The forums I am using right now keep getting people signing up as spam accounts simply advertising there site. I am wondering if SMF will stop this if I switch over to it.
i don't think changing forums is going to keep people from signing up.
i mean, if someone wants to sign up for your boards, there isn't much you can do to stop them. however, once they join and spam, ban there asses.
I believe he is talking about automatic account creation proggies .
Some forums and sites have that image verification thing, i think he is asking about that.
There is a captcha mod, but I'm not sure quite what you can do with it. Might be worth a look.
You can also turn on the option to require e-mail activation to make an account. That will stop most spambots in their tracks. You can then periodically delete any accounts with a pending activation.
Here are what I normally do:
1) Turn on email account activation. Most people are to lazy to activate them in their emails just for a bit of spam.
2) Find an image verify mod, or make one, to make it so spam bots can't sign up.
3) Perhaps find yourself a mod that not only do they have to click an activation link, but must also enter in a code that you sent to their email as well (a random code). A user will do this if he wants to use your site, but a spammer will normally think it alot of added work and just give up.
4) If/When a spammer gets by, see what email they used. If you notice it as a common domain name that is used in spam account creation, block all emails with that domain from signing up on your site.
Those four steps will cut spam down greatly, if it doesn't stop it all.