it would make it somewhat easier for mods to ban and delete spammers because they wouldn't have twenty different threads strewn about.

It would make it a bit easier for members to ignore, as well - just use extra caution in the intro section.

It's not a permanent fix, but would be a good measure until we get filters that actually work.

[eddieq]

We do spend a lot of time with "preemptive" strikes against known spambots. Often more than 30 a day. You should see some of the stuff that never makes it to the board or is killed as soon as it's posted.

[Saeleofu]

Maybe everyone who wants to join should have to create an introduction thread before posting anywhere else, and then, pending approval, be allowed to post on the rest of the forum or make replies to anything but their own thread. It allows real members to make one immediate post if they need help and respond to the replies, but it would make it somewhat easier for mods to ban and delete spammers because they wouldn't have twenty different threads strewn about.

I like this idea. I'm a mod on another forum (though it's much smaller than Chaz) and we require each member have 5 posts that are moderated before they can post freely.

We also have spam filters that make it so members that get caught in the filter need to be manually approved. Granted we get maybe 2 or 3 members a week that get caught in the filter, sometimes less.

[Linds]

Personally I can't stand forums that make you make an introduction post when you join. I pretty much right then and there decide not to join them. I like looking around a forum and lurking for awhile before having to post and that's a lot easier when you can do searches and things.

I also don't bother with forums that posts need to be moderated before showing up when you first join, especially in a faster moving forum.

Maybe it's just me, very real possibility

But yeah, I have no helpful ideas and I know I'm not adding anything constructive, just complaining about ideas given.

Hope something can be figured out though, I feel bad for our mods!

[corgipower]

On my forum I have a very simple Q&A captcha and it gets tons of bot hits, but not one is able to get registered.

I know I don't bother with a forum that requires every post to be moderated. I think if you can join and do searches and whatnot, but you have to make an approved intro post before posting anywhere else, that would probably be fine. So long as our lovely mods could manage to take care of that in a timely manner so that those in need don't have to wait too long before getting help with whatever problems brought them to us.

ETA: I like CP's idea better.

[Saeleofu]

If a CAPTCHA is used, it needs to be something like reCAPTCHA (or something accessible) so that it's accessible for all. Plain old CAPTCHA generally doesn't let people with print disabilities (including blindness) have access.