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Depending on the time I finish work, there seems to be Belgian spambots constantly dropping their League of Legends, or World of Tanks, or Mincraft "premium accounts" with dodgy links. Now whenever I see them, I report them to the mods. But after just having seen this post by MajorTom, I felt I had to bring this up here. Now I'm assuming that whatever scumbag melon-fether posted that link to scam us/steal from B&C was a brand-new poster, but I'm wondering if some restrictions on brand-new posters might not be a good idea.

Some ideas to throw around:

New posters can only post new topics in the Introductions sub forums until they hit, say, 10 or 20 posts. Posting privs can be granted manually "early" by a mod during registration for Rick Priestly/Sandy Petersen/Mike McVey/whichever well-known gaming celeb who turns up here to pimp their Kickstarter with a post or five before disappearing again forever.
Manual registration/confirmation needed for all new users (may already be in place, obviously I haven't made an account recently) - and/or a 24-hour minimum wait.

I mean, Malware spambots are bad enough, but if that prick managed to scam anyone out of B&C money, then you can bet they'll try it again when they feel they can - for example in Kev Adams' GoblinAid thread, etc...


edit - derp - forgot the link for Tom's post.

It's not an uncommon feature. I know a lot of people don't like Warseer, but a moderator has to approve your first post.

I disagree. I see a lot of first posters asking rules questions that belong in YMDC and I think being able to do so is a very helpful and good thing to have.

/e:...and yeah, we shouldn't use Warseer as a good example for moderation.

I am pretty sure the answer to this is going to be "We want to keep Dakka Dakka a place where people can hop right in and start participating as soon as possible. Restricting their initial posting in such a method would hamper new user growth such that the medicine is worse than the cure, and while the level of spam we experience is irksome, it's a small price to pay for great accessibility".

Besides, deleting spam posts is a great way to give the our fascist moderators an intellectual respite from banning people for no reason at all, amiright? Sorta like cracking your knuckles when typing a long report.

Reds8n: I've seen your post; and am warning you for violating rule #1.
NewUser: I only have one post, and all I said in it was "hi everyone, I'm excited to join Dakka!"?
Reds8n: : Give me your shoes.
NewUser: My... my shoes? I'm not... I'm going to talk to Yakface about this.
Reds8n: : Mr. Newuser. How will you speak.... when you have no mouth?
NEWUSER IP BANNED - MODERATOR: REDS8N (Reason: automated spambot)

 Ouze wrote:
I am pretty sure the answer to this is going to be "We want to keep Dakka Dakka a place where people can hop right in and start participating as soon as possible. Restricting their initial posting in such a method would hamper new user growth such that the medicine is worse than the cure, and while the level of spam we experience is irksome, it's a small price to pay for great accessibility".

Besides, deleting spam posts is a great way to give the our fascist moderators an intellectual respite from banning people for no reason at all, amiright? Sorta like cracking your knuckles when typing a long report.

Reds8n: I've seen your post; and am warning you for violating rule #1.
NewUser: I only have one post, and all I said in it was "hi everyone, I'm excited to join Dakka!"?
Reds8n: : Give me your shoes.
NewUser: My... my shoes? I'm not... I'm going to talk to Yakface about this.
Reds8n: : Mr. Newuser. How will you speak.... when you have no mouth?
NEWUSER IP BANNED - MODERATOR: REDS8N (Reason: automated spambot)

I feel that you are correct on both counts.

Although I find it satisfactorily amusing that you used Reds8n as an example...

Oh god, the fascist moderators have me in their sights, what have I done?!

We want to keep Dakka Dakka a place where people can hop right in and start participating as soon as possible. Restricting their initial posting in such a method would hamper new user growth such that the medicine is worse than the cure, and while the level of spam we experience is irksome, it's a small price to pay for great accessibility

It is an arms race with the spammers and we stay just ahead of the wave usually. There has been an uptick lately but we'll make some tweaks and they will reduce again.

Would this be a good time to tell you all about some fantastic deals on a new kitchen?


Anyway, is it possible to restrict a new user's ability to inline photos or videos until they have posted a certain number of times or received mod approval? I ask because I've seen incidents on other boards where some anonymous troll posts graphic and illegal images in innocuous threads in order to get work-browsers in trouble and cause general mayhem.

 Ouze wrote:

Reds8n: I've seen your post; and am warning you for violating rule #1.
NewUser: I only have one post, and all I said in it was "hi everyone, I'm excited to join Dakka!"?
Reds8n: : Give me your shoes.
Malfred: : The socks... get his socks.
NewUser: My... my shoes? I'm not... I'm going to talk to Yakface about this.
Reds8n: : Mr. Newuser. How will you speak.... when you have no mouth?
NEWUSER IP BANNED - MODERATOR: REDS8N (Reason: automated spambot)

Fixed for obvious you missed.

Excellent Ouze/not_u

And somehow, I have missed the plethora of kitchen threads- maybe they're popping up in subforums I don't frequent?

Always in introduction.

 n0t_u wrote:
Always in introduction.

Introduction, Dakka Discussions, Off Topic, 40k General, Warhammer Fantasy, etc.

They are usually scattered. An initial posting in Intro then a follow-up elsewhere if they can manage it before a mod gets 'em.

I thought I saw one in Article discussions

 BobtheInquisitor wrote:
Would this be a good time to tell you all about some fantastic deals on a new kitchen?

What about just temporarily blocking any new thread with "kitchen" in the title?

May not be feasible at all, of course, just a funny idea that would block most of the current crop of 'bots. I don't think we use the word in a wargaming context very often, after all