No, I know, a nightmare. I saw ABC had installed Captcha fairly recently, which you would have thought would have deterred (since installing one on UKA about a year ago, I think we have had only two spam accounts). I just don't see the point - why would they bother? And they must be human (sort of) or they wouldn't get through the Captcha. This morning's crop...
emmawhiteyy
irishailesvrustl
maurice2828spogjfq
lenorejenningsmwq
Must be a fulltime job getting rid of them all - must be another way...
It's intriguing, really, since to make accounts they must be doing it manually - a bot wouldn't be able to bypass the Captcha, far as I know - but what's the point? They probably all originate from a similar place (probably Romania or China). Here are the latest lot (the first lot I posted are all still active on the site but haven't posted anything, which makes it more puzzling - if they can, why haven't they?):
If you checked their IP's and, as I suspect, they originate from similar locations, how about a ban on an IP block? Ok, so you might block an entire country, but I'm sure any genuine Romanian (or Chinese) members would email and query, in which case you could unblock them individually.
It's an ongoing problem, but we've just updated our Mollom anti-spam filter today so we're hoping to see a drastic reduction. We may well go in for IP blocking if necessary; hopefully the new filter does its job and this ceases to be a problem!.
The user names are still recorded as we retain the shell of their profile so they can't rejoin with the same email address - their accounts, though, are blocked / disactivated, which is why they don't post!
Point scoring late at night then climbing down and trying to be helpful during the day. I never look at 'who's new' ... who does and why? Better to check 'recently added' imo.
Now now - you know that we get rid of them very quickly and they don't stay on our records. They are NOT counted as members.
No, I know, a nightmare. I saw ABC had installed Captcha fairly recently, which you would have thought would have deterred (since installing one on UKA about a year ago, I think we have had only two spam accounts). I just don't see the point - why would they bother? And they must be human (sort of) or they wouldn't get through the Captcha. This morning's crop...
emmawhiteyy
irishailesvrustl
maurice2828spogjfq
lenorejenningsmwq
Must be a fulltime job getting rid of them all - must be another way...
http://www.ukauthors.com
http://www.ukapress.com
Yes, it's very annoying! We get rid of them fairly quickly, but it does take a lot of time.
We're upgrading to a new spam-fllter in the forthcoming site upgrade, and hopefully that should cut them down to the bare minimum.
It's intriguing, really, since to make accounts they must be doing it manually - a bot wouldn't be able to bypass the Captcha, far as I know - but what's the point? They probably all originate from a similar place (probably Romania or China). Here are the latest lot (the first lot I posted are all still active on the site but haven't posted anything, which makes it more puzzling - if they can, why haven't they?):
maxiebeattyybgy
dorotheaflinders
jennikzmasrdcjliuegf
blaine7114tytlypmseg
willawoodworthbczyy
If you checked their IP's and, as I suspect, they originate from similar locations, how about a ban on an IP block? Ok, so you might block an entire country, but I'm sure any genuine Romanian (or Chinese) members would email and query, in which case you could unblock them individually.
http://www.ukauthors.com
http://www.ukapress.com
It's an ongoing problem, but we've just updated our Mollom anti-spam filter today so we're hoping to see a drastic reduction. We may well go in for IP blocking if necessary; hopefully the new filter does its job and this ceases to be a problem!.
The user names are still recorded as we retain the shell of their profile so they can't rejoin with the same email address - their accounts, though, are blocked / disactivated, which is why they don't post!
Point scoring late at night then climbing down and trying to be helpful during the day. I never look at 'who's new' ... who does and why? Better to check 'recently added' imo.
'I never look at 'who's new' ... who does and why?'_______________Lots of people do. In my case, force of habit :)
Academic now anyway, as it's disappeared with the new design (which I like very much).
http://www.ukauthors.com
http://www.ukapress.com
Hello all, looking forward to reading your collective works. Hope to get quite a bit of of enjoyment out of this site. Have a wonderful holiday.