New members

Guest · Post by **Guest** » 28 Oct 2004, 21:20

Several unlikely-sounding new members in the last few days. I have not yet authorised the following user names and will delete them by the end of the week unless I receive an email from the persons concerned:

milenia542
Johanni673
JASPER
optimalppc

This is getting to be a bit of a pain. If anyone has suggestions as to how we can prevent spammers and email harvesters registering I would be interested in hearing from them.

Dadaist · Post by **Dadaist** » 28 Oct 2004, 21:36

What about one of those plugins for the board where the person registering has to manually type in a generated string which can't be OCR'd ?

I found one after a quick google - it's called
"Yet Another Anti Robotic Register Flood"

http://www.phpbbhacks.com/download/1263

So I guess that, if this doesn't do the job, you're looking for an anti-robotic register flood hack or plugin for phpBB.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » 28 Oct 2004, 21:39

Many thanks for this. Erm, wangi could you take a look at this please?

Post by **wangi** » 28 Oct 2004, 21:46

will do, i've also been deleting dodgy looking usernames... i'll leave it at that is i'm sure the links in their profiles were against the profanity filter!

Guest · Post by **Guest** » 28 Oct 2004, 22:17

I think we can add metal442 to that list!

Guest · Post by **Guest** » 29 Oct 2004, 18:28

livvy01 - email me at portyweb@blueyonder.co.uk if you are a real person and I will activate your account.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » 31 Oct 2004, 19:18

Ditto Leo Lions. You sound like you could be real but I would like confirmation before I authorise your account.

Epykat · Post by **Epykat** » 31 Oct 2004, 20:58

Bob, is there something you want to tell us..........?? (new avatar a clue perhaps or is it just something in the water?)

Guest · Post by **Guest** » 31 Oct 2004, 21:08

What can I say? I'm going through an experimental phase. Do you like my new look?

Too late, I changed it again.

Maria · Post by **Maria** » 31 Oct 2004, 21:14

I'm sure some will

There were several dodgy names still on the memberlist today Bob usually with some pharmaceutical website as their www address.......

Guest · Post by **Guest** » 31 Oct 2004, 21:23

Yeah but they are unauthorised members. I think livvy01 might be a real person, but the others aren't and I will delete them this evening.

Porty · Post by **Porty** » 31 Oct 2004, 23:35

I worry that we are about to go to a lot of trouble and wash our dirty laundry in public. What does it matter if "pseudo" members join? If they are here to take the pi ss or to make a nuisance of themselves they will soon get bored. Then again they may start off that way and find a topic that interests them enough to make serious comment.

If "people" do have dodgy links in their profiles, ask them to delete and if they don't, 86 them. Just do it privately. Airing the fact that they are rogue merely plays into their hands. This is a free forum, god knows there are enough rules and guidelines,let the people come.

One new rule that you may wish to consider is a mnimum number of posts prior to entitlement to an Avatar. This can be an incentive too. Do we have a post number where a newbie matures?

Another rule you may wish to consider is a minimum number of posts before one is entitled to participate in a poll.

Just my 2 cents.

Dadaist · Post by **Dadaist** » 01 Nov 2004, 02:04

...and worth about 2 cents. Getting rid of spammers and bots auto-joining a forum is akin to registering with the Telephone Preference Service. It's just a housekeeping task and is hardly comparable to washing dirty laundry in public. It's just the way the web has been ever since the carpetbaggers moved in.

Porty · Post by **Porty** » 01 Nov 2004, 14:51

Dadaist wrote:...and worth about 2 cents. Getting rid of spammers and bots auto-joining a forum ...

Just shows my ignorance, what's spammers, bots and auto-joining?

Post by **wangi** » 08 Nov 2004, 13:01

Dadaist wrote:What about one of those plugins for the board where the person registering has to manually type in a generated string which can't be OCR'd ?

Thanks Mat, I've now added this to the board... Although the image it generates would appear to look quite easy to OCR. But nevermind, 100 times better than not having it at all! Lets hope this cuts down on the spam registrations.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » 08 Nov 2004, 18:06

Thanks to both of you. I gave it a go and found it difficult enough to copy the code myself. I had to have 3 shots before I got it right! Hope it doesn't put new members off, but we had to tackle this probelm and hopefully this is the solution.

Davie Bhoy · Post by **Davie Bhoy** » 09 Nov 2004, 15:28

Hi guys - I am 30 year old Porty dude and wouldn't mind being kept up to dat with any news or gossip for Porty punters!!

D Bhoy

CatzVP · Post by **CatzVP** » 11 Nov 2004, 07:00

Porty wrote:
Dadaist wrote:...and worth about 2 cents. Getting rid of spammers and bots auto-joining a forum ...
Just shows my ignorance, what's spammers, bots and auto-joining?

Your kidding .....right??

Davie Bhoy · Post by **Davie Bhoy** » 11 Nov 2004, 10:42

Oh no - need to kept updated on supermarkets and all that jazz!!! 24 hour Greggs is in my dreams.....