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Toughening Up the Signup Procedure

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Alistair Roberts said:
I like Brian's idea as well. I think a crossword would give Pete a problem to organise technically speaking? And yes there were another 2 spammers last night, and they seem to follow a pattern of coming here about the same night each night/day, i.e. about 6 pm PST, or 2 am GMT.
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How are the spammers being detected now? If at all possible, let the code behind the site weed them out.
 
One wonders what they hope to gain. Do they think that flooding this site with 'Buy my self-published book' posts will generate any sales?
 
Bernard Stacey said:
One wonders what they hope to gain. Do they think that flooding this site with 'Buy my self-published book' posts will generate any sales?
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Most of the spammers that I've seen on this site aren't advertising their book. They're advertising things like muscle builders and male enhancement and such.
 
None of them were about books, mostly directly to sites selling drugs via online pharmacies and muscle builders. Also, they never used a single piece of punctuation. Note, no spammers yesterday. Do I still get cake though?? ;)
 
Hm, I have no idea why but it reminds me of Flash Gordon, whoever he is! :D
 
Katie-Ellen Hazeldine said:
The effrontery. How dare they think anyone needs their muscles building or anything...enhancing.
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Spammers are not that selective. I once met a nun at a party, a mother superior who worked at the Vatican. We were talking about technology, and when I mentioned that I was running a computer suite at a community centre we strayed into the problem of junk mail. She told me with a laugh that all of the nuns get emails from companies promising to 'enhance their girth and length' through the use of safe herbal products!
 
I think having a fast track option of a referee within Litopia would be a good idea. Not everyone will have someone that has referred them to the Colony, but if they have they can say so and the member could (when they refer someone) add their name to a form or something to confirm that they are genuine.

Just a thought xx
 
Awesome! Such sad creatures, that are so hell-bent on inconveniencing everyone else around them for zero gain, and only at the expense of zero effort.
 
I found this thread fascinating and liked Brian's questions. Is Litopia using them or something like them?

Imagine if all the energy that goes into gaming one system or another went for something positive.
 
I'm late the the table, again, but maybe something similar to the levels of membership we had back in the day, which required a written submission to obtain access to the levels which included the houses, inner sanctums, etc. The Public and "Guest" members could read the Cafe Posts, but in order to make an original post, you had to accumulate some cred through your responses in the Cafe. Messaging was also only for full members, if I remember correctly. I remember it took me a couple of go-arounds to write a submission that was accepted. Felt great when I made the cut.
 
Can I make a suggestion ?
Please look at the problem from the real applicants' point of view. they know nothing of the spamming problems the site is having and the last thing you need is to put people off by making it far too difficult to sign up. You stand the chance of appearing as a clique of snobs and as such could end badly.
The 'test' needs to be simple. Not just slightly simple but very simple, yet deter spammers. This, I think everyone agrees on. using the 'their and there' type of test is rather a good one, however if it's going to be a random variable test, I think you will quickly run out of such variations. The amount of this type of test is quite limited.
But there is an infinite number of variables using something like sudoku. ie; what number goes in -this box- or any number of boxes for that matter.
It would be quick, non robot-able and every test would be unique. Can be set to easy or difficult.
Another option could be a card game, such as patience. A fresh game starts and the applicant only has to make 3 moves - for example. Again this offers an infinite number of unique tests.

But the best option is.....is......wait for it....... £
If someone is serious about learning to write why not charge a small fee. small enough to not deter real applicants but large enough to deter spammers.
£5.00 ? is that such a large amount ? would that have really put you off signing up ? A one off payment for all this resource ? All this training, courses ?????
 
Er, you're a bit late Cosmo, this was many months ago, and long since fixed. No more changes are being suggested, and as I said, not one single spammer has gotten in since the changes were made. :D
 
Don't look at me, I didn't do anything lol. All Pete's doing ;)
 
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