Just a few suggestions.

1. Is it possible to allow for moderation of the first 5 messages or so until a new user can post without moderation?

2. Shadow ban new users for first few posts until moderated until that restriction is lifted.

3. Can I get privilege to ban them 😀
   I will behave.

And until that is implemented, close new user registrations.

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We could make all new users mod level 3... restricts post counts and creation of topics for a period of time... I'll look into it.

How about 3 posts per hours for 2 days as a probationary? Allow topics (a new topic counts as a post)

If spam accounts are the problem then add a captchas during registration, that way bots can't register.

if it's new users that are the problem then make it that all post made by them will be in restricted mode and only they can see it, on till they are moderated or banned

Quote from 668

If spam accounts are the problem then add a captchas during registration, that way bots can't register.

We already had captchas and required email verification too. I'm suspecting it was an individual that manually registered for accounts using compromised emails (from all the hacks around the world) and then fed the account into a script that would do stuff

A just ruler amongst tyrants

@Manick.

Looking at the posting frequency. They are posting 3~5 posts per hour on an average, so it is easy to bypass that rule.

In such a case I suggest they are restricted to 1 post a day for 1 day, during which they have to introduce themselves in some forum.
Following that a 3~5 day period when they can only post and not create thread.

I am unsure how much flexibility you all have with such things. I am just taking a shot in the dark.

Also, thanks to admins and mods for everything. Appreciate the effort 😀

how about a captcha for posts? it would be a bit annoying for anyone that comments frequently but wouldnt it fix bot postings?

Well, I don't have any proof but the frequency and type of post suggests these are not bots but just old fashioned spammers from click or ad farms.
Hence CAPTCHA may not be viable method at all considering CAPTCHA is present at registration as well.

I have noticed for some reason that spammers like using ALL CAPS in the subject of their spam. So maybe you could automatically put posts WITH TOO MANY CAPS in the subject into moderation and shadow ban the accounts until someone can take a look at it.

People who run this service: THANK YOU for fixing it so fast. I use it every day, and the mess recently made me nervous. It really is irreplaceable.

The problem with limiting posts for X days is that they can just make an account, wait out the limitations and spam away after X days have passed. I think a better approach would be combining Nashnir's idea of first post being limited to an introduction subforum, and a limit of, let's say, 3 posts per day until 10 total posts? Having to come up with non-repetitive intros and 9 other coherent posts before getting to a spammable account would hopefully be too much work to bother while not limiting normal users too badly.

EDIT: Also, how big are the usual streams of new users? Would manual approval of new posts for >=10 post users at >=3 posts(again, these values are just an example) per day each be feasible?

Is it possible to block posts if they contain certain keywords?; like Yahoo, AVAST, tech support number, etc. I think that might be able to solve the problem.

I agree with NeNee's suggestion to a certain extent.

While, it may be tough and counter productive in the long run to block keywords, blocking phrases might work.

Example:

Recent SPAM has the following repeating phrases:

tech Support Number
1-800-681-7208

While, I am completely unaware of the framework this site is built upon, if more advanced rule sets can be implemented, we can limit word repetitions beyond a certain amount.
This is far superior technique since they will be unable to spam the same word and phrase more than let's say 5 times.
This rule can be limited to only words with more than 3 characters and I believe this should not interfere with at least most of the sentences that can be punched out.

I suggest preventing a same IP address from posting using more than 1 account in a period of say 24 hours.
If they are really using multiple IP addresses, then requiring a captcha for posts (like strawhat1987 suggested) would prevent something like a script from posting altogether.

My comments on the spam:
Really? Spamming in a niche manga website forum, who thought that was a good idea? Who the hell would even call the numbers of those badly written spam messages?
The effort doesn't seem to be worth the reward.