I have a friend (really!) that is getting into CMC and I told him to be sure to register on this site. Not sure if he has done it yet, but I noticed a few posts by new members recently. Knowing this is a fairly small corner of the web, I was a bit surprised at their "Member No."

Joined: 23-November 11
Member No.: 126,725

Joined: 25-December 11
Member No.: 136,339

Are we really getting 10k new members a month?

Actually, we're getting about 10k "Russian hookers" a month. I typically have 20+ pages of members in queue for approval (they get auto purged if they aren't validated manually by me in 2 weeks). If/when they email me I manually dig up their account in the "rubble" and validate it so they can post. Sadly this board keeps the member numbers based on all the bogus registrations until I manually do a member recount and then it makes the correction and will change that to a believable number. On average we get 1-3 new members a week. Some weeks we get none, some days I get 3-4. I'm guessing we pop up on Pro-Touring or some other website and people come join. We've had some quality members find us that way (whatever way it is) so I'm not complaining at all. The people are what make this site and as long as we keep finding great members with questions or tech, we'll keep doing what we're doing.

I'll go do a member recount and see if those change.... (IMG:http://www.frrax.com/rrforum/style_emoticons/default/blink.gif)

For grins, click on the 'members' tab on the upper right, and list all, by join date, in descending order. There are pages of members being validated each day.

Reminds me of a scene from LOTR, with Kevin alone on top of the wall, taking out the horde one by one. Good thing he has plenty of ammo ;-)

Apparently doing a recount doesn't change the member numbers. I was sure it corrected that the last time I ran the utility. Oh well, things should be cleaned up a little bit and post counts have been corrected to remove things that have been deleted, etc. Member numbers stay the same...

I cleared everyone out of the cache of validating members (apparently the auto remove wasn't working). It deleted 1,500+ registrations. In 5 minutes I had 4 new ones. So, I added a math problem to the registration process that has a field looking for a number (even if you blow the math problem, but put in the right number of digits it will let you in). Most of the bots fill in required fields with text to get through (like "Russia" for car type and "slovenia" for car use, etc). We'll see if having to put in a specific quantity of numbers slows the bots down. Or, one of these days I'm going to upgrade to different board software and I might move to a new server as well. We'll see how it goes. I've been putting it off for a while now.

Is it possible to add some captcha type field to the registration page?

There already was one, but they seem to walk right through it like it doesn't exist. It's the ones generated by the board software. If you're bored, log out and go try to register again. That's what I did after I made the changes. You'll see exactly what's there. I'm open to ideas. The math problem seems to have nearly stopped them...for now.

I say this board needs MORE Russian hookers, not less! Let's get this party started!!! (IMG:http://www.frrax.com/rrforum/style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

Sorry, I'm keeping them all for myself!!!

(IMG:http://www.frrax.com/rrforum/style_emoticons/default/nutkick.gif)

I just did the registration and it's funny how the Russian hookers can't figure out the math problem, but they can get though the security information with no problem.

How do bots work? How do people write info that actually gets through the registration process.

If the math problem stops working, there is a dirt bike forum that I'm registered with that has a pretty cool way of dealing with bots. They ask a specific question, like "what's the name of the actor who played Cole, in Days of Thuner" (sorry, only thing I could think of at the time). The answer to this question was included in the "read before you register" section.


Steve

The issue is, I can't make it require a specific answer (with this software), but the math problem answer is required to be a numeric answer and only one digit long. So, 0-9 will work, just don't make it 10. (IMG:http://www.frrax.com/rrforum/style_emoticons/default/smile.gif) We'll see how long this works...lol.

I just went in to validate 2 registrations and only found 3 people in queue. The third one was also a legit member. I guess I should have tried this sooner. Just didn't think it would work (and it may not work forever).

Any time anyone mentions that they have a third or fouth gen f body on BITOG (bobistheoilguy.com), I (and I believe the other members of BOTH sites) send them over here, especially if they mention they want to turn left and right, and stop, as well as go fast in a straight line. (IMG:http://www.frrax.com/rrforum/style_emoticons/default/wink.gif) (IMG:http://www.frrax.com/rrforum/style_emoticons/default/gr_grin.gif)

Works for me. Welcome to all of the new non Russian hookers!!! (IMG:http://www.frrax.com/rrforum/style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

The club I belong to (Classic Touring Car Racing Club) I am a moderator on their forum and we have the exact same problem with spammers, if you ever find a way to stop it Kevin please let us know.