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[Darvi]

Maybe I've been oblivious but I haven't noticed any significant drama on bay12. I don't see any of the prominent members going mad with power and banning everyone.

You've obviously never been to the Lyoncraft server.

_{Kidding, of course.}

[Aqizzar]

To answer a general question: Toady is certainly aware of the inexplicable increase in spam accounts lately.  I haven't contacted him specifically about it, I figured I'd wait until there was a solid suggestion to give him, or really just bring it up and let him address it at his leisure.

[freeformschooler]

The latter is probably better. He's busy but smart; he can probably come up with something himself. I'll notify him of the topic.

[Il Palazzo]

Perhaps not responding to spam threads with "it's a spam" posts as it is common, often keeping the threads on the first page for days, would help? It might not reduce the amount of spam accounts and threads but it will certainly make them less obnoxious.

[freeformschooler]

I don't know how adding more spam to a spam topic makes it more obnoxious. Either you read it and see spam, or you don't.

[Vester]

I don't know how adding more spam to a spam topics makes it more obnoxious. Either you read it and see spam, or you don't.

It's a question of being able to ignore threads, which some people apparently can't do? I guess. I know I click on everything but that's just me.

[Aklyon]

Think about it. Would there be anybody here who'd you entrust this kinda power? Answering "Yes, me" doesn't count.

Off the top of my head:

Aquizzar, Jim Groovester, Vector, Janet, Pandarsenic, Toonyman, Kael, Barbrossa, Aklyon and Duke 2.0 just to name a few. Any of the old creed would do fine.

I'm in that group? Wow.

[freeformschooler]

Plus there's the fact that not posting in them won't take them off the main page -- a lot of the spambots I've seen just post the same topic again at certain intervals. Unless it's being in the top few topics that's bothersome.

[Aqizzar]

The way I look at it, since spam threads are destined for deletion as soon as they're made, they're free ground to play with since they'll disappear soon enough.  And I for one am fine with people having their fun like that, since it leaves no lasting mark on the forum.  I know it annoys some people that they therefor stay on the front page, but it's always temporary anyway.

But all that's fine when it just one a week or so like I remember it being for a long time.  Now there's often a couple new ones every day, which is annoying no matter how you slice it.

I kind of like the idea of automatically deleting accounts that don't post anything after a little while.  It's not uncommon for spambots to register at a site, and then wait a long time before posting anything to theoretically escape notice.  Since there's no aspect of Bay12 that requires an account besides posting at all (there's no restriction of board viewing or anything), this might help a little.  Of course, plenty of them just post immediately anyway.

[Heliman]

Currently, there are hundreds of accounts online that have never posted, that just take up server memory. It's a total waste of space.

[kilakan]

Just my idea, why not make it impossible for accounts with less then say 3 posts to make new threads?  That would stop a huge amount of spam bots, or at least the constant creation of spam threads.  I realize it makes it hard for new people with legitimate questions to get in, but there are threads for asking questions, or they could just reply to a few other threads and then propose their question.

[Heliman]

Just my idea, why not make it impossible for accounts with less then say 3 posts to make new threads?  That would stop a huge amount of spam bots, or at least the constant creation of spam threads.  I realize it makes it hard for new people with legitimate questions to get in, but there are threads for asking questions, or they could just reply to a few other threads and then propose their question.

This easy to bypass. 3 insta-posts followed by a topic. Problem solved, it all goes down before anyone knows a thing.

Think about it. Would there be anybody here who'd you entrust this kinda power? Answering "Yes, me" doesn't count.

Off the top of my head:

Aquizzar, Jim Groovester, Vector, Janet, Pandarsenic, Toonyman, Kael, Barbrossa, Aklyon and Duke 2.0 just to name a few. Any of the old creed would do fine.

I'm in that group? Wow.

You've been around for two years, Way I figure, anyone around here who's stuck around here that long is good for the position.

[Greiger]

Requiring a post after activation before autodelete wouldn't hurt anything I suppose.  There are quite a few forums I registered for and never posted in, but they were all ones I lost interest in anyway so no big loss.

That allowing members to flag a post as spam thing sounds good, but there have been three threads that I recall off the top of my head where the first time poster OP was immediately called out as a spambot when they actually were not, and continued on to be contributing members of the community.  Those posts under that system would have immediately been nuked from orbit and the poster would probably have been alienated to the forums.   I would rather us not scare away new posters with the risk of overzealous mini-moderation.

Unfortunately, I can't think of a good solution myself.  Perhaps when enough people report the OP of a thread for moderation additional posts simply stop bumping the thread?  No indication to escaped lunatics of course to avoid making new posters feel they are doing anything wrong(and to avoid tipping off anyone monitoring the spambots). And when in that state members in good standing can identify the thread as a false positive with enough clicks on a box.  Gets it away from the top until Toady Or TT can have a peek, while still preserving a false positive.

[scriver]

I kind of like the idea of automatically deleting accounts that don't post anything after a little while.  It's not uncommon for spambots to register at a site, and then wait a long time before posting anything to theoretically escape notice.  Since there's no aspect of Bay12 that requires an account besides posting at all (there's no restriction of board viewing or anything), this might help a little.  Of course, plenty of them just post immediately anyway.

I didn't post anything for a month after registering. I'm sure others have done the same thing. Maybe if they don't post for a few months or something.

I do think there's a lot more "post directly" bots, though, so I'm not too sure how much good it would do.

[Pnx]

I kind of like the idea of automatically deleting accounts that don't post anything after a little while.  It's not uncommon for spambots to register at a site, and then wait a long time before posting anything to theoretically escape notice.  Since there's no aspect of Bay12 that requires an account besides posting at all (there's no restriction of board viewing or anything), this might help a little.  Of course, plenty of them just post immediately anyway.

You would have to include PM's as well.

Of course whatever you do will be circumvented. You can try adding a personalized text check, or various other things to keep spambots out, but I'm willing to bet these are mostly getting made by hand by kids with no lives for petty cash.

As for full moderation, frankly I don't trust myself to moderate the forum's conversations and remain neutral. But if it was restricted to just spambot bashing I'd do it. Heck, restrictions could be programmed in to ensure it stays that way, like by only giving the power over people with less than 100 posts spread over at least 10 days.
Trolls I don't really want to handle, but spammers I could do.