Xrunner's Spam Xperiment

[Randus]

True.

Could you just set every question to have a gibberish answer and then make the answer part of the activation email?  That way everyone who is accepted and only those accepted  know(s) the random answer.

Or do you think that would amount to the same thing?

[Arantor]

Not really since the whole point of the Q&A is to avoid having to even send an activation email...

[Randus]

Good point

[BeatsMe]

Since this topic was started i have been using the question as quoted below, I also use the Visual Varification method set to Medium.  I have found this has been working incredibly well, with only one or two spammers making it through to the approval stage per week.

But, the other week or two back i noticed a skurge of spammers, woke up one morning with 32 of them waiting approval, and more were hitting my forum as i was deleting the ones waiting.

Decided to change on the answer only, remember the answer is given in the question, and all the spammer immediately stopped 

Just thought i'd share my experience.

You can't post ANYTHING or use your account until an Admin approves your account based on spam databases and heuristic screening criteria - you will not be registered until this approval is complete - if you still wish to apply enter "notspammer" without the quotes in the box

[xrunner]

Funny story -

I had that Spamhaven forum going using SMF 2.1. I wanted to see how many spammers I could get registered and then try experiments to see what would and wouldn't stop them.

It's gone because I got an email from my hosting Co. They wanted to know if I was enabling spammers and helping them out. 

I told them no, I was just trying an experiment, but I told them I appreciated their keen observance of what was going on, that it was just an experiment, but that I would just remove the forum. They appreciated that.

Carry on anti-spammer friends!