Spambot Prevention Suggestions

[artdutra04]

99.9% of the moderating I do is deleting spam. So here are some points:

1. For a while before last build season, all posts from new users had to approved by a moderator. On average, there seemed to be a 24-48 hour backlog on posts. Some users would then try to post again... and again... and again... and again because they did not see the posts show up immediately. This created almost as many problems as it solved.

2. The most viable method to preventing spam is to prohibit users that have under 50 posts OR less than 300 points (three green bars) in reputation from:
- Posting hyperlinks in posts or signature
- Editing their own posts

3. Some sub-forums have like 50 moderators, so chances are higher that someone will delete it sooner. Other really obscure and hardly ever used sub-forums have like 3 total moderators, and spam posts there can linger for months and months. I suggest we both significantly prune/lock/archive these forums and add some more active moderators to the remaining forums.

I've seen some spammers go on a 10-20 post blitz of posting worthless drivel posts to get their post count up. 50 posts and 300 points should be a high enough threshold to discourage most spammers. And no hyperlinks of any kind make spam posts worthless.

Maybe to help get some extra money, users under 50 posts or 300 rep points that donate to CD can have these restrictions immediately removed.