UBB.threads PHP Forum Software Community Forums UBB.threads 6 Version 6 Support Hammered by Spammers

My UBB Classic is getting hammered by spammers who seem to get some satisfaction from registering all manner of usernames. This is such a pain because every day I have to go in and Decline the bunch of them, combing out and accepting the few legitimate registrations. (My open forums were getting spammed, too, until I closed them and started requiring registration. Arghhh...)

Now it seems that the only salvation from the spammers would be to turn off the self-registration feature of UBBC and allow only me (the admin) to create new member records. I don't know whether/how I can do this in UBBC. Any suggestions?

BTW, I am planning to upgrade to UBBT7 as soon as it is released. So I should ask a similar question about what is being done in that product to seek relief from the spammers.

TIA

Are you verifying email addresses? If it's an automatic script it might be the step to throw a kink into their plan.

Make sure you are requiring at least one english letter or number in usernames too, anything to trip them up.

ubb.threads has had (and still does in v7) an http referrer check that makes sure all registrations and posting comes from someone actually being on the site, not from an off-site script. It helps a lot tho you have to warn users that may have problems with it to add your site to their 'safe site list' in their firewall.

Hmmm...

"Verify User Email Address During Registration?
For tighter security, you may want to require that your registered users have valid email addresses. This is accomplished by mailing their password to them at the email address they register."

This wouldn't seem to discourage people who get their jollies by registering for my UBB. Just that it would have a password emailed to them.

What I REALLY WANT is the ability to turn off self registration and allow only the Admin to register memebers.

Any suggestions?

TIA!

I have moved this thread to the Classic forum. Thanks!