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Re: Spam Problem

From:        Kerry
Date:        08 Jun 2006
Time:        14:03:06 +1100
Remote Name: 60.226.181.89

Comments:

Thanks 'e'.

What I was thinking of doing was a combination of things so that I could keep the 
essential structure of the Board (esp the unrestricted anonymous access) much as it 
is. My initial thoughts are a three-pronged approach:

[1.] Setting up a new board - so spammers won't initially know where it is. The old 
board would be left in place for reference but I would disable new postings.

[2.] Requiring username/password access where these details on listed on the Home 
page -( but thus stopping automated (ie bot) access)
 - AND setting the password as the answer to a question that an Anaesthetist would 
find easy  (but non-medical people wouldn't know without spending some time and 
effort). The question could be changed if they did work out the answer. This aspect of 
the solution makes use of the specialist knowledge of legitimate site users to exclude 
spammers without such knowledge. 

[3.] Remove any spam as soon as it was detected. (Hopefully not often, thus keeping 
my maintenance effort to a minimum).


The effort involved for the spammer (for such short-term access) then is much 
increased so ultimately not worth their effort. 

The question could be something like: 
"The only non-dopolariser in current clinical use is ......? "
(Now, use this name  as the password). 

This is just an example. Of course sux....(etc) would be a bit long to type but you get 
the general idea. The question could be made a bit more cryptic (but still easy) to 
minimise the risk of a Google search easily finding a page with an answer. 

I'll explore this tonight when I get home. Any other ideas considered. 


Last changed: 06/08/06