WGA Website Registration

[Todd300Participant]

With the recent spam that this website has been getting lately, I’m wondering if this site should start requiring an extra step when registering to weed out bots and spammers – perhaps a Captcha thingy during registration? I’ve seen it at other forums that I’ve registered at.

I do know something needs to be done about those bots and spammers that have been posting in here lately.

[JimandLindaParticipant]

It was announced at the Picnic in May that the WGA would be launching a new website in the near future. I’m not sure how long we will be waiting, but your point is valid, Todd!

[labrat_wrParticipant]

for the few that get through, dozens are blocked.
so far they have been pretty harmless and deleted quickly.

Just don’t click on any of their hyperlinks.

Disclaimer : Always answering to a higher power.

[WalkingadventureParticipant]

@jimandlinda wrote:

It was announced at the Picnic in May that the WGA would be launching a new website in the near future. I’m not sure how long we will be waiting, but your point is valid, Todd!

As the new website has been a labor of love from TBC who did this completely on his free time, it is now built and we are working with his schedule to devote the time needed to migrate all of the old data (don’t want to lose any Useless Drivel pages and screw up FTP counts now do we?). He needs about 2 days of babysitting the website/servers, etc. to make sure all goes as needed.

Rest assured that he spent a few hundred man hours making this so it will happen. Trying to line up multiple schedules isn’t as easy as it sounds.

As Pete said, for every 1 that pops ups here, the webmaster has already blocked dozens before that one slipped through.

I am up for work and at the keyboard by 4:45 5 days a week and I usually find several that have slipped through the spam filter that I personally delete.

This one this morning was posted after I was at work so I didn’t see it until lunchtime.

Thanks all for being concerned and the SPAM battle is never ending as soon as we rein in the spam net, they figure out new ways to get around what Team Black Cat has created.

Following the signals from space.

[Todd300Participant]

[Team Black-CatParticipant]

All noted.
There is more like several thousand attempts blocked for every spam message that gets through. The new website will be somewhat more “strict” on who will be able to post, but it won’t affect registered, active members.
As far as CAPTCHA, we had that for a while and it got way too much negative feedback to deal with.

[WalkingadventureParticipant]

Thanks TBC for clarifying some things. I tried looking up how many were blocked daily/monthly but couldn’t find the right niche.

Following the signals from space.

[zumaParticipant]

@Team Black-Cat wrote:

All noted.
There is more like several thousand attempts blocked for every spam message that gets through. The new website will be somewhat more “strict” on who will be able to post, but it won’t affect registered, active members.
As far as CAPTCHA, we had that for a while and it got way too much negative feedback to deal with.

Thanks for not including CAPTCHA. Main reason I quit coming here often was the trouble getting on due to CAPTCHA. Really a bad system and pretty pointless.

zuma

[Team Black-CatParticipant]

We currently have CAPTCHA turned on for registration to the website. Basic CAPTCHA has become much less effective at stopping spammers.
Until recently, the spam we got was not from bots, but from actual humans. There is just no way to stop that, but they were so few and far between that it wasn’t too big of an issue.
Now that bots are smart enough to read and pass CAPTCHA challenges, as well as navigate our menu system to get to the forums and post, other steps need to be taken.
With the new website going online next week, I am not going to make any changes on the current registration process. We will rely on our diligent moderators (the current Board of Directors) to delete spam as soon as they see it.
Members and website users can help by simply ignoring and not responding to the SMAM messages. Extra comments just leave more posts for moderators to have to weed through.

[RJ McKenzieParticipant]

@Team Black-Cat wrote:

We currently have CAPTCHA turned on for registration to the website. Basic CAPTCHA has become much less effective at stopping spammers.
Until recently, the spam we got was not from bots, but from actual humans. There is just no way to stop that, but they were so few and far between that it wasn’t too big of an issue.
Now that bots are smart enough to read and pass CAPTCHA challenges, as well as navigate our menu system to get to the forums and post, other steps need to be taken.
With the new website going online next week, I am not going to make any changes on the current registration process. We will rely on our diligent moderators (the current Board of Directors) to delete spam as soon as they see it.
Members and website users can help by simply ignoring and not responding to the SMAM messages. Extra comments just leave more posts for moderators to have to weed through.

How about doing a different type of verification system for new members who IP address come from else where in the world? Such as not in states around Wisconsin. Make them have to contact an admin to get permission to join the forums and post.

[Team Black-CatParticipant]

I have considered not accepting any posts from countries known to have a lot of SPAM coming from them, but all of the most recent SPAM has been from the US, so no good…

I don’t want to limit anyone from the US from joining in. I have posted in quite a few forums from other out of state geocaching organizations, so I’m sure others do the same.

I am going to have the BOD consider having a new user’s forum posts held for moderation. If their first post isn’t SPAM, they are most likely a legitimate user and can be allowed to post without moderation. This will catch nearly 100% of spammers and users won’t have to ever see it. This might not be necessary with the anti-spam service used on the new web site.

[RJ McKenzieParticipant]

I like that holding the first post for moderation idea. Hopefully it won’t be necessary with the new anti spam service your talking about.

[NoonanParticipant]

But I will miss reading about people with muscle and such

The best sig is no sig.

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