[Brad]

The best way to deal with bots;

1) Keep them out in the first place with the information/tools found on this website. Because you're not a licensed user I can't go into much detail about this. You're a supermod anyway so there is little you can do in the way of installing modifications to deal with the problem.

2) Ban on sight. Many bots will post spam so just deal with them when you notice 'em. They aren't too hard to pick out as they use horrible english and scripted replies.

3) Prune in-active accounts every so often. This means delete accounts that have not posted, accounts that have not verified their status..etc.

4) Install a "post filter" that will automatically moderate posts that look like spam. I'm not sure if one is released here or not...I know we coded one for ourselves on a forum I used to admin and it worked well.

5) Go over to www.theadminzone.com and read their forums. They have a lot of good information on the subject. TAZ deals more with running a forum (unlike here, we're all about "hacking" and customizing forums) so you'll probably get a better response. They are also more friendly when it comes to dealing with non-admins/mods.