[MatthTheGeek]

(03:36:20) Lyonide: Hi, quick question, how long does it usually take for a hard-light account to be approved out of curiosity?
(03:37:33) MatthTheGeek: no idea, since admin aproval is quite a recent measure
(03:38:12) MatthTheGeek: we've been under heavy spambot attack, so we're not taking any chances
(03:38:15) Lyonide: ah ok, been waiting 3 weeks :/
(03:38:39) MatthTheGeek: your nick on the forums is Lyonide too ?
(03:38:44) Lyonide: yup
(03:38:56) MatthTheGeek: k, dropping a message on the support board

[Zacam]

Bestest way to handle for in the future for immediate results:

• Obtain the username they attempted to register with.
• Obtain the e-mail address they attempted to register with.
• PM me the details, as it was likely my fault, and even if it wasn't, I'll still take care of it.

Both are crucial and essential to rectifying the situation.

[MatthTheGeek]

Roger and noted.

[Goober5000]

Approval or rejection almost always takes place within two days.  If a registrant hasn't heard anything, he likely was rejected based on either being similar to a spambot registration or being in the midst of 100 checkboxes.  (There are literally about 100 registrations a day now, and 49 in the queue at the moment.)

[Firstdragon34]

Waiting for two days seems like a long time when you are excited, but I can't imagine the registations. Your a busy man Goober5000.

[Mobius]

Out of curiosity, what do the admins do when it's very hard to determine wheter or not a new user is a spambot? Do they reject applications by default?

[Lyonide]

Up and running now, thanks guys.

[jr2]

* jr2 wonders if there's any way he could help with the load.

[Iss Mneur]

I wonder, does our registration process set down some expectations for the registration process (ie. what Goober5000 just stated)?  I just checked the registration agreement and the registration page itself, I didn't see any mention, I didn't want to add to the registration load so I didn't try the registration process to see if there was any mention after clicking the button.

[Firstdragon34]

How recent is the spambot attack?

[Goober5000]

Out of curiosity, what do the admins do when it's very hard to determine wheter or not a new user is a spambot? Do they reject applications by default?

If I'm not sure about a registration, I reject it.  This is because I've given several registrations that I was unsure about the benefit of the doubt, and every single one of them turned out to be a spammer.

I wonder, does our registration process set down some expectations for the registration process (ie. what Goober5000 just stated)?  I just checked the registration agreement and the registration page itself, I didn't see any mention, I didn't want to add to the registration load so I didn't try the registration process to see if there was any mention after clicking the button.

I've added a paragraph to the registration agreement.

How recent is the spambot attack?

It has been going on for years, but it was quite rare up until several months ago.

[Fury]

It's not like I haven't given tips how to reduce number of spam registrations. But it seems you prefer to make things harder on yourself just because they came from me. Suit yourself.

[Goober5000]

As we have said before, we have solutions in the works.  Drama queening is not productive.

[Zacam]

It's not like I haven't given tips how to reduce number of spam registrations. But it seems you prefer to make things harder on yourself just because they came from me. Suit yourself.

Seeing as how I'm still waiting on the GoDaddy and GMail access from Sandwich to be able to enable CloudFlare as an interim (or potential permanent solution, but I still think having some localized protections in place is a Good Thing), your statement is both false and unwarranted, so sorry that I didn' t validate your existence by letting you know I was following your advice.

[mjn.mixael]

It's not like I haven't given tips how to reduce number of spam registrations. But it seems you prefer to make things harder on yourself just because they came from me. Suit yourself.

Seriously? Again? Whatever grudge you have against Zacam or the other Admins... I suggest you talk it out someplace private. We don't need our admins (or previous admins) setting this sort of example. 

[Mobius]

[Fury]

Seriously? Again? Whatever grudge you have against Zacam or the other Admins... I suggest you talk it out someplace private. We don't need our admins (or previous admins) setting this sort of example. 

Interesting choice of words in using "again" and "grudge". I haven't made much effort to hide the fact that I've disliked Goober for many years, but I bear no grudge against him or any other admin or otherwise. The only incident you could use "grudge" for would be what happened after I left FSU, but that was resolved. If it looks like I have a "grudge" or something, it is solely because I am annoyed at how this spam situation was handled.

What they chose to do here was to invent a solution that would take considerable time to create, implement and test. Meanwhile it was decided that all registrations would required admin approval. While it doesn't affect general populace in any way, it is stupid to comb through each of those registrations in hopes to actually spot legit registrations because you might just as well go to a local marketplace and try to differentiate real brand jeans from fakes. (I admit chinese addresses are dead giveaway most of the time though) You can't most of the time. So the only logical thing to do here would be to reduce number of spam registrations as much as you can while you cook up something better and clean up whatever gets through afterwards. At least legit registrations aren't rejected outright or forgotten, which in the end may hurt the community more than spammers. Plus CF, custom CAPTCHA and whatever Zacam is cooking up is bound to work better than any single one of them alone.

Which reminds me, custom CAPTCHA isn't used yet either. If you don't want to use the nameplate images, use something that no other forum does. At least most automated bot registrations are bound to fail there.

Seeing as how I'm still waiting on the GoDaddy and GMail access from Sandwich

Hmph. I really shouldn't have expected something like that to have been handled in a matter of few days at most. Bunch of slowpokes.