User Pruning

[BuZz]

I have been pruning the user database. Many users who had 0 posts have been removed. Some of these may well have been real accounts, anda few were old - but most were spam / unused. If you have been registered on the forum for a few years and have never had the need to post, you probably don't need the account anyway.

We had far too many spam accounts, so to avoid being removed on the forum it is advisable to at least make one post when registering. If you don't need to post, you don't need an account.

[Dom DXecutioner]

Are you able to activate an email/captcha verification? You know, sign up, send email, confirm, log in, and done!

[BuZz]

Are you able to activate an email/captcha verification? You know, sign up, send email, confirm, log in, and done!

we already have a question captcha which has worked well in the past. They must have put the answers in a database though recently so I have changed it again. We also already have email verification. Unfortunately you are dealing with real people often with the spam - low paid workers etc. They do all the registration process a normal user would. The XBOX specific questions in the past worked better than a standard captcha as they required a bit of knowledge to get past (and were not always too easy to google - eg how much ram does the xbox have - spammers may look up the wrong model)

[nidge]

Just logged in and about 6 spammers came up in new posts

[nidge]

"and then they were gone!" quick work Buzz

[professor_jonny]

paypal donation to join the forum ? and it lists a number on your credit card receipt to verify

I had to do that on another site but I cant remember what it was only 10 cents or something like that.

[xman]

I have a question. Why do the hoard of bots, (Bing [Bot], Google [Bot], etc), show up as registered users?.

[BuZz]

Just the way phpb treats them (and displays them). When they are crawling the forum etc.

[GoTeamScotch]

paypal donation to join the forum ? and it lists a number on your credit card receipt to verify

I had to do that on another site but I cant remember what it was only 10 cents or something like that.

I don't favor this as it would discourage real people from joining. I know I didn't have a paypal account/bank account until I was like 18 and I was crawling console modding forums long before that. We're already a fairly modest community as it is.