is it possible to have a spam function for this forum?

[katexmonster]

i feel bad because people are using this website to promote whatever they are trying to promote.

if it's possible for people to mark messages posted by those users as spam, that would be great.

otherwise/meanwhile, i can always delete those posts from my newsfeed

i love that this site has RSS!

[spurrymoses]

Hi Katex,

Yes I'm looking into this at the moment. I can delete (and have) all the spam we got recently. But I'd like to remove it quicker and automatically.

[Keith]

How about a couple of moderators? The forum administrator is busy and doesn't have time to do all of the work himself. So I recommend one or two moderators who could delete spam posts and hopefully those users as well.

[spurrymoses]

OK, I've made it so that you have to answer a specifically Japanese question in order to be able to register on the forum.

It's very easy and anyone who knows even a tiny bit of Japanese will be able to answer it. I'm hoping spammers, won't - and that this will help prevent spamming. Given the experience of other forum administrators, it should work 100%.

[Keith]

That will prevent the spam registration robots for sure.
But the 手動 spammers can just use a 辞書 to find the answer I think.
Now if you were to write a question in ひらがな then we'll definitely have legitimate registrations (unless the spammers can read that too). What do you think?

[spurrymoses]

Yeah, I've just added a fully Japanese question. We can have fun with this... I can add any number of questions and they are selected at random...

[Keith]

well, I didn't think you would go so far as using 漢字 in the question.
I kept reloading until my registration attempts exceeded the session limit. I could only get two different questions. Do you want any of us to pm you some suggested questions?

[spurrymoses]

[spurrymoses]

[spurrymoses]

Below, are the forum registration questions I've created so far.

Note that there can be multiple correct answers, so we can accept answers in english, or kana. The only disadvantage with using Kana, of course, is that people without Japanese fonts, can't register.
However, I can include pictures and base questions on them (this system is very advanced!). So we can create jpg's of the kanji or kana. All good fun.

I quite like (3) because it's very difficult to look this one up - google or no.

(1) Enter the Japanese word for book (in romaji, hiragana, or kanji)

(2) 英語でねこを書いてください

(3) Please write the following Katakana word (which is not normally written in Katakana) in either English, Hiragana or Romaji.
「ネズミ」

[spurrymoses]

OK, I've been having a bit of fun with this anti-spam registration question business.

I've added a picture question. So when you go to register from now on, you see a picture (a JPEG file so computers without font support can still read it) with an easy Japanese question.

For example you might see this:

Please fill in the blank using Hiragana or Romaji (you can type the entire sentence or just the missing hiragana/romaji)
だいじょう＿です。

Where the words だいじょう＿です is actually a JPEG image.
Of course, this won't affect anyone currently registered, I just thought you'd be interested to know how I'm combatting spam on the forum. A problem which gets bigger and bigger the more popular the forum gets.

[Keith]

I was thinking of something along the same lines.
Like:

Complete this line: はひふへ＿

[spurrymoses]

[Landei]

It seems we need a better SPAM protection ("SPAM, SPAM, SPAM, SPAM, lovely SPAM, wonderful SPAM...").

I can't believe a bot answered the registration question...

[spurrymoses]

Hi,

No a bot didn't answer the registration question. There was a problem with the forum's database recently, and the registration question function stopped working (no one could register at all). So I had to take it down.

I tried getting it back again recently (without success), and will have another stab at it soon.

[spurrymoses]

I've reinstated a SPAM solution as mentioned in the announcements.

You have to answer a question like 'What is 'flower' in Japanese (use hiragana, katakana or kanji).

It's slightly different (simpler) than the previous one. And it should keep us free of spammers and robots.