Validation Of New Members - And Re-Validation Of The Rest Of Us?

[sunny-dave]

Hello Ed - from a rather damp Dave

In the light of the appalling hoax perpetrated on AB (and Craft1948) by persons unknown, is it time the AB toughened up its procedures for registration of a username?

I hope that you will be asking your techies to have a dig into the details (IP Address, MAC address etc etc) used by the current hoaxer, and referring the matter to the Police if possible?

But ... I won't hold my breath for any positive outcome to enquiries.

Perhaps this will be the motivation for a change?

For example, AnswerBank (or more precisely Silverdisc) must already be set up to process credit/debit card transactions .

Requiring a card number and matching name to validate registration is a commonplace and easy to implement system - no charge needs to be made - just a pre-authorisation to confirm name and card number are valid.

How about all new usernames must do this after a maximum of five posts (or a couple of days) - with the username going inactive if they don't comply? A process of re-validation of existing members over a period of a month or two wouldn't hurt, either?

Not only would it stop some of the spammers, but (more importantly) it would weed out the serial 'returners' who cause 99% of all the grief on here?

Cheers

SD xx

PS : Still fishing, still house-hunting :)

[spathiphyllum]

True..