How can I fight forum spam?

[Courtesy Flush]

I run a small website for a club I belong to. I added a SimpleBoard forum a while back, and the spammers have already found it!

I don't want to require registration for posting, as some people want to ask questions about joining the club, and I don't want to discourage participation if I can.

Besides, I've seen from personal experience that spammers have scripts that seem to defeat all those efforts. I locked a few threads, yet they continue to get spammed. Members can't post on the thread, but spammers can!!!

Any suggestions? Keep in mind we're a small club, and don't have a budget for stuff like this.

[LeftyMom]

1. Can you ban the IPs of repeated spammers?

Is there a support forum for your board software? There should be hints there on dealing with this stuff, and maybe software upgrades to fix the bugs that make it possible.

[Courtesy Flush]

3. They're too smart for that

Every spam message shows a different IP address. They have software that rotates proxies, or something. They obviously all come from the same source, but they have a workaround for the IP thing.

[auntAgonist]

2. I too have a small forum

and because of spamming possibilities it's only accessible via passwords and registration. We have a 'contact us' link if anyone wants to join. That form provides us with contact information along with the sender's IP number. People will still use proxys etc. For me, passwording is the best way.

aA
good luck :)

[ghostsofgiants]

4. How about a Captcha system with registration?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Captcha

[Lowell]

5. I fight them by inserting a small code

in the body of my webpages that attracts their webbots. When they come harvesting addresses from the webpage they get this link and it contaminates their lists. Eventually they have to purge their contaminated list and start over.

http://www.auditmypc.com/freescan/antispam.html