Please don't take this personally but I have to say this.
Some of you moderators, I don't know if you're over stressed or over worked or what, but you seem to take some things rather personally on here. Topics get locked SO quickly because there are other topics similar to it.
That other spam topic was more specifically about recent attacks. I'm not sure I agree it needed to be locked but, whatever I guess.
I do have something rather important to add though. When locking a topic, please don't simply say "hey, there's another topic like this somewhere, go find it". This is a HUGE board and finding just the right topic is NOT always very easy. I've seen two topics locked just today that were locked for that reason with NO link to where to go to find the help someone needed.
YOU are familiar with this board. You know where those helpful topics are. But some people can't find them so easily. Some people also don't know whether to start a new one or not.
I realize you're dealing with a LOT of people on there but, I feel a little tension in some of the replies from the moderators that I don't think is necessary.
Anyway... I again want to ask that you don't take even this response personally. I'm just sharing my concern. Searching for JUST the right help on here can be overwhelming to people that aren't on here every day, that don't know their way around as well. Some people need to give a little more grace or slack or whatever I think. Just my opinion.
Back on topic(just in case this reply doesn't get deleted)
About the q&a. I stated in the other topic that some people would get frustrated with any question if it is tricky enough to fool a bot... A moderator replied "you think so?" and proceeded to tell me to look at all the thousands of forums that have plenty of registrations and use the Q&A.
This of course proves nothing as you cannot see any data on anyone that might pass the site by because of a tricky question.
However, I didn't get to give my reply in the other topic because it got locked.
Yes. Yes, I do believe people will get frustrated. This is how the average internet user works. They want things simple. MOST(general term but mostly accurate) internet users are careless. I work on computers(just a little) cleaning up viruses and doing other repairs. People end up in a mess because the AntiVirus software that came with their new computer expired and they didn't do ANYTHING about it. Because people want things simple. People click on any thing they see on facebook, believe everything they read, etc. People want things simple. I do believe this to be VERY much true.
I have changed my question and the spam has stopped... for today. But, I HATE trying to come up with some new, clever thing to put on there. Anything difficult to fool a bot might be tricky for an actual human. A potential user isn't going to want to find their dictionary and find the second meaning to a word or some crazy thing like that. It HAS to be simple enough they can get it instantly. But just about anything that simple will be cracked.
I know that somewhere in your head you understand that frustration.
The response from a few mods is "hey, this Q&A is the best thing, you can do it, it's fine". Almost with a little attitude.
Mods, I am NOT complaining to you. You didn't create the Q&A, you aren't spamming my board(at least I hope not), you didn't write phpbb. You're a moderator. I'm not holing you responsible. I am simply frustrated with the situation. I hope you understand that much.
If Q&A is the best thing I can do right now, then that's what I'll work with. I'll deal with it. But... I, personally, get frustrated trying to do that JUST right. I personally know people that would simply walk away from registration if they could not figure out the answer within a second or two. I don't want to turn real people away in that way. This is the frustration I am working with. Not with phpbb or the moderators here. Just the situation.
heh... whenever I do ban email or IP addresses... "reason to show banned user" I put "Spam is bad for you..."
It's bad for me at least. :/ (I still have a couple hundred users to delete I think.)
Anyway... I hope you understand my frustration is with the spam and my own trying to make it work JUST right. I also hope you'll leave this whole long reply up.

no hard feelings...