Forum Cleanup

For those who may not have been aware, Princess and I had a baby boy back in October which has taken up the majority (and then some) of my free time. That means that the running of the site has fallen onto Pooga and Rudyk.

I spent this evening trying to figure out the spam situation. I've managed to clean up the existing spam and remove all offending users and should be able to deal with new stuff in a reasonable fashion in the future.

For those speculating, the accounts are essentially automated. This is a big business and people with no scruples have created programs to make spamming message boards and websites in general rather easy to do. So while removing the accounts and blocking IP addresses is a potentially solution, they will simply attack from another computer. I'll figure something out.
-dr

dr, congrats again on your baby boy…..(and to Princess)

the only thought Ive had regarding the spam is having the site set up so that you cant post to the forums until youve entered a note….this would defeat the spamming program, no? just a thought, I have no idea how difficult it would be to change the site….any other ideas out there?

Ya, that's an idea. I may also require email validation and have one of those captcha graphics for new users. I will also probably remove the ability to post links for new users. I'm working on some stuff.
-dr