My advice on anti-spammer, admins please read

[wqking]

I'm not sure if it's easy to implement my these ideas in current forum software, but I think it's time to improve the anti-spammer mechanism because the spamming flooding these days are so horrible.
Each point can be implemented independently.

1, Get more users as moderators, and they should be around the world clock (America, Europe, Asia, etc). The must-have privilege of the moderators is deleting thread/comment (I hope there is recycle bin in the software so the wrongly deleted messages can be restored). Another good privilege is banning a user for certain time (such as 7 days, etc).
If a moderator abuses his power, he will be removed from moderators, or if he is evil, he will be banned for ever.
THIS should be the easiest action to do for now.

2, New registered users must solve HCaptcha when starting new thread or comment, for his first 20 (or other number) posts. Unless the spammers are willing to pay for HCaptcha service, this should prevent them from registering new account to post spammings.
We should better not make every users solve HCaptcha for every post, that's quite annoying. Only first 20 posts should be enough.

3, For all users all posts, we may add some invisible captcha.

4, The first 5 (or other number) posts of a new user can be only posted in the "General" sub forums, not any Ukulele or Music sub forums. If we have enough moderators, any spammers will be killed in the "General" sub forums within the 5 posts without spreading to other sub forums.

Maybe there are most methods...
Just my 2 cents.

 

[KohanMike]

I wonder if XenForo, the service now being used for this forum, has functions to prevent spam. I say this because I'm a member of the Talk Bass forum, which also uses XenForo and I've never seen spam there in 7 years. I actually sent a PM to Aaron yesterday to contact Talk Bass for feedback. I wouldn't be happy with having to use Catcha more than once.

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Michael Kohan in Los Angeles, Beverly Grove near the Beverly Center
8 tenor cutaway ukes, 4 acoustic bass ukes, 10 solid body bass ukes, 14 mini electric bass guitars (Total: 36)
•Donate to The Ukulele Kids Club, they provide ukuleles to children in hospital music therapy programs. www.theukc.org
•Member The CC Strummers: www.youtube.com/user/CCStrummers/video, www.facebook.com/TheCCStrummers

 

[ripock]

You could just do it the old fashioned way: go spend the holidays with your family and let the admins and moderators do the same. And when you come back, the spam will be excised. At least that's been my experience. Some Asian prostitutes inserted themselves into my ukulele thread (they were called modal girls and I am modal in my approach to composing; so it was a great match in theory). I reported them and they were gone in a day or two. Really no need to panic.

 

[EDW]

Years ago there was a forum (or mail list?) that I was on that had initial posts from new members held for moderator approval. After a few where they "proved" their intent they were allowed to post as normal members.