Spam problem solved?

I think I might have solved our spam problem ;)

I've changed the CAPTCHA to a question instead... the question is, name the female cheetah ThunderCat. I was careful to use a question that both old and new fans of the 201x series could answer.

and I see the rate of new members as slowed down....but some new folks have signed up since I made the change (and from a quick glance they aren't spammers!)

I'll post this in the Mod forum, once we know for sure it's worked. However we might still see some spam posts from the spammers that still need deleting. I've been going through the members list and deleting any member with 'man' written all over their profile. I'm up to page 2 on 'B'

I plan to do a couple of pages of the members list each day when I have time. Eventually I hope to clear out all the obvious spam accounts. I now feel these afforts aren't wasted, now I've maybe stopped the endless spam signs up!

Chris here...

This is a great idea! Whilst I imagine it may stop a couple of legitimate members (such as folks selling things) from signing up, I would think 99% of ThunderCats fans who would be moved to join a TCats message board would know the answer to this! :)

Keep us posted on this, Neil, it looks as though you may have hit on the solution! :thumbsup:

Take care... :)

It has definitely slowed down...I think the whole CAPTCHA thing is useless and a Q&A seems to have solved it for now

"He-Fan, post: 42751" said:

Chris here...

This is a great idea! Whilst I imagine it may stop a couple of legitimate members (such as folks selling things) from signing up, I would think 99% of ThunderCats fans who would be moved to join a TCats message board would know the answer to this! :)

Keep us posted on this, Neil, it looks as though you may have hit on the solution! :thumbsup:

Take care... :)

If someone is legit about selling toys or related items on this board, then it's likely they know the character names. However those that don't can always use google for the answer. If they can't be bothered to take the time to perform a 10 second search, then I'm not sure they would be such a big loss to the boards.

Chris here...

"blackiecats, post: 42765" said:

If someone is legit about selling toys or related items on this board, then it's likely they know the character names. However those that don't can always use google for the answer. If they can't be bothered to take the time to perform a 10 second search, then I'm not sure they would be such a big loss to the boards.

Yep, I can't really argue with that response - all good thinking, Neil, well done! :)

Take care... :)

Looks like spam accounts have gone to a complete halt...Ive been trimming the member list and have deleted over 3,000 accounts already.

One thing that can be done to see if it is a spam account or not is to look up the members IP address and past it onto Google. Most of the time if it is a spam account it will be posted on the stopforumspam.com website.

"blackiecats, post: 42765" said:

If someone is legit about selling toys or related items on this board, then it's likely they know the character names. However those that don't can always use google for the answer. If they can't be bothered to take the time to perform a 10 second search, then I'm not sure they would be such a big loss to the boards.

I could see someone misspelling it, but again, if they can't do a 10 second search on either Google or this site, then why would we think they would ever search the fourms before posting a thread asking if the Mad Bubbler was ever made?

SPAM is starting back slowly. I just found 3 spam posts. I've checked the flagged posts a few times but hadnt seen any til now. The question is definitely helping.

That's great, guys!

Glad to hear the spam has come to a dull roar. And sorry I haven't been around for a while - way too much going on! But I hope to get back to making my rounds :D