The power of the ban hammer is far too great for mere mortals like I, only the might ben can hold it, and thus he proclaims it as the Ben Hammer.
Is the report button of any help to the admins/mods/submods when reporting a spam-bot? I'm not sure whether or not it should still be used when reporting spam-bots anymore because it's not like it is that difficult to spot and remove/ban a spam-bot when one of you gets on the forum. Honestly, I only use the report button to report a spam-bot/thread to get paid in bullets every time that I do (two bullets to be exact).
I think I've already seen about two or three spambots advertising Polish businesses... we've had a swarm of Chinese ones, should we anticipate a Polish one now? :lol:
Well, as long as it's not a Polish traveling agency, we should be fine. It's like a Bermuda triangle for your people.
While the ip addresses used to be from china, they now seem to be from Switzerland, and their behavior has changed. Instead of only posting 1-2 threads, they now post MULTIPLE threads in succession, one even posted 16 threads!
Probably just using different proxies, and assuming the blanket approach. Maybe we could implement some kind of system, where you can only post threads in the introduction section at first, until someone approves the account. None of the spam bots seem to actually have anybody behind the wheel when it comes to interaction, and considering how little traffic we get with new recruits, I doubt it would be much of a hassle to approve the small number of people who join. That way they could still post links, comment, etc. I've only seen them make new threads anyways, so restricting their ability to do so seems to make the most sense, especially since I doubt it could be profitable for them to really keep tabs on such a small forum as us.
We've actually implemented it once so you had to post this and that many posts before you could make a thread. It annoyed new people who needed help with something, and made them post it in some other thread and derail the topic by doing so. It also made the spambots adapt, and rather post a lot of posts in threads only to then post their own threads afterwards. It made the spam more spread out and difficult to locate. All in all, it only made things worse. Another thing is that most of the new people who come here, only come here for help with a problem they have in the game, and they want that answered as soon as possible. I like your idea, but it would only lead to them posting their problems in the introduction setting, because nobody wants to wait to get their account activated, when they want help with the game they're playing. I know how much that sucks, when you seek help at forums. We want to stay open and available. To add it up, the admins aren't always active here. Aaron and TheStalker are very active, and so am I occasionally, but it does happen that there's a day or two none of us is on. Great idea though, keep 'em coming :thumb: