Post by Dave Homewood on Mar 19, 2006 22:57:00 GMT 12
Hello all,
Please respond to this as I need to consider everybody's opinion.
I am getting sick and tired of having some Asian spammers posting messages to the forum, which because our systems don't read Asian characters, show as mere gobble-dee-gook.
It was not so bad till recently when they were about once a week. Every thime I see such a post i delete it immediately. However nowadays there seem to be two or three a day!!
They are not members of the forum and post under the 'guest' option.
The only way I can see to block these annoying messages which really pee me off, and no doubt others, is to lock out guests from posting.
At this time we have two posting options for people, you can become a memebr and post and enjoy the benefits of membership such as the Calendar, auto-response to replies in your email, etc. And guests can reply to threads too, but not have all the benefits.
We have one or two regular guests who, if I lock the guest-posting option, will have to become members to post. I'm sure they've been here long enough to realise this is worth the trouble (all of a few minutes to sign up).
But I worry that future visitors to the site may be put off by this option. I can leave it so non-memebrs can still read the forum but just not reply.
Do you think I should do this? And risk not gaining some important posts from those who chose to be guests only?
Rememebr, this is all about stopping the spammers rather than keeping genuine people out, so i'd hate to upset any regular browsers.
Please post your opinions here. I want as many people to reply as possible so I can guage a general view and not just that of a few. And also please let me know if you personally would be put off by having to join to post if you'd just found the forum.
Thanks all.
Please respond to this as I need to consider everybody's opinion.
I am getting sick and tired of having some Asian spammers posting messages to the forum, which because our systems don't read Asian characters, show as mere gobble-dee-gook.
It was not so bad till recently when they were about once a week. Every thime I see such a post i delete it immediately. However nowadays there seem to be two or three a day!!
They are not members of the forum and post under the 'guest' option.
The only way I can see to block these annoying messages which really pee me off, and no doubt others, is to lock out guests from posting.
At this time we have two posting options for people, you can become a memebr and post and enjoy the benefits of membership such as the Calendar, auto-response to replies in your email, etc. And guests can reply to threads too, but not have all the benefits.
We have one or two regular guests who, if I lock the guest-posting option, will have to become members to post. I'm sure they've been here long enough to realise this is worth the trouble (all of a few minutes to sign up).
But I worry that future visitors to the site may be put off by this option. I can leave it so non-memebrs can still read the forum but just not reply.
Do you think I should do this? And risk not gaining some important posts from those who chose to be guests only?
Rememebr, this is all about stopping the spammers rather than keeping genuine people out, so i'd hate to upset any regular browsers.
Please post your opinions here. I want as many people to reply as possible so I can guage a general view and not just that of a few. And also please let me know if you personally would be put off by having to join to post if you'd just found the forum.
Thanks all.