Forum Spam

[Mike Farley]

Those who have e-mail alerts turned on for notification of forum updates will have noticed a lot of activity yesterday for non photography related posts from new users. The forum is constantly moderated and those posts were all removed more or less immediately. As has always been the case. Peter and I are looking at the issue to see whether there are ways in which we can allow legitimate registrations to proceed without inconvenience while discouraging the spammers.

At present, anyone who wants to set up an account has to answer a question about the club and verify their e-mail address. That has been successful since historically there have been very few unwanted posts. As a temporary measure, we have disabled the registration process. Possibly there is just one person responsible for what happened yesterday and that might be sufficient on its own to encourage them to move on.

[Mike Farley]

Further to my previous post, Peter* and I have changed the way that posts from new users are handled. In future, the first few posts from new users will be moderated. They will see a notification that their post is not publicly viewable until it has been approved by a moderator. Hopefully, that should discourage most of the activity by those who do not adhere to the forum's rules without inconveniencing legitimate users.

* Mainly Peter, it has to be said. I am sure that you will join me in thanking him for his efforts.

[Mike Farley]

A quick update. Overnight spammers put the the new system to the test with three separate posts, all of which have been deleted along with the associated accounts.

[Mike Farley]

A further update. The various new measures which Peter and I implemented appear to have had the required effect and there have been no spurious postings for a while. From time to time there have been those who have tried to take advantage, but they have always been swiftly dealt with. This time was no different.

[davidb]

Well done Mike and Peter. Keep up the good work.

[Sarahrs]

Peter and Mike, thanks very much for doing this.