Since 2003 we have had a forum at http://www.goodsol.net/forum. Because a large number of spammers try to post on the forum, I have to moderate forum accounts - to post on the forum you have to apply for an account and I have to approve you.
Unfortunately the forum gets bombarded with spambots and spammers. About 500 to 1000 spambots apply for accounts for every actual person who does. It's annoying.
Last month, the forum moved to a new server. In the process, there was a brief time where the settings for the forum were set so that my approval was not necessary. Something like 400 spambots got forum accounts during that time.
So what happened? A bunch of spam got posted, right?
Well, actually no. In fact, out of those hundreds of bots, only 2 have actually posted spam on the forum. (It turns out it is really hard to find the bots from among the regular users once their accounts are approved. Pretty much the only way to get rid of a spammer after the account is approved is to ban him and delete his posts after he posts a message on the forum).
So here was a golden opportunity that these bots have been waiting for years for. And only a couple actually took advantage of it (and got deleted and banned).
What is wrong with spambots these days? Don't they get out of bed in the morning?
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