Time for a new member questionnaire that goes full rivet counter including draw the driving cab of a (insert random UK steam loco) and reject any that have a steering wheel

Build an infinite feedback loop sending it a verification code that doesn't stop. The users that get fed up and go can be emailed the right verification code to get an account. The bots will just have their own world to play in.

Not a workable solution but a fun one nevertheless.

So @Tank could actually be a bot?     

Ticking the box to show your human involves the website monitoring the time taken to do the click, where and how the mouse moves etc. Getting a bot to replicate the human movement is difficult.

Similarly, when you get asked to click on photos of traffic lights - it's the timing of the clicks that it's most interested (the clicked pictures also help identify images containing traffic lights that help AI learn).

Quote from: GlenEglise on September 03, 2026, 07:39:47 PMPerhaps a verification page of some sort needed to show you are a human when applying. They pop-up on so many pages nowadays.

Considering that self-driving cars can spot traffic lights and mopeds, I doubt it's beyond the abilities of a bot with only a modicum of AI built in to do likewise 

Mind you, most sites that want to check only ask me to tick a box to say that I'm not a robot - hardly a strong verification requirement.

From experience on another forum I run, most spam accounts are created by actual humans, who can therefore bypass whatever anti-bot checks you put in place. Some of them are relatively clever these days about avoiding detection, and use either their brains or AI to help make some seemingly relevant posts, which they come back to later to edit referral links into. Their goal is to have those referral links on the site as long as possible.

Combating them is a balance between stamping down on spam and inconveniencing new/existing users, and at the end of the day usually ends up mainly inconveniencing the kind people running the site who have to spend their time to manually detect and delete them and any posts they make.

Quote from: GlenEglise on September 03, 2026, 07:39:47 PMPerhaps a verification page of some sort needed to show you are a human when applying. They pop-up on so many pages nowadays.

I've got that (Google ReCaptcha) on my web site. It doesn't prevent the occasional flood of people attempting to leave comments with links to dodgy web sites.

Quote from: Graham on September 03, 2026, 11:45:35 PM

Quote from: Graham on September 03, 2026, 12:55:56 AMPost: need I say more?
After my last few parcels arriving from the UK in a matter of days, the current one has so far been stuck at Heathrow waiting a flight for a week, and now stuck in Melbourne awaiting clearance for 4 days.
Of course it could be because the postal service don't want me to have my first Dapol class 66.
  

well, after putting that post on yesterday morning, I checked again at lunchtime to see the delivery was STILL STUCK IN CUSTOMS.

Only for it to be delivered at 2pm. What gives.

From my thread about tracking parcels abroad...........

Quote from: Newportnobby on August 27, 2026, 09:15:11 AMI guess 12 days transit is not bad. It's just the infuriating inability to get tracking details that's the problem.

loved both of them, but guess we will have to wait till next year to see them.

Quote from: Graham on September 03, 2026, 12:55:56 AMPost: need I say more?
After my last few parcels arriving from the UK in a matter of days, the current one has so far been stuck at Heathrow waiting a flight for a week, and now stuck in Melbourne awaiting clearance for 4 days.
Of course it could be because the postal service don't want me to have my first Dapol class 66.
  

well, after putting that post on yesterday morning, I checked again at lunchtime to see the delivery was STILL STUCK IN CUSTOMS.

Only for it to be delivered at 2pm. What gives.

So last night I got to check out my first Dapol 66 from the new run.