if it were me i would have a more discriminating filter; one that gives established members more freedom to post while restricting abuse/spam from guests. like, remove the post minimum (currently
"+1" and ":)" are precluded without using alt 0157 or a similar work around), allow links without text, etc., while maintaining some order (post length limits are still a good idea, and a certain
number of multiple posts in a given period should also be prohibited). at the same time, i would restrict unregistered posting further, since that seems to be the source of all the spam; ie. if one
wants to post clickable links, one must register.

A lot of the replies earlier in this thread I felt damned sure, that if there was a post size length limit on this forum, I was going to bump it and needed to backup my responses in Notepad or
whatever XD. Glad to know I was wrong though.

For guests probably have a 30-second wait time between every post. Some forums are harsh and make that 60 seconds though, guess it depends on the complexity of the forum. In this case though I think
30 would stop most spammers, or maybe 60 could be more useful.

It's funny though, cause I guess the "http://" thing is currently the only difference between how members' posts are filtered, versus guests XD. I mean it's natural for spambots to register on
forums, but I don't think I've ever seen spambots post on this forum under an account before...or at least play some games :D

I guess what they like to do is detect if the forum blocks unregistered guess posting. If so, register. Otherwise just fuck it and post lol. They can't check things like custom add-ons or link
filters applied elsewhere on the site so don't know what to do.

yah, whatever works; this or that, a combination of any/all of the above. it's like any engineering or police job; effectively preclude disruption while maintaining minimal inconvenience for normal
function, adapt when one must, etc.

Yeah, to me it sounds like a common and fun enough challenge to work through.

I was just talking to thibault and it seems it's possible that the captcha idea you mentioned can be done easily enough. It will be somewhat a challenge, but you agree it's better than the current
Akismet library borrowed for filtering posts unpredictably. We've seen the results of that just trying to post music links all the time. :D

Might be we try to answer 2 + 2, might be we answer text-based chess questions, might be for captcha we solve a mate-in-one position.

The less size used in the combination, the smaller and more efficient, and more predictable the operation of things. :D

Also I figured I should mention now.
My dad is planning that I move out and fly an air trip to move again in...36 hours from now or so, May 5th. No idea when I'll get Internet access again or for how long and such so figured I should
mark that here.

that's a good idea (the chess problem one). not only does it take a little time, it also filters those who belong here from those who are just advertising (ie. don't know at all how to play chess).


you're moving in with your dad? or flying somewhere with him? where you going?

I think a chess captcha would be a lot easier for a computer to solve than a traditional word one, unless it's a picture and you type in Qd3 or something.

Easier?! Not at all - as long as there is some wording in the question, like "deliver a check" or "exchange queens" or "exchange pieces of similar value" instead of something vague (eg. always
searching for checkmate possibilities), the computer would have a hard time.

I'm only worried that human users would have a hard time as well, if the captchas aren't well-chosen. "Checkmate in 6 moves" would be a pretty bad one!

Finally, "chess captcha" is a pretty original idea; I doubt that anyone would have sufficient incentive to code an automated solver from scratch. Even if many chess-related sites were using it, the
related demographic is still quite small and not that interesting for spammers. Well, hopefully.

"that's a good idea (the chess problem one). not only does it take a little time, it also filters those who belong here from those who are just advertising (ie. don't know at all how to play chess)."

Yeah honestly, the text-based question like, "Who moves first? White or Black?" was my original thought but, thibault told me a while back about that chess captcha idea he had. It sounds rather
excellent. Solves the problem of some Russian dude answering a question like that with whatever "white" is in Russian as well XD, considering people like to do that here lol.

^ and that was my argument against thibault's, but he's been pretty determined to make a dynamic loader of checkmates on this website to read them as the mate-in-one captchas to give here, I kept
telling him, it would be smaller, faster, less network-strenuous, and more efficient overall to just include an internal database of mate-in-one problems that have only a single solution, but he was
pretty persistent about doing things the flexible way it seems. :D So he is succeeding.

mb your question, well, I'm leaving because I hate people here, and I need to explore new places. My dad paid for an air plane to get me out of here, but I'm going to have a tough time organizing
everything to get myself through all this. He's not my finest acquaintance in the world either, so I'm worried I might not even have Internet for a while. Still, I just need to adventure. I'm sick
of this place and hearing my mom and brother lol

oh, so you're moving in with your dad? where does he live?

that's cool anyway; change of pace. organisation is easy enough; just prioritise.

He lives in Texas.