[mmllc]

Thanks KH99 and Max I appreciate your help.

I wish I had no spam or as little spam as you guys received, we just seem like we're marked for SPAM like Steven Segal was "Marked for Death"

Ok, so, let me do what you guys suggested before making any modifications.


I always enjoyed moderating users one by one until I started getting 100's of new registrations each day, 90% or more being bots, checking one by one became a monotonous task.

Then I looked in the Whos Online, and leaving spiders out, I would see dozens of "guests" and registered users all in the same IP range like, 220.3.139.X - X being 1-999, and when I blocked them via Htaccess, my server load went down tremendously and in a few days the spammers caught on and switched up the IPs they used and it continued.

Not exactly what Im asking of here in my original post, but it goes to the heart of the matter, someone has zeroed in on my forum to be a spammers paradise and Im just trying to fight back whatever way I can.

The common denominator for all these spammers turned out being that they would join, and whatever software they are using is very good, bypassing every single type of CAPTCHA method I employ, except for not expecting this extra user field I require at sign up that requires a date, instead, they simply repeat their Nickname which is some crap like XjhiaDADHJAS, total gibberish, in the YEAR STARTED field. So its just the easiest way I can tell that someone that is not a human being at a computer trying to register. What you recommend cuts them off before it even gets to that step, which is even better! I agree.

So, even though some Vbul Webmasters ask for a question that needs to be uniform for someone to join i.e., 2+2 always equals 4, my question allows for many different answers like 2002, 2003, and so on, so it is not a uniform answer that is a yes no result blocking their entry, rather, its for me to see after they have tried to join if its a bot or a human that took the 2 seconds to say, i started in this year which also serves a dual purpose in the members' socializing with other members during their time on our site.



So Max, let me ask you. What setting within the Admincp would block someone from joining if the answer to your question(s) is incorrect? How is this effectuated because I will abandon the way I am doing it and adopt yours if it really works that well. I swear on everything holy these people are using bots, which in turn use hundreds of proxy ip's that make it all but impossible for me (one human) to block them one by one; you seem to have the right way to do it.

Thanks a bunch.