As some of you have noticed, there's been an increase in spam posts on the community board since the beginning of 2011.
Spam is as much a nuisance to Internet forums as it is to Email accounts. It has always been an issue (hence why you were required to validate a CAPTCHA while registering your account), but until now, it was under control.
Our board's software manufacturer (IPS) is aware of the problem, but has no immediate solution. The IPS team is working to improve their current security and anti-spam services but also mention that Google's reCaptcha service would need to be improved as well.
The privacy and security of our Community members is extremely important to us. Therefore, we will be taking a few steps to increase security on this forum and prevent any new spam bots from getting through:
- Until further notice, the first two posts from every new account will require moderator approval. Subsequent posts will not. This will not affect any current member with over two (2) posts.
- Registering members will need to prove they are human by answering a simple Challenge Question (basic math).
- As always, all members will need to validate their email address when registering (unless they register using their Twitter/Facebook account.. I think).
You can also help us deal with this issue by reporting any and all posts you consider to be spam (actual spam), by clicking on the Report button at the bottom-left of every post.
Additional steps may be taken if the above proves to be insufficient.
We appreciate your patience while we work to resolve this matter, and please let us know if you have any questions or concerns.
Update 2011/11/10: Spam bots seem to have given up. We're in good shape!
Edited by AndY, 10 November 2011 - 09:27 AM.
Added Update.