[Goober5000]

The invasion has, by definition, been stopped because new registrations are currently subject to admin approval.

Once we get all the security features on-line, we'll re-enable email registration and see if they did any good.

[Delta_V]

I guess this says something about the mods and admins around here.  I don't think I ever saw a single bot post, and I've been on a fair amount the last few days.  I had no idea it was even a problem.  But yeah, I'll put up with the generic backgrounds for a while if it means no bots.

[FUBAR-BDHR]

The real question is how long before they break all the new security.  It's a never ending war. 

[Black Wolf]

I guess this says something about the mods and admins around here.  I don't think I ever saw a single bot post, and I've been on a fair amount the last few days.  I had no idea it was even a problem.  But yeah, I'll put up with the generic backgrounds for a while if it means no bots.

Heh, it's actually kinda fun. Since we're all spread over different timezones, there's often only one or two global mods or admins online, so it's a matter of checking "New Posts" every couple of minutes and dealing with them faster than they can make new topics. That said, I'd be happy to see them disappear completely.

[headdie]

The real question is how long before they break all the new security.  It's a never ending war. 

There is that, but isn't the break/reduced load from manually deleting each post and spam account worth it even if it is for a couple of months

[Starman01]

I'm always amazed to see how people are able to program bots that can outrun or read these captcha's. To bad they don't spend their talents on something more usuable. This botwar (nor here, but everywhere) is getting out of hand. In some places I registered the captchas were already so much complicated, that I hardly couldn't read them myself and needed several tries.

If you are looking for a good one, I saw one that I found actually very genial

Example : It shows 3 Persons.

One Ski-Driver, one Bow-Hunter, one Fisher. In each silluette are 3 letters, and the question is :

What is written within the Ski-Driver ?

Sounds too me like something that is hard for a bot to break (unless the bots are outrunning the graphical part)

[Fury]

If you log out and try to register, you'll see something similar here as well.

[Starman01]

  Good one.

And even better, thank heaven I'm already registered here. Some of the captcha's are hardly readable to me (I have a red/green colour weakness with my eyes), and the ship images is too dark for me too (maybe because I still have a CRT, it happens often with pictures you people post here). In that case, I have to reload the captchas a few times until I get one readable (or the audio understandable), and have to post the image in Photoshop to brighten it up

But that's just me, and I'm certainly an exeption Good work sofar, should keep the bots out (and hopefully no humans) 

[Nemesis6]

If it continues like this, you could always block Chinese and Russian IPs. One site, can't remember which one it was, but it was one of those image-board type sites, had to block the entire country of Ukraine to stop spammers.

Obviously this isn't optimal by any stretch of the imagination, but it could get the job done if it gets to the point where it becomes a big problem. Maybe just block all future registrations emanating from these countries. By the way, in case you haven't noticed, I'm assuming the bots have Chinese or Russian IPs!

[karajorma]

Or we could do something sensible instead of blocking off entire countries.

[FUBAR-BDHR]

Oh no Kara's in China that must mean he's a bot.

Like they wouldn't just use proxy servers to get around the blocks.

[Starman01]

Hire two or three people from the board, that handle new registration and make a small pm contact first, so you can check if a human is on the other side

[jr2]

That doesn't fix humans registering bots... right?

[Lucika]

That doesn't fix humans registering bots... right?

Not sure, I'm guessing their amount is minimal compared to the automated bots though.

[Starman01]

a.. human ... bot... ?

That makes me headache, my brain doesn't like paradox stuff I didn't knew this existed, I thought this is all about automated software

[Goober5000]

Well, we did get one spam registrant: "Jeniferleona", registered yesterday.

That's a lot better than dozens per day though.  And we still have to clean out all the old botty members.

[jr2]

a.. human ... bot... ?

Basically, human wants money fa$t.  So human can either get programs to control bots doing both registering and spamming - this gets a lot done fast as long as the bots aren't detected by CAPTCHA or w/e.  Or do the registering work himself; a bit slower, but it assures that his bots won't be detected as bots until they have had a chance to post.

[Starman01]

Sorry for digging this up, but after the discussion with the unreadable captchas, can it be that there are still bots registering ? Just noticed the username : djnattyd 

I cannot think that someone will use that sort of name if he wants to seriously participate......

Just wondering though 

[FUBAR-BDHR]

All the security in the world won't keep someone from manually registering a bot. 

[Mongoose]

That name sounds like it could be reasonably human to me.