Can we have a waiting period on new users asking questions?

I don’t think so. Some spammers wait for a day, even 2 or 3 or more, before they spam. The waiting period will have no effect on these kinds of spammers.

Not to mention some spammers spam by answering, and even spam directly on their profiles.

And it might discourage new users from joining, we have very little users signing up as it is. :/

Smacks of elitist bullshit, making up crap just for the sake of it.

@Mimishu1995 I haven’t seen that, so I’ll take your word for it. It’s just that the ones I see tend to post within a minute of creation.

@Symbeline That is why I wanted to keep the delay short. Basically, if you type out a question, it’ll take long enough that it won’t be an issue; it’s pretty much just to stop the copy/pasta crowd.

@ucme It’s elitist to try and think of ways to solve a problem? Well, I guess I am a bit of an elitist then.
Also, you do realize that it’s possible to flag things instead of being a condescending ass, right?

I think that we have to live with it for the sake of keeping interest up. Some new users join with immediate problems that they need help with.

I think a better approach might be to make it where your first few questions go into a queue that needs to be approved. Mods wouldn’t even need to approve. You could make it so 20 accounts could only approve questions and spread them out over timezones. I would imagine legit things would be approved in a few minutes so it wouldn’t be a big problem.

I seem to always be awake when spammers go off. 2AM here (PST) is 6PM in Eastern Asia. My hunch has always been (and this was backed up with IP addresses) that most spam is coming from Asia. Which makes some sense. Spamming after their normal day job.

I see the same thing on my site. I have went as far as blocking Asia. The one legit account isn’t worth the hours spent cleaning up 10000 spam accounts.

@jerv I guess I hit a nerve there :D
You do realise that it’s possible to take banter as harmless fun instead of being an offended arse, right?

@jerv Ah right. I thought you meant like a probation time or something like that. A short delay could work, I don’t see how spams would get around that like they do copy/paste caption. Could have sworn I read the details…don’t remember the 15 min thing. But it was five thirty in the morn, so…XD

But @Mimishu1995 is right. I’ve also seen spambots with links in their profiles, and have seen them talking to each other, basically exchanging spam. It’s…freaky. But it is real. Rare, but real.

@ucme Not when it’s o-dark-thirty and you’re only on because you can’t sleep despite a few hours of laying in the dark trying. Insomnia makes me cranky.

@johnpowell Don’t tell me I can never access your site ~

@jerv It’s not Pacino’s finest hour, but still a decent movie.

@Mimishu1995 :: Correct. I have banned a lot of spam accounts and my time can be used in better ways. I can accept the collateral damage of a few legit users. Better to just click a few buttons in Cloudflare and be done with it. It is the internet. Plenty of others place for fart jokes for Asian Internet users.

Jerv did you think to send this to Ben or Andrew? Even if naught comes of it, I’d be curious as to what they’d say.