Spam Catching.

[Tiberius]

Ok, it's high time we cracked down on spam bots. I've noticed an exponential increase in the number of new members we have to ban because they are spam bots, or just spammers in general. Case in point, I did a quick count of the number of banned members within the last 100 registrations (going back about a month and a half) and the total was 34. 34% of our registrations have been spammers!

So, in a George Bush-esque way, I am declaring an atheist war on spam. I'm investing a lot of time into various spam-prevention and spam-catching methods, which will hopefully reduce the amount of spam we get.

The first is already available in the form of an Akismet plugin. Akismet is a very popular application that is usually installed on blogs to prevent comment spam. They track spam messages, as well as usernames and email addresses of spambots. When a new message is posted, it is first checked to see whether it is spam or not, and this affects whether it is actually posted.

Of course, as with any new change to the forums, there are bound to be problems. If any of your posts are mistakenly marked as spam, please let us know.

Also, if anyone has suggestions on other methods to decrease spam, please share your ideas

-Adrian

[Darwinian]

I was thinking of a database of frequently used spam phrases etc. and when one is posted the post is automatically deleted.

For example, old Dave always seems to say the same things so his posts would be easily caught.

[Tiberius]

That's essentially what Akismet is, except the database is on their servers. Hopefully, when Dave comes back, his messages won't appear and be caught. Dave has tried to comment on my blog numerous times, and Akismet has almost always stopped him.

[Rhizomorph13]

Sounds cool, but we need to make sure that it doesn't screen out more facts about our shapeshifting reptilian overlords. That shit is priceless!

[Ashes1995]

ye, i have also noticed when i scroll down on the main page to the overview and look at newest members, theres always at least half of them who have been banned

[Edwardo Piet]

Good idea and a good cause to be 'warring' against

EvF

[Elles]

We shall slay them.

[Dotard]

Awwww.... I love spam! It's nutritious and oh so versitile.

And look at all the neat Spam Stuff you can get!




Tastes like crap, but it's cheap and keeps poor people like me fed. Don't take away my spam!

[Edwardo Piet]

The origin of the term does indeed come from the meat of course And specifically from the usage of it in a Monty Python Sketch.

EvF

[Ashes1995]

at first i thought it was a joke about catching tins of spam in nets, until i had a proper look