[woodscooter]

Originally Posted by MGSteve

A new user got blocked because he used the same username as a spammer 'fox', but that was all that matched. Surely the mod should not block someone just becuase they choose the same username as a spammer?

Sure, if the email address matches then it should be an automatic rejection, but if any of the other checks return positive alone, then it shouldn't reject the registration?

This is a very real problem with automatic blocking. I can see how a short common word like 'fox' is not unique enough in this case.

Also, with dynamic IP address changes, some innocent user can be blacklisted because a spammer was assigned that IP a week ago...

I would like to see this mod assign values to each of the three factors, say 11 points for an email address match, 7 for an IP match and, for a username that matches the blacklist, one point for every character in the name.

The tripping point could be set initially at a total of about 10 points, but adjusted by the forum admin to suit the individual circumstances.

It would also be useful to modify the total points by the length of the Q & A response, if there is one. I find spammers often pour out all their rubbish into the Q&A response, whereas a "proper" answer is 10-20 characters only, (and never includes a URL).

Late edit- That would be difficult to do, because the spam check precedes registration, so any Q&A response would not be known when the 'spammer' decision is being made.

WS.