I'm not sure if anyone here noticed, but down on the bottom of the page the board lists all the new registrations. Typically, lots of strange and bizaare names filled that list, as 95% of all registrations here are spammers. I went to pre-moderation in order to get rid of these folks before they became registered users and could cause damage.

Yet, like a deranged Energizer Bunny, they still kept registering, despite virtually none of them ever being able to get through.

So I took the next step as I just got sick of deleting 20-30 bogus users everyday. I started logging the IP addresses these people used. Turns out, about 95% of all the spammers who attempt to register here are from Europe or from Asia...very, very few American IP addresses were involved.

Thus, this made it easy. I blocked out whole IP address ranges that these spammers were using, with more to follow most likely as inevitably a few will be on unblocked IP ranges. I've been doing this over a week now, and for the last three days, not a single spammer has registered.

Of course, there is a problem with this method. If anyone from Europe or from a few areas in Asia tries to use the board or register, the odds are high they won't be able to...the board will see their IP address and give them the boot.

Now, I specifically made sure that the IP Address Freebird uses isn't banned (24 IP range last time I checked). But, being in the USAAF, if you happen to find yourself in Europe, let me know what IP address (or at least the IP address range) you will be using and then send me an email from the contact address on the main site, and I'll open up that IP range for you. The IP blocking only applies to the board itself...not the rest of the site...so you'll be able to access the rest of BSF.

One last thing...the Green Bay Packers rock.

THANKS MAN!!!!!! YOUR THE BEST!!!!!

__________________
Here is where I came There is where I went Home is where I want to be!

Great work Jim! Although I liked the random porn that was posted by the spammers... . Yeah and by the way the PACKERS SUCK!!!!

OMG...Now, that is SPAM!!

thanks for unblocking me jim!
perhaps i'm the only uk resident who uses your site/forum.
i keep checking in, and will do so more often as my trip to montana approaches in july 2008
cheers
richard

Thanks for letting me know. There is one other person from the UK who uses the site too...happily on the same IP block as you. So both problems were solved at once, as she let me know she couldn't access the site too.