New members forum only for activated users

[banpei]

Over the past few years we had many new members introduce themselves before their accounts were activated. Unfortunately in the past few weeks we had an influx of spam accounts bypassing the spam detection. Some of these users posted (many) spam topics to the new members forum. Not only is this disturbing for our users but also stressful for the moderation team.

This meant that we had to stop our warm welcome and close the new members forum for users awaiting activation. For now if you are awaiting activation, send a PM to me or any of the moderators. Enabling shouldn't take longer than one or two days. Until we have enabled your account you simply have to wait.

This also means that if you don't send us a PM we will not enable your account. If an account has not been activated within 14 days it will be deleted, so this means you really have to send us a PM.

[Power_uP]

Good idea. I kept an eye on the forum last night and I was thinking: "wow, this guy has so much energy, he has to get tired soon". Then I checked the forum again this morning and realised he must be a bot because he was still going.

I've noticed that a lot of other forums make new members wait for activation and while it is obviously frustrating at first, its the only way to stop that type of spam. Maybe you could make new members PM a mod to get the account activated? I can't imagine spambots getting past that type of check easily.

[banpei]

(10-07-2019 05:48 PM)Power_uP Wrote:  I've noticed that a lot of other forums make new members wait for activation and while it is obviously frustrating at first, its the only way to stop that type of spam. Maybe you could make new members PM a mod to get the account activated? I can't imagine spambots getting past that type of check easily.

I think that's quite a good idea as the user needs to initiate with a mod.
I'll see how I can make changes to the instructions email.

[Bean]

I was actually waiting for a post like this from you. If I wouldn't be in the middle of completing my thesis for school I would help you out. If you haven't found a solution by the end of the year let me know. I should have more time by then.