bots joining as members

[detourne_me]

Has anyone else noticed that we've had about 20 bots a day joining as members since mid 2015?  Is this a cause for concern?

I'm just bringing this up cause lately I've had some problems getting onto the site, and since there is a 75% discount of the game on steam now, I was promoting this site in a thread on reddit, and people have had trouble getting on...

[Cyber Burn]

Not being the most Tech Savvy member of the Community, I don't really know anything about bots. That being said, if something is preventing new members from joining us, or preventing veterans from getting on board, then I say we definitely have a problem.

Question is, how do we address this without making it difficult for new members to join?

[Epimethee]

The current CAPTCHA used in the registration process is probably harder on people with eye problems than on recent bots. Google's updated invisible reCAPTCHA could be a good first step. If the bots are using the site for link spamming, adding the rel="nofollow"attribute to the link tag could help.

Going further than that is way beyond my knowledge, apart from the the obvious (and probably useless against serious attackers) step of filtering out known bot IP addresses. There are, however, plugins available to help catching spam automatically, such as Akismet, which is available for this forum's platform (SMF): http://custom.simplemachines.org/mods/index.php?mod=544

[Deaths Jester]

I've had problems off and on with getting the pages to load up. After talking with GG and a little tinkering, I had thought it was only my connection that was acting up. So it's bots, eh? If you folks want, I can shoot GG an IM about it and maybe she can wrangle the rest of the mods together to come up with a solution.

[President Raygun]

Are we sure they're bots and not L.M.D.s?

[daglob]

Check the names, like R. Daneel Olivaw, or Heimie, or G.U.N.T.H.E.R. or Rhoda...

[President Raygun]

Well DG they're probably nice guys, we should let 'em stay, it's not like they're part of a some evil HYDRA plot to infiltrate our forum. Well that's my two cents anyways. Oh by the way, HAIL HYDRA! BAN ONE OF OUR BOTS AND EIGHT MORE WILL TAKE ITS PLACE!

[Deaths Jester]

Well, I let GG know about this so some of the mods know. All I can do.

And as for Hydra, burn the stump and there will be no more.

[spydermann93]

Little different we know, Freedom Reborn has been a HYDRA site all along!

It's the greatest betrayal!

[kkhohoho]

Little different we know, Freedom Reborn has been a HYDRA site all along!

It's the greatest betrayal!

Curse their sudden but inevitable betrayal! Also, I'd just like to say that I for one welcome our new robotic overlords. I'd also like to remind them that as a trusted member of this forum, I can be useful in rounding up others to toil in their underground sweat shops.

[daglob]

Hey, I'm an android, that's almost a robot.

[President Raygun]

Little different we know, Freedom Reborn has been a HYDRA site all along!

It's the greatest betrayal!

Oh great, now we've been retconned. 

[Deaths Jester]

<- can never be retconned....is against his physical shape..or something...

[Tomato]

Plz. The Titans already decided the forum belongs to the ponies. Hydra would have to take out my magical pony army to take over.

[spydermann93]

Oh, crap, did you say the Ponies!? They were replaced by the Skrulls years ago!

[Deaths Jester]

The board belongs to me...there, that clears everything up. Now where's my booze?!?

[spydermann93]

The board belongs to me...there, that clears everything up. Now where's my booze?!?

Shhh... DJ can't be trusted!

Spoiler

He's a Skrullny too!

[Deaths Jester]

I'm a skullny not a Skrullny...no green on me.

[spydermann93]

I'm a skullny not a Skrullny...no green on me.

Shape-shifting is a handy trick

[daglob]