What's the deal with the wierd new signups?

[Mooncruiser]

For some time, there's been a rash of "new members" ..Sometimes as many as a half-dozen a day.. With what looks like computer-generated names, and hailing from all over the world (Hungary, Spain, etc,,).
Is this some prelude to a DOS attack, SPAM, or what?

[XavierMace]

Welcome to the internet.

[Major payne]

Hhahaha what blows is I keep falling for them

[Lady Wolf]

I noticed that too & I fell for it also - waiting endlessly for them to finish posting in a thread. LOL

[Old Dog]

Note , many of them are selling ugg boots

[Lady Wolf]

Note , many of them are selling ugg boots

Ugh!



*snort laugh*

[alteclansig]

we should make a list of know bot users so that others may have a smaller chance of falling for these shenanigans

[XavierMace]

we should make a list of know bot users so that others may have a smaller chance of falling for these shenanigans

How do you make a list of unlimited size?

I appreciate everybody's concern but everybody is way over reacting. 

DoS/DDoS attack:  First off, they have better things to do then try to shut down our lowly little (in the grand scheme of the internet) forum.  Secondly, there isn't a "prelude" or "warmup" period.  You don't gear up for a DDoS attack.  DDoS attacks are done by flooding a server with more artificial traffic than it can handle.  They don't need an account on the forum, and trying to successfully complete a DDoS attack by spamming the boards is basically impossible and would be the most utterly inefficient method of trying to take a site down ever.  If they wanted to take down the site, they would have.

Look, these are spambots pure and simple.  It's impossible to avoid while using public software without taking excessively time consuming efforts on my side.  It happens every time a forums anti-spam measures get cracked.  You can try to find another anti-spam measure that hasn't been cracked or just try to limit the damage.  Go look at the member list of any major forum.  You are going to find thousands of spam accounts.  It's a fact of life on the internet.  I'm personally just happy that I've only had to delete a couple of posts so far.