Member screening

[Local Talent]

As much as we probably need to stay as open as possible to welcome new members, due to the number of spammers we've been having I'm thinking we should have some sort of screening. At least to prevent automated posting.

Some measures have already been taken, such as preventing people from sending PMs less than 10' apart.
How about a delayed membership process, where the contact info would be looked at? All these (scum) spammers have not even been hiding: "Biography: Man"? ICQ instant messaging? Bye bye!

ETA: I just reported "CegeFloli" for flooding the forum with 17 bogus threads and he was banned within minutes, with all his spam deleted, so it's not like the staff is sitting on their hands! :copstick:

[SCBA Admin]

LT thank you for your suggestion... spam is an issue on many boards, not just ours, but due to the number of spam we get, from now on ALL new members MUST be physically approved by admin BEFORE they can post or send any PM's.

I will add a message to the welcome screen stating this - only non-members, or members NOT logged in will see this message, once you log in, or are already logged in, you will not see this message.

Thanks for understanding we are policing the boards as closely as possible.

SCBA Admin

[Local Talent]

You're right, I've seen boards temporarily shut down due to similar or worse pbs (viruses), it's just one of the dangers of the internet.
It's unfortunate to have to do any type of screening, and the staff has been fantastic responding to the issues we've had, but it was looking as though we were under concerted spam attacks lately.
Prior staff approval for members seems like the way to go. :thumbs: