New Forum Registrations Suspended

[Tank]

Dear all,

Sadly I've had to suspend new registrations to the forum.  In the last 48 hours there has been a huge surge in applications from 'bot accounts' appearing from Russia, with 70 appearing this morning.

I will resume at the weekend when I can monitor this better, without my real job distracting me. 

Cheers,
Chris/Tanks.

[Papyrus]

All the best with this, Chris. Sounds like a Herculean task.

Not wishing to make light of a serious problem, but it seems strange to me that they think they can achieve their aim of, I assume, bringing about the end of Western civilisation by targeting a model railway forum. Or is it just that the (AI?) bots are stupider than we realise?

Good luck,

Chris

[Newportnobby]

Oh no! The Boss has brassed off Putin...................again

[GlenEglise]

That is indeed something you do not need!

Perhaps a verification page of some sort needed to show you are a human when applying. They pop-up on so many pages nowadays.

GE

[JimSan]

Not wishing to make light of a serious problem, but it seems strange to me that they think they can achieve their aim of, I assume, bringing about the end of Western civilisation by targeting a model railway forum. Or is it just that the (AI?) bots are stupider than we realise?

I wouldn't count bots as an AI, they indiscriminately go after any website address, make accounts if possible, then after a while they spam post where they can all sorts of messages (usually adult in nature) with links to another website which will either try to sell you something or strip any details about you via accessing the website.

I use to run a forum years ago and had to deal with them then too, but they are mostly done by people who:
Want your money
Want your details
Because they're bored