Anti-spam measures taken up a notch...
Posted by Daniel Tonks on August 21, 2010 at 6:44 PM
I've just completed several minor forum changes, triggered by a spam attack last night that resulted in over 3,500 accounts created in 8 hours.
First, the account registration system now requires a CAPTCHA image-verification test, as you've seen almost everywhere else these days. I'm using the reCAPTCHA system (owned by Google), which has the side benefit of helping them digitize old books. The registration form now also checks live whether a user name is available, so new members will not need to complete the verification test more than once.
Second, and this one has been requested for a while now, I've created a post reporting system which registered members can use to bring to my attention any posts that don't belong - be they spam, other advertisement, or something that's just completely inappropriate. Look for the grey [!] button next to the [Quote] and [Reply] buttons at the bottom of each message.
Otherwise I've been working on a complete rewrite of one of Remote Central's key areas, and I hope to have a test version up soon!
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You must have been pretty much on the ball, I didn't notice a thing.
"Second, and this one has been requested for a while now, I've created a post reporting system which registered members can use to bring to my attention any posts that don't belong - be they spam, other advertisement, or something that's just completely inappropriate. Look for the grey [!] button next to the [Quote] and [Reply] buttons at the bottom of each message."
I can see that being handy. BTW I did notice the suspect Sony thread post (General Remotes Forum), but you beat me to it.
"Otherwise I've been working on a complete rewrite of one of Remote Central's key areas, and I hope to have a test version up soon!"
Will this have ramifications for my stats thread?