Spam Users / Account Deletions

[apollos0fAlexandria]

Hello All,

Due to a rise in spam posts we are having to take fairly radical action in the admin department. Unfortunately spam posts can be a problem for any discussion site on the internet, and we are not immune. Thankfully they are getting no further than the moderators at the moment, but it does sometimes take valuable time to deal with them, and we'd like to cut down on that.

As a result we are deleting accounts which look suspicious, as these can lie dormant for a while and then suddenly be used to try to posts nonsense in batches. Although we are trying to be careful not to delete any live accounts, it cannot be guaranteed that no genuine accounts will be deleted with the bogus ones.

However, we will avoid deleting any accounts that have any sort of approved posting history.

The accounts that might be vulnerable to deletion are those that have been set up to browse, but never actually make a post (i.e. non-contributing members, sometimes known as lurkers). We absolutely have no problem with members who only wish to read and not to write anything at this time. But all we ask is that these users be aware of our problem with fake accounts, and be understanding if your valid account is removed along with the fake ones. You would just need to set your account up again if that happens. We'll try to be as careful as possible, but thank you in advance for your understanding in this matter.

Apollos

UPDATE [15-3-2016]: So far it looks as though the measures we took were 100% successful. No spam at all, and no complaints from anyone.