Bay Six Software

[Brent]

Hello all,

Given the increasing sophistication of spammers, I am experimenting with some modifications to the site that I hope will slow them down but shouldn't be much noticed by established members. I have implemented a probationary period wherein a newly registered user is not permitted to post any messages containing spammy text, including links. For now, this period lasts for the first four posts and until 6 hours after registration.

The next step I plan to take is to do something similar to the displays of a user's website and signature. I think that if a new user sets a sig, a warning message should take its place for the first 24 hours after registration; maybe "Signature temporarily disabled during probationary period."

Do any of you know of any other sites that have tried something similar, and how well it is/was working?

[STPendl]

I think you are still on phpBB 2.x so an update to 3.x should offer more possibilities OOTB.

Sure this would be cumbersome due to the heavy customizations, but starting out with the default setup and adding one feature after the other would be possible.

I have been updating a forum from 2.x to 3.x and the spam has been reduced heavily by just using the build in features of phpBB 3.x

Another thing to think through are the heavy modifications and if they are really worth the trouble of blocking a smooth transition to a newer phpBB version.