Limit age of posts to which new posters can reply

[AETAaAS]

Sorry, I just thought because the mods usually act so fast, it's kinda interesting for those who missed it to see what the spammers do from time to time.

Would the idea of a captcha like question where people who sign up have to pick a specific object (eg. the yellow flower) out of a selection of images go amiss though?

[Saracen]

Sorry, I just thought because the mods usually act so fast, it's kinda interesting for those who missed it to see what the spammers do from time to time.

Would the idea of a captcha like question where people who sign up have to pick a specific object (eg. the yellow flower) out of a selection of images go amiss though?

There's two basic types of spam. One is real people, posting a quick 20 comments without actually contibuting anything, to get Scan free shipping. That's the type under discussion here at the moment. Captcha won't help because the problem is a real person that can't be bothered to put even minimal effort to making those 20 posts actually contibute something. And note, not all people posting 20 quick posts don't contribute - a good few do actually bother to contribute.

The drivel you quoted is the second type, which is straight commercial spam, coming either from automated spambots, or groups of poorly paid individuals in very poor countries being paid a pittance to post that drivel.

On that second type, I'm going to say something that sounds a bit like MI5 or GCHQ justifying 'secret' intelligence gathering .... we don't discuss how we catch spammers because if what we tell you, the members, what we do, by implication, we also tell the spammers .... which would help them get round it.

Suffice it to say that this second type of spam could be called iceberg spam. The bit you may see, from time to time, is the tip. The vast, vast bulk doesn't get past our precautions.

And that makes it very hard to explain what we do. I'd love to share it with the members. If nothing else, you might all get a grin out of it. But if I did, it might stop being so effective .... and then we wouldn't be grinning.

[peterb]

Sorry, I just thought because the mods usually act so fast, it's kinda interesting for those who missed it to see what the spammers do from time to time.

No probs! I agree it is interesting, but best got rid of! It is a bit like an arms race - spammers are devising new ways of getting stuff out there to overcome anti-spam measures.

Would the idea of a captcha like question where people who sign up have to pick a specific object (eg. the yellow flower) out of a selection of images go amiss though?

Saracen has answered before I got to it, but as he says, we do see (and deal with) a lot of SPAM before it is ever seen on the boards.