Bots That Need To Be Destroyed:

[DáinIronfoot]

I'll leave the list cleaning to you, boss. I was about to do so myself, but since you're already on top of it....

I added a couple new bans on odd e-mail accounts used to register by likely bots. Unless people think that "_____@free.fr" and/or "_____@wp.pl" are addresses that real live people might actually make use of.

A lot of the bots also seem to use "_____@yahoo.co.uk" addresses, but since that IS likely be used by non-bots as well, I'm reluctant to slam that one.

Upon further review, I've also put a ban on registrations from the "internetserviceteam.com" hostname. That's a confirmed group of do-no-gooders that aren't necessarily bots themselves, but pave the way for bots to follow them in droves. I can't find anything that suggests valid users should be using that hostname.

[SomeRandomDude]

Conor had a feature in joining where you needed to answer "What is the name of this site?" and "What does TCG stand for?" before joining.

[DáinIronfoot]

Conor had a feature in joining where you needed to answer "What is the name of this site?" and "What does TCG stand for?" before joining.

'Twould be nice if we could do something similar if we can figure out how. Not among the standard options, but perhaps Kralik the SMF whiz kid can think of something...?

[Kralik]

EDIT: Replied before see the second page.

For now, I would strongly recommend switching on Member Activation:

"When this option is enabled any members registering to the forum will have a activation link emailed to them which they must click before they can become full members."

Right now, we have checked Immediate Registration, which says "new members can login and post immediately after registering on your forum."

That alone will hopefully at least stem the tide.

I'll do it since it's not a bad idea. Unfortunately, GMail's email captcha was recently cracked and the many of these bots are using jibberish GMail activation. But good idea.

Conor had a feature in joining where you needed to answer "What is the name of this site?" and "What does TCG stand for?" before joining.

Great idea -- I'll need to code it in by hand. I've seen sites also with things such as: "Type 'I am not a spambot'".

[SomeRandomDude]

Hey, did the Dead Pile become invisible to ordinary members?

If not, it should now, because deleted inappropriate posts are now going there.

[Kralik]

It is secret. It is safe.