Recently I ahve noticed LOTS of automated spam sign-ups posting VERY inappropraite messages... other then approving memebrships is there anything I can do to stop this - I notice some board make you tap in the letters from an image... does the new version have this option?

That would make a good suggestion for v7
The Image reader.

I cant think of anything.
Looks like your going to have to have a mod que.

this human/machine identification called captcha. But if you use some kind of captcha you must know what you do. Several systtems are hacked by OCR bots. They can read the pictures and type in the code. Only a few systems are safe. The captcha system of a big free open source BB is already hacked.

In a captcha system you need to use every time diffent fonts, different colors, deifferent backgrounds, different styles and this all together.

I have made a sugguestion to Rick about a CAPTCHA system for UBB7, last i heard it was an idea for a later build.

I think you also need the GD libary installed on your
server too..

I have it

GD2

All depends... There are a couple of ways to generate an image... ImageMagick, GD, NetBPM, etc...

CAPTCHA would been good Most users are used to it now on a variety of sites - so can't see an issue. Although with users having to confirm their email, I have never really suffered. (maybe this is a temp solution Olly.

I like both forms together, do an excellent job ...