spam prevention

[Huntress]

Sweet!  Thanks hun.

[nicholassolutions]

Are you saying that there is no email verification at all?
All the CMS i have looked at have that...
The system sends either the initial password (like drupal) or an activation link that needs to be clicked?
No wonder we have problems with spambots.

We have an email verification...but it's not that hard to write a program to sign up for a gmail account, sign up at a forum, and then check mail frequently and follow activation links (especially easy if it's a standard email hard-coded in the CMS). Not all of the spam bots seem to be doing that, but I think some do. That's why I'd like to come up with something that is a little harder for a computer to manage.

[Huntress]

I have an idea.  Can you setup an email account from the server that only the admins can access then we can post in the news section that all registrations have to be made through that email.  That way we can filter the baddy's and register the good ones manually.  Maybe require them to write a little note or something?

[nicholassolutions]

yeah that is sort of what I was thinking with #3 in my original post

3. Create an email address to write to in order to request an account.  Uses will have to include their emails, proposed username, and a brief description of their interests and why they want to join. There is no review process, this just insures that actual human beings are signing up. Unless things change, I predict we will get very few of these emails. The mail can fwd to me, huntress, and coral, who will make the account manually.

I'm a little worried it could be a PITA though. I guess it never hurts to try. There are two ways to do it:
1) Have an account on the server that you can check via webmail or your email program (thunderbird etc)
2) just set up an alias so that mail to that addy fwds to the admins (at whatever account you want)

which one works better for you guys?

[Huntress]

I, for one, have been doing these for quite sometime so it kind of should fall on me.  I'd rather setup a pop3 in TBird like I used to have on the old servers when we were still .com.  I only work part-time now so have plenty of time to deal with it.

[nicholassolutions]

It's a deal :)
I'll set up an account and email you with the credentials.

[Huntress]

Great!  :-)  After it's done I'll post instructions in the news section.

[nicholassolutions]

sounds good -- I'll also try to look through the forum code and see if I can insert a message to replace the one that says "registration disabled." If I can, I'll put whatever message you post over there also.

[Huntress]

Excellent.  :-)  I'm ready when you are.

[coral1]

Ditto on the SWEET !   : )

HAHAHAHA... while I was typing out something like that, you 2 already did it.  : )

Yell if you need a hand.

[Huntress]

You know it!  ;-)  Thanks Craig.

[Huntress]

Please check the news on the main page.  :-)  It's all set now.  I will be getting the messages on my machine but they will also be left on the server for up to 7 days so that if anyone wants to give a hand and has access to the webmail then have at it!  ;-)

[nicholassolutions]

Looks good! I'll try to paste it into the register link too.

[Huntress]

Sweet!

[coral1]

Do you have some way to mark them so we don't double up?

I am assuming you are already logged on there, since I can't get in, yet.
I will set up a pop tonight for OE, and try again tomorrow. It's past my bedtime.  : )