What about these "NO ASTRO" posts?

[Lex]

Hi Forum admins;

Why those strange messages about some kind of unnecessary stuff aren't blocked?

Best

[Steve]

Hello,

In order to block the messages we need to put more security in place that will make it more difficult to join or post messages.  I will look into it.
Any feedback would be useful.  Can we live with these spam or would more security be the way to go.
Best
Steve

[Chris]

You currently have about 24,500 members and it's increased by over 100 today - so far.
If they all start sending spam - and the technique seems to be to register, then send a spam message a few weeks later - then it's going to become untenable.

My astro society forum has some very aggressive preventative measures, including things such as excluding large email address ranges, including all of China, and on top of that all registrations have to be approved by a moderator.  We have managed to get the number of spam registrations down to about one a day on average and that's easily handled.

From a look at the SMF site there are several options that could be used, such as checking spam lists for known spam email addresses or IP addresses.

I'd use a better question, preferably a set of questions. As it is there seems to be a 50% chance that a spammer can get the right answer.

Is it possible to put a security question in the registration email?

Chris

[Lex]

"Can we live with these spam or would more security be the way to go."

That's the way I think we should go....

Best

[Kinch]

Chris has a very valid point...."If they all start sending spam - then it's going to become untenable."

I believe that some security is a must.

Kinch.

[ForumAdmin]

Hello,  I have turned security up a couple of notches.  Let see how it goes.
Steve

[MikeM]

Hello,  I have turned security up a couple of notches.  Let see how it goes.
Steve

Well judging by the 3 spams in Deep Sky forum.....

[Lex]

Let's hope that it will work it out! I don't like to know that there are perhaps virus's just next to my writing...

Best and thanks for the quick response!

[Lex]

SPAM is still keepin' up coming....

[Chris]

Once members are registered there's no way to stop them posting.

Members who post spam messages should be removed by the moderators. Their messages can also be deleted. That's a manual process and I expect that it's being done.

The only other thing is to go through all 22,000 members and remove the ones that are obviously fake.

The only solution will probably be to ensure that people cannot either join or post without some sort of moderator approval.  That can be practical if the number of registrations is fairly low.

Chris

[ForumAdmin]

Hi,
Have moved to the Captcha verification system.  Let wait and see....
Steve

[Chris]

Does it stop people posting, let's see...

[ForumAdmin]

just deleted a few hundred spam messages posted in the last hour.  This is not going to be easy!