The Benny (Macho)

I don't think there's anything free. There are better spam protections on later versions of vBulletin, probably like the captcha things that help filter them out, but it would probably all require paying for a fresh license, and they don't come cheap.

A quick look at the VB site has version 4.0 at $235, or $160 for an upgrade (which I don't know if this forum qualifies for), and the place just doesn't have the activity for it. We can't attract the users either, and I don't think even the msot extreme solution - a complete board wipe to try and encourage users to "get in on the brand new board" - would do it. People seem happy in the comment threads.

EDIT - It actually looks like 4.0 isn't quite out yet and there are discounts ($120 off for an upgrade, $50 off for buying new). I don't know if it's possible to buy 3.0 any more (which is what we're using), or if the older version is now much cheaper or anything.

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mackid1993

^^Well then the only viable option is to appoint a couple more mods to combat this. It is a free solution. Does anyone agree?

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The Benny (Macho)

It's the simplest solution, for sure, even if it's mainly a reactive one (deleting after they've spammed) rather than proactive (blocking them somehow). It hasn't seemed too bad recently though, we do get the occasional spammer who manages to post at a time when none of the mods are on and it sits there for a few hours, and it will be bad if a porn spammer manages to do that, but the mods have been doing good lately.

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mackid1993

They've been doing great...I have to give Cat props for when dillion was away...but if we had more it would lighten up the workload. Also isn't there a way to set it so people can only register with admin approval. I could have sworn some form software has that feature. If a user had to be accepted by an admin to join, spam bots can be filtered out.

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The Benny (Macho)

I think it's best not to have any extra hurdles to registration, because if somebody wants to post something and gets stuck waiting for admin approval then they'll get bored and leave. Plus we'd need, you know, an active admin

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mackid1993

Oh yeah...nothing is going to get done around here without an active admin. Someone needs to contact Arnold or _baseballdude.

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farfus

You all went and ran off poor sunburn so it puts all the pressure on the few remaining....

cAtDaFeLiX

There must be "key words" in some threads that spammers lock onto. I need to do some searching for how they find them. I hope Sun returns someday.

I positive admins are on the site, they are just ninjas.

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Sir Shak

Who ran off Sunburn ?

The Benny (Macho)

I don't think there's any need to get into that.

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