Just another thought on spam prevention... Maybe a limit for new user like that they only can open 1 or 2 topics in the first x days or so. This just came into my mind while I was browsing through all the new spam post/topics about typing competitions and J'Los party in Miami and so on... And if possible maybe some custom form (like osTicket has, if possible with vanilla forums?) to require folks to tell their osTicket version etc. before they can start a new topic and you do not have to refer to the "please read before post" topic all the time.
I posted this in reply to a spam post, but I'm including it here because that whole topic will no doubt get removed.Isn't there ANYTHING in Vanilla forum for spam prevention? Wow.Edit: I just checked HERE and if this is all they have, they're (in my opinion) at least a decade behind in their anti-spam technology. Banning by username? Banning by IP address? Even banning in general. Give me a break, those techniques have not been effective since about the first generation of spambots. No wonder we're overwhelmed with it.I'd vote for a requirement that they have to have their first 2 posts go into a moderators' queue (and get approved) before they're allowed to post freely. Since these are bots, I doubt they'd be able to get around that.Jack