Spambot Prevention Suggestions

[Al Skierkiewicz]

I guess it would be appropriate to let you know that there are many moderators that watch and receive alerts. When you report a post, we receive an email alert and respond if we are on line. Also some of us watch the new users link on the CD homepage and investigate. Some spammers are caught before they ever post anything because they have certain items in their online profile that highlights them. Sometimes this is a hyper link in their signature line, sometimes it is a website in their profile and sometime it is the nature of their screen name. Some bots are now filling in the field with a random team number so if I see an FRC team number greater than 5000 it is a red flag. Also if I see a retired team number like 47 I also suspect a bot.
I check new users every few days and eliminate as I find them. Several of us start early in the morning so we clean up when we get to work. Eastern time zone usually gets there first like John and Gary. I follow at 6 CDT. Others who are on later in the day like Mark and others will get things while the rest of us are getting home and having dinner and still others will get stuff late night like BillFred.
However, we don't all have the same rights, so while we get the report, I can't delete post in all forums but I can delete users so they can't post again. Some bots (not a lot) have managed to post 20 times in a few seconds.