I temporarily removed manual approval of new members to try something different. It isn't very welcoming when new members join and they are greeted with a message telling them they cannot use their account yet. I believe this often leads to them closing the website and forgetting to ever come back. Even though I approve them very quickly all day long, and I know you guys do too, I'd like to try something else.
So I've implemented a system that will allow all registrations with a normal email address (so things like .xyz emails are blocked) and new members can post immediately. To further prevent spam from being posted, if a new member creates a post that has a link in it, like https://www.amazon.com/?tag=tacoma3g-20, which is what all the spammers do (they link to weird foreign websites), it will put that post into the moderation queue and it will be hidden from public view. We will see that post on the moderator bar at the bottom of the page as we do now for new member registrations. This should prevent spammers from being able to join, but if they do, their posts won't be seen, all while allowing real members to use the site immediately.
All I ask is that you keep an eye out for spam posts that do get through -- which they shouldn't -- but if you see one just delete it promptly. If this doesn't end up working out well we can go back to our old system.
So I've implemented a system that will allow all registrations with a normal email address (so things like .xyz emails are blocked) and new members can post immediately. To further prevent spam from being posted, if a new member creates a post that has a link in it, like https://www.amazon.com/?tag=tacoma3g-20, which is what all the spammers do (they link to weird foreign websites), it will put that post into the moderation queue and it will be hidden from public view. We will see that post on the moderator bar at the bottom of the page as we do now for new member registrations. This should prevent spammers from being able to join, but if they do, their posts won't be seen, all while allowing real members to use the site immediately.
All I ask is that you keep an eye out for spam posts that do get through -- which they shouldn't -- but if you see one just delete it promptly. If this doesn't end up working out well we can go back to our old system.