Spammer in the forums (SPOILER)

[GigaLem]

Do you get the fealing that some one is spamming in the talking about nothing in the topics?
Because it's a real problem!!!!!
And you can get the fealing you'll say SHUT UP !!!!!!1!!!!!

[ccexplore]

Yeah, I've already emailed Adam about this about half an hour ago.  Unfortunately this isn't the first time (not even 2nd or 3rd etc.) this has happened.

The only way to minimize these sorts of SPAM is if the forum supports some sort of feature to limit the frequency of postings by new users.  Or perhaps some way to detect that a user has posted basically the same content in multiple posts on multiple boards, like typically SPAM posts.

[Mr. K]

I'm no PHP programmer; I can't do that.
But I can add a sort of "are you human" question to the registration process, which I'll do now.

EDIT: You've gotta be kidding me; I already had one.  Damn it, the bot got through.  I'll figure something out.

[GuyPerfect]

Ask a Lemmings-related question instead. I mean, what kind of spambot is going to know what direction a Digger moves in?

[ccexplore]

EDIT: You've gotta be kidding me; I already had one.  Damn it, the bot got through.  I'll figure something out.

I had a quick look just now at that registration page.  I could be mistaken, but it seems that the same image gets used every time you register!  (Well not exactly the same, but it's still the same answer for all of them, at least when I tested the page just now.)  I'd think this would vastly reduce the challenge to bots. 

[edit: my bad. Different images do get used on different registrations, just that within one registration, when you either make a mistake or ask to "request another image", you end up with an image that still corresponds to the same answer (as opposed to an image with totally different letters each time you made a mistake, as is typical of this type of verification).]

GP's idea is awesome though, not only will it filter out bots, it would really help ensure that only people with legitimate interest in Lemmings will successfully register.  I'll try to PM Adam Mr. K a list of a dozen or so questions general enough for all Lemmings player to know the answer to.  [edit: done]

[Mr. K]

Well, that is definitely an idea.  We've just got to make sure that they are definitely general enough for all Lemmings players.  They must also lack any room for questioning the answer, or how it is answered: For example "What direction does a Basher move in?" would not be good, because you could answer "left", "right", "horizontally", "left and right", "right and left"... etc and there is only a single answer slot configurable.

Another thing, don't PM your ideas to Adam; PM them to me since I'm the one with the access to the Admin panel where this stuff is configured.

[Liebatron]

"what kind of spambot is going to know what direction a Digger moves in?"

I for one think this is brilliant. Maybe not exactly that question, but a question like it that would be easier for people to get the same answer with, like "What color is a lemming's hair?"

The only way to deviate on that question is if

A: You don't know how to spell your colors
OR
B: You capitalize it. And that problem is easily nullified by an ignore case command.

[ccexplore]

like "What color is a lemming's hair?"

That might work for spambots, but if we want to deter trollers/human spammers as well, that question might be a bit too obvious to answer, given the very graphics featured in the forum banner

[Mr. K]

Eh, don't worry about the humans.  They're more rare and more fun to mess with.  We're just trying to stop bots right now.

@Funktastic: If the people can't spell their colors, then they probably don't need to be here anyway.  And capitalization is not a problem-- it is already case insensitive.

[Liebatron]

My point exactly. Just so people know (if there's anyone else from this bygone age left) I used to be here with the username Dumb_lem.

[chaos_defrost]

I definitely remember you. There's actually quite a few people here from a while ago but a lot of them haven't posted in the last couple weeks.