Registered but not yet active?

[JoeStrout]

We are getting deluged with spammers — a hundred or more of these slimy bottom-feeders signing up per day. I go through every week or two and try to clean them out, but it's a bit of a chore and I don't do it as often as I should.

So, if you have registered with the forum but you can't yet log in because your account hasn't been activated, please just send me email (admin@talk-polywell.org) and say so. I'll activate your account right away.

(Also, if you haven't signed up yet, then when you do, please try not to look like a spammer, so I don't delete your account by mistake.)

Thanks,
- Joe

[JohnSmith]

So you're saying 'JohnSmith' probably wasn't a good choice?
When I signed up, I hadn't realized just how bad the problem was. Afterwards I went and took a look at the member list. Ouch.

[tonybarry]

Welcome John. At least you're "in" now.

Regards,
Tony Barry

[blaisepascal]

That explains why it took about a week and an email to Joe to get approved.

Based in the "Don't look like a spammer" page...
1. I use a gmail account.

2. My user name doesn't look real. Sure, it's a name of a real historic person, but I'm probably not him. However, I've been using this name online for a quarter-century, and have an unusual enough real name that I have been kicked off of sites for using it because the sysadmin thought it was fake.

3. At least my username and email name match. But they wouldn't if I used my real name.

4. And I didn't link to a web-site.
5. Or list any interests.


I'd count that as 2 definitive "looks like a spammer", 1 definitive "Doesn't look like a spammer", and 2 questionable ones.

[Aero]

Well, maybe you look like a spammer, but if your user name was "IM for best price on Viagra," then you might really look like a spammer. And we get an extra line of text, think of what can be done with that! Take a look at the member list to see what spammer's really look like. All of those pending that haven't yet been removed will give you a good idea of the problem.
I just did, but it looks like Joe is up to date right now (Aug. 7 ). However, the first and only www that I clicked attacked my computer with a strong arm anti virus, spyware pitch. But except for that it looked normal.

[MSimon]

Well, maybe you look like a spammer, but if your user name was "IM for best price on Viagra," then you might really look like a spammer. And we get an extra line of text, think of what can be done with that! Take a look at the member list to see what spammer's really look like. All of those pending that haven't yet been removed will give you a good idea of the problem.
I just did, but it looks like Joe is up to date right now (Aug. 7 ). However, the first and only www that I clicked attacked my computer with a strong arm anti virus, spyware pitch. But except for that it looked normal.

Most of the spammers I have seen here link to pages of acrobatic teams. :-)

[analysis]

There are now over 390 thousands users on the userlist, but of these are properly just 1% real users. What about deleting all the zero post users and implementing a secure captcha in the sign-up form like google recaptcha?

[hanelyp]

I moderate/administer another phpbb based forum, using both captcha and email confirmation to filter out bots. And moderation of new user posts before they appear publicly. Until recently I was cleaning out 5-10 spammers a day. Then I installed http://dangerousprototypes.com/docs/Php ... _new_users. Since, I've enabled guest comments and still have ~70% less spam, of far less obnoxious form. But there are probably spammer accounts piling up, not revealing themselves as readily.

On reflection, blocking URL posts for unconfirmed users is so obvious I'm a bit surprised it isn't a standard feature.

[paperburn1]

I keep seeing all this user activity but no comments
In total there are 41 users online :: 4 registered, 0 hidden and 37 guests (based on users active over the past 5 minutes)