Quote from: TheQuin on August 15, 2018, 09:32:32 AM

There are a lot of really good suggestions here so I'm just going to prioritise what I think is most urgent and what will be the most effective in reducing the spam problem.

Quote from: hilariousetc on August 14, 2018, 10:48:33 AM

Requiring manually whitelisting of all new accounts before they can post. All new users will essentially be shadowbanned until they've been verified by a mod. This will eliminate 99% of bots and spammers before they even start. Spam threads can be trashed on sight before they even become spam megathreads.

This is the only effective way to deal with bots. The other suggestions about captcha and email verification are trivial for botnets and won't even slow them down.

It is the only way we'll likely stop them from being a nuisance and an eyesore, though it's a lot more work for staff. The benefits of it stopping 99% of bots outweigh any negatives though. Many other forums have this sort of post verification as well. As for captchas being bypassed, anything can be got around but it's one more hoop for them to jump through. I don't think I've joined many websites or forums before that didn't require email verification and if captchas are so pointless then why does pretty much every other forum use them? They have their benefits and will stop some bots at least.

Quote from: TheQuin on August 15, 2018, 09:32:32 AM

Quote from: hilariousetc on August 14, 2018, 10:48:33 AM

Require at least one merit to become a Junior Member (bots will never rise past Newbie status then and can be nuked once spotted).

Remove signatures completely from lower ranks (at least Juniors). Purchasing a Copper Membership (or higher) could still get you one.

Whichever combination of this is implemented doesn't really matter but until members require at least 1 merit to get a signature there will be spambots by the thousand getting paid in shitcoins/tokens. The same requirement to be immune from the nuke button makes sense as well.

Agreed. A mere one merit requirement really puts a spanner in the works of bots and the very worst of posters. It doesn't effect anyone else's ability to post here either. It has no drawbacks at all as far as I can see.

Quote from: TheQuin on August 15, 2018, 09:32:32 AM

Quote from: hilariousetc on August 14, 2018, 10:48:33 AM

Dedicated sub board mods for most boards that don't have any mods or non-global mods already assigned (Bitcoin Discussion, Beginners & Help, Off Topic etc).
More patrollers/mods who just handle sig spam or farmers.
More admins or demi-admins added to help with account recoveries and other admin duties.

All of these are desperately needed at the moment although implementing the first two suggestions may actually reduce the need.

These could all be implemented today within a matter of minutes and the board would be better of for them instead of current staff being swamped with more things to do (that often aren't getting done) day after day.

Quote from: Welsh on August 15, 2018, 09:37:01 AM

Quote from: The Pharmacist on August 14, 2018, 10:32:00 PM

I disagree. I think that's a huge obstacle overall. Maybe not for some, but in general a lot of noobs are going to have a hard time getting that one merit. This might lead to more begging and/or trading, but I think it's worth it.

Although, 1 merit might be hard to achieve for most of the low quality users here I think I would still be more comfortable requiring a few of them. Something like 3/5 seems to a good point which would prevent most of them or at the very least demotivate them from making several accounts to earn from airdrops and bounties.

At a minimum it should be one. Maximum probably 5 or something. I would be more for it being just one if Juniors had their signatures removed completely. Then you need ten merit and enough activity to become a Member to get a signature. Either way the requirement should be something and one would be better than nothing.