As you've probably all noticed, certain threads are really getting hammered with persistent SPAM. I suspect that these are probably one or two human SPAMmers (not computer scripts) who are using a random web proxy. I have been analysing the IP addresses and they are all different, so it's impossible to just block their IPs. For now, let's all try to be extra vigilant to get these creeps disabled before they get picked up by a Google web crawler. Those of you who are new to BLF, please take a look at how the peer moderation system works:
Primarily they are posting SPAM as comments, not as new threads. So please help me keep an eye on the comments of current and old threads, since there are long lapses every day when I have to sleep or leave the house. But thanks to you guys so far we are keeping the SPAM under control.
And also, let's not forget that as much as we all hate SPAM, we shouldn't hit the SPAM button just because somebody posts a flashlight link to a site that we don't like or because they express an opinion that we don't share. The Mark as SPAM button is strictly for blatant SPAM.
Please keep up your good work! Thanks for your help!
Spam is going wild lately. I would suggest you to complicate a bit the registration process. Add the "type what you see" option in registration as well the account activation email confirmation. That will not bother much newcomers but greatly slowdown spammers.
I suspect that it is one person doing all of it - why else would they always end up in the same thread? Certainly not about to follow any of those links. Has anyone offended any Russians lately?
Hmmm, image captchas (type what you see) don't really work any better than the current math problem captcha that we currently have. Captchas are mainly useful for preventing automated bots from registering and sending mass spam. This creep appears to be human, and no matter what kind of captcha I put, he will always figure it out.
I personally don't like administrator-approved registration, I usually don't go back to a site that requires the admin to approve me.