We all of a sudden have automated bots joining the forum again (10 in the past 24 hours) so I've restricted membership to only be approved by Administrators.

This means that if someone joins the forum, Administrators will be sent an email notifying them with a link to the forum to accept or reject their membership.

This is the only way to stop bots from joining and posting advertisements.

How can you tell if the person joining is a bot?

The first giveaway is an unpronounceable name - but this in itself is not enough of a reason for membership deletion.

If you see anywhere in the person's profile (check their name under User Administration at bottom left of Administration Panel) porn links, health food links, erectile dysfunction links, or anything that smells of ADVERTISING - delete the account.

If you see an ICQ number listed on their profile (by clicking on their user name) click on the ICQ link. If the ICQ account doesn't exist - delete the account.

Check the email of the person joining. Many bots join from the .ru (russia) domain and their emails list the domain.

To delete a user, log into the Administration Panel, at the bottom left is "User Admin" under which you choose "Management" - to manage users.

Copy and paste the new user's name (from the Memberlist) and look to the very bottom of their profile for a check box that says "Click here to delete this user; this cannot be undone." and check the box and click submit - the user is then deleted.

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