UK Keratoconus Self-Help and Support Association

Good grief! I've just had to remove a tad over 1000 spam-registered accounts today.

I really hate to put one of those "type the characters which are displayed in a strange font at equally strange angles" things on the registration page, but unless anyone has any better ideas, I may just need to do so!

Wow that is a lot.

Why do they want to join?

Those strange character things are really hard to do even when I have my lenses in. Would one of those confirm your e-mail address type things work are will they get around that, as it is a lot easier than whipping enigma machine.

We already have a confirm-your-email address thing, but that doesn't stop them.

You see, as soon as they are registered, their name and URL appear in the "Members" list, and that's all they care about. Adding links to their pornographic pages.

John

Seeing as this is a site for people with sight issues the weirdly shaped codes is not really an option here. However is there any way we can set it so there is no option to ad a site link to our profiles. The issue seems to be the links, and most of us are here because it is great to speak to other like eyed individuals, so I think we would survive without a link so you could not have to delete spam accounts.

Prue

Hi John,

I'm sure that this will work because i'm not particularly familiar with the way that spammers work despite working in IT!. I assume that the spammers register using some automated process which is why using the weird character thing prevents them from registering. I understand the point about us having sight difficulties so having the odd letters will make it difficult for genuine KC sufferers to see them, so my suggestion is to add the letters to the registration page as this seems to be the only way to avoid the spammers registering, but refer people who have difficulty to another page on the site where they can see the letters in plain text. I have no idea if this will work, but i'm sure you will know straight away.

Emma

Hi John

1000 spams (if there is such a word) is ridiculous! How often do you have to clear them out? and how long does it take? can you clear them enbloc or do you have to check each one individually?

Personally I hate those weird squiggley letter thingys. It usually takes me three of four attempts to see all the letters and numners correctly, but if there is no alternative then...

And - while I have your attention - GarethB's golden eye thing - I know you are busy sorting our bogus members but some of Gareth's posts have been about football - and I don't think they should count (there's a football competition of some sorts going on and it seems to have brought out the inner Dragon Slayer in Andrew! and I am not sure this should be encouraged!).

Brigid

John,

Can you do one of those letter things with a contrasting background to make it easier for us like you have done with scroll bars and the like?



Brigid,

Thanks for noticing

John has already sorted the posts in the chit Chat area do not count towards the final tally

OK Gareth

I am sorry.

Your golden eye is well deserved. I am sure you will make an excellent ambassador and I will keep to my own business -well mostly


your friend
Brigid

Brigid,

No need to appologise and before anyone else says it, I do not think I will make a good ambasador, i will still be my usual annoying self

Well, to answer all the points above, I usually clear out 5-10 spammers per day, which takes a couple of minutes. 1000 spammers took about 20 minutes! (I couldn't do it en-bloc as I had to be careful not to delete any real person joining that day!)

Yes, I can remove the option to add a URL... but unfortunately when the spammers run their automatic scripts, they will still send the URL, and we will just ignore it. We need a way to actually stop them from registering.

I really hate the squiggly characters thing, and I really want to save that for a last resort, but it does stop the spammers. Trouble is, it would also deter those with KC, too. I have another couple of tricks up my sleeve, and I'll try them when I get some time in a week or so.

In the meantime.... here's hoping!