I'm surprised noone suggested adding more janitors to the site. Give some users the power to hide applicants' posts until they're reviewed by a mod. I'm sure there will be enough people willing to make this work.

Beyond that, why not limit what applicants can do? Do not allow them to post links (maybe except for some sites, like fanfiction.net). That alone would remove all instances of spam posts I've ever encountered on DLP.

 

Thanks for the info on why Introductions are locked. Don't worry about the mystique, this site has plenty of that elsewhere.

The latest bot (first one I've seen here) is on 9 posts.

 

If you can setup a bot, then automating email accounts and responses is trivial.

Also, DLP already does this. It was doing it when I reg'd in 2007.

 

I just to clarify something since it seems like we're cracking down on rules now. In the case of the Neglected Stories List, even though there are only 3 stories with posts from 2012, do we still refrain from reviewing the stories there, or is it okay to bump them?

 

vBulletin (the forum software DLP uses) has this by default like Raven said. And it also has CAPTCHAs. Both of which can be bypassed.

Bots do have e-mail addresses. Bots are (usually) programmed to sign-up with e-mail addresses from 'anti-spam' services like mailinator.com, so they virtually have an infinite number of e-mail addresses and consequently can make an infinite number of accounts. Once registered the bot can retrieve the e-mail verification code easily. One way around this is to disable using e-mails from these sites but it is not fool-proof.

In my opinion this would work best: Mostly people sign up on this forum to get access to Wba. So make it so that people sign up via the usual captcha/e-mail verification and gain the ability to view the forum.

Then make one of those threads where posts are only viewable by admin/mods or the guy who makes the specific post. Alert all the mods when a post is made in that thread and they can see if it is a bot or a genuine person and upgrade there usergroup thereby allowing them to post.

I am reasonably sure that at least one admin/mod is on DLP all the time, so people will gain the ability to post almost immediately.

 

You should probably add some way to tell which member invited any new members, if you haven't already thought of that.

If a member invites some bots, you know he's part of the problem. Ban a motherfucker.

 

I don't agree. DLP is not some infant forum desperate for anything that deigns to grant it a moment of their time. Nor are we waining. We're an established presence on the internet with a mature community of members who have for the most part figured out how to interact with one another--for the most part.

By now, new members had better be able to integrate themseves into that mold, or kindly fuck off. The best way to not only ensure that bots no longer get on the site at all, but also ensure that our newest members are the kinds of people we would even want is through an invite-only system.

Furthermore, we do have the not-exactly-implied-but-more-than-a-little-explicit rule against general stupidity. Getting an invite from a member here shouldn't be all that hard. The kind of people who can't do really basic shit like get on IRC, or maybe send a politely worded, grammatically correct private message through fanfiction.net to an author who lists DLP on his or her profile, is not the kind of person that I, or I believe most of DLP wants joining. Furhtermore, I have a strong suspicion that such a person would likely end up getting themselves banned fairly quickly anyway.

Why is it expected of us that we throw open our boarders to any and all who happen to pass by and need to take a shit, when in real life, no country on the planet doesn't have at the very least ostensible control over those entering their boarders, and there are plenty of clubs that can tell you to fuck off with impunity, and even support from the majority of the populous.

Finally, as for our long-term health? I strongly susspect that when the day comes that DLP might whither and cease to be, it will have a lot more to do with the majority of the community having moved on to other things and the lack of influx being far more related to lack of interest rather than any particular hurdle anyone with two neurons able to be rubbed together could step over with little effort.

Just my elitest-douche-canoe two-cents on the matter.

 

Pretty much this. Having a link to IRC in the registration process, one that they could use to get an invite code from someone, would be incredibly simple, in any case, so I think even the idiots would get through, but it should stop bots. The only real flaw is that it turns off the lazy. That seems like a small price to pay, IMO.

 

I think mostly it'll turn away the lazy. Most people who read fanfiction are arguably, literate enough to be able to get through those proceadures.

An example of where this could be a detriment: a non-member author who has had his fic added to the library sees a few reviews talking about this "DLP forum" and decides to go join. They're mildly interested to give it a go, but probably can't be fucked having to go through big hoops just to be to post a few things in their fic's respective library thread.

i know it's nice when authors get involved in the discussion in Library threads, and often eventually become full members as well.

 

Oh this is hilarious!

 

You know you have a problem when the spammer are spamming this thread. Ironic...but anyway.

I think its time to close the registration until we can figure out how to induct members. Personally, I like the idea of obtaining a randomized code from the IRC. I mean, shit, anyone can just go to IRC (there's mibbit too!), so create a channel specifically for member induction and have a bot hand the induction code based on answers (What's is DLP? What color is the forum? Is apple pink?).

 

Maybe DLP members who positively review a story on ff.net or some other place can PM the author and mention that they nominated the story on DLP, and if the author would like an invite, they would be happy to send one.

 

Given that we have such an awesome base of members already, I personally would recommend the invite-only system. The history of the welcome forums speaks for itself, even if I completely ignore the rampant trolling. A lot of stupid made its way here, and there was no safety net without direct mod intervention. Completely stopping any new registration was all good in my opinion, but I think being able to invite friends and intelligent people from other forums you frequent would be the smart move.

With a certain post count before you're allowed to invite. And a monthly cap if that fails. That would almost entirely kill bot spamming.

 

This sounds like the best option to me.

1 - Set Guests as being unable to post but able to browse the site, with limitations in the WBA section. (I believe this is already in place for the most part).

2 - Revive the Introduction section.

3 - Set a would-be member to be labeled "Applicant". Set Applicants to only be able to post in the Introduction section.

4- Set the confirmation e-mail that is sent upon registration to include instructions to create a thread in the Introduction section.

5 - Encourage established members to tag the created threads with the labels "Bot" or "real person", thus saving time for mods. (Needless to say, Applicants or guests shouldn't be allowed to edit tags).

6 - Mods can easily home in on the "real person" tags and remove the Applicant state. Threads labeled "bot" are cleaned out every now and then to avoid excessive clutter, if any.


Unavoidably, some real would-be members will neglect to read the instructions in the registration e-mail. However, if they really want to participate, eventually they'll find the Announcement section or the Intro section and wisen up. At worst, they'll PM admins about it.

Not perfect, but I like the sound of it. It all hinges upon established members lending a helping hand by tagging the threads in the Intro section. Based on the number of responses the Intro section used to have, I don't think it'll be a problem.

 

I wouldn't have joined if it was invite only. And honestly I doubt a lot of the active or veteran members here would have either.

Email activation, coded word, a delay period. That's standard for most forums I've joined and it seems to work. It does let through the odd troll, but we have a good sized moderation and admin team who can deal with the odd one or two who slip through a acceptable level of registration.

Name any security system to stopping trolls and bots and their will be some way around it.

By all means put stop guards in place to an acceptable level, ones that wont turn away genuinely interested members who could add something to the forum.

By making it invite only, or by making it long winded and overly complicated it is turning away people who want to contribute but don't want really care that much.

Someone who finds our site and sees we have an active technology and graphics crowd on here and wouldn't mind adding their own contributions. Or someone who has a lot on insight into politics, anime, TV shows.

A lot of great content of this site is by members who have been here for years but have under 200 posts because they only post in 1 or 2 forums. But those 200 posts over 3 years are quality and add content to the site that we would lack if we only accept rabid members who want to jump through hoops to join us... frankly I think those are the members we don't want...

 

Yeah, me neither. I don't think I've ever used IRC before, here or elsewhere (not even sure what makes it different than a normal chatroom), and I'm pretty sure that if I had to ask someone to be let in I wouldn't have bothered. It would've felt like too much of a commitment when I wasn't sure if I was going to stick around for long, and I probably wouldn't have had the courage to ask anyway.