Membership Approval Now Required

[Admin US West]

We are now requiring membership approval of each new member. The reason for this is the 400 new account signups by spam robots each day.

Approvals usually take as day or less to complete.

We are weeding out the spam accounts, but that will take time.

We will not approve membership if the account name looks like a advertisement, is a e-mail address, or just sounds phoney, It is definitely better if a account name has some recognizable link to photography.

 

[jdramirez]

April 1st... was 6 weeks ago... but cool if that is indeed what yall are doing.

 

[Hobby Shooter]

Makes sense, will you leave a message box for the person applying say something about him/herself?

 

[Forceflow]

Well, as an already registered user I don't mind this, but why are you not implementing a Q&A process? Ask a specific question during the sign-up and tell the users that the answer is on your help site and not on the register page. Anybody answering that question correctly will have been a human and not a bot. Should weed out quite a bit of the bots. (Got rid of 99.99% of all SPAM accounts on my two forums)

 

[meli]

You could get creative with the sign-up page, lets say for example that there was an image (pulled between 6-7 different ones) with a simple field such as "what type of photography is this" and the answer rotating between landscape, portrait or sports, Sounds dumb enough that it might actually work.

 

[expatinasia]

It is definitely better if a account name has some recognizable link to photography.

Not sure I agree with that last little bit at all.

I know how hard it is to deal with the bots which are getting smarter and smarter everyday. But it is a fine balance, between stopping the bots and trying to make enrolling as easy, simple and fast as possible for those that are real and want to join.

As forceflow suggested, using a form of CAPTCHA of some kind would help reduce this. Even if it means showing a picture with a maths puzzle and asking the person to calculate the total, or something else.

Approvals usually take as day or less to complete.

Not good. I probably would have joined another forum during that time, and would have no interest in returning here. And that is the danger. Anything other than pretty immediate membership could have dire consequences on the future growth of the forum.

Anyway, I wish you luck.

 

[Hobby Shooter]

It is definitely better if a account name has some recognizable link to photography.

Not sure I agree with that last little bit at all.

I know how hard it is to deal with the bots which are getting smarter and smarter everyday. But it is a fine balance, between stopping the bots and trying to make enrolling as easy, simple and fast as possible for those that are real and want to join.

As forceflow suggested, using a form of CAPTCHA of some kind would help reduce this. Even if it means showing a picture with a maths puzzle and asking the person to calculate the total, or something else.

Approvals usually take as day or less to complete.

Not good. I probably would have joined another forum during that time, and would have no interest in returning here. And that is the danger. Anything other than pretty immediate membership could have dire consequences on the future growth of the forum.

Anyway, I wish you luck.

I agree with your last point, let's hope they find another way around it

 

[CanadianInvestor]

The out-of-proportion costs of imposing such protocols I see everyday in my day job as an M&A specialist and they will reap few rewards for legitimate users. Good luck in implementing these changes.

I guess my account name would have been flagged since it has little to do with photography!

 

[Sith Zombie]

Fair enough, Everybody hates a spambot. I'll be able to link to my website in a few weeks once its done but don't mind answering a question or something. No maths though! I'm terrible at it .

 

[Rienzphotoz]

Fair enough ... but a day for approval? :-\

 

[zim]

Naah just ask how much DR a Nikon sensor has, no real Canon user knows the answer to that…. No…. oh wait.… dooh

(sorry someone had to ;D )

 

[funkboy]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CAPTCHA

 

[Click]

... It is definitely better if a account name has some recognizable link to photography.

[email protected]


;D ;D ;D

 

[J.R.]

We will not approve membership if the account name looks like a advertisement, is a e-mail address, or just sounds phoney, It is definitely better if a account name has some recognizable link to photography.

This is way too subjective and what may be an advertisement / email / phoney to you may just be perfect for someone else. Compound this by the fact that the username will be rejected after one day I doubt a genuine user who is rejected will bother to try again (I certainly wouldn't, but that's just me).

IMHO a captcha is a better idea as suggested above.

 

[bvukich]

Fair enough ... but a day for approval? :-\

It's usually more like an hour or two max.

And the only person I've rejected so far was someone that already had two accounts, and for some reason felt the need to sign up for a third.

 

[junkwerks]

Do I look phony? Yes, actually I do. But I am not a spam bot.

It is a serious problem. Hope a way is found to lighten the admin load. Maybe a series of questions that reasonably intelligent individuals could figure out how to answer.

Oh, never mind...

 

[bvukich]

We will not approve membership if the account name looks like a advertisement, is a e-mail address, or just sounds phoney, It is definitely better if a account name has some recognizable link to photography.

This is way too subjective and what may be an advertisement / email / phoney to you may just be perfect for someone else. Compound this by the fact that the username will be rejected after one day I doubt a genuine user who is rejected will bother to try again (I certainly wouldn't, but that's just me).

IMHO a captcha is a better idea as suggested above.

You'd be surprised how non-ambiguous some of the attempts are...

khlhkjh001
khlhkjh002
khlhkjh003
...
khlhkjh999

All signed up in a matter of minutes from the same IP address.

Usernames that are obvious spam URLs...

And also the people that set up sock-puppet accounts.

 

[RAKAMRAK]

Please do not delete me. I am human not bot and never send any spams.

And by the way my screen name is the reverse of my actual surname.

 

[2n10]

I mod on a forum and we were hit recently with tons of spambots and spammers. Admin had not updated the captcha and question. After those two things were done we have had a lot less spam issues. The time taken to review the names before approval will cut back the spammers even more.
Sucks but is necessary. Good job.

 

[distant.star]

.
I appreciate being told about this. If I recommend this forum to someone, I can let them know in advance they have a gate to go through -- no big deal.

My hat's off to those of you dealing with the barrage of assaults by those who want to prey on the community here. Thanks!