GMTonyKosten wrote on 03/07/09 at 12:24:40:

Short answer: no - I am only a customer there

Posting a list of articles for research in a hopefully democratic internet forum is not a hidden advertisment for a chess product.

That article was so old that I'd forgotten I'd written it!

flaviddude wrote on 03/07/08 at 02:09:53:

It has been restricted to members-only posting for a long time now, and I think that this clearly works. I don't know about stopping non-members from reading the posts, what would be the advantages of this?

Bruneau Michel wrote on 01/31/08 at 14:27:10:


Another webmaster, Michael Goeller, manages to post with some frequency without ever mentioning his website, so why not you?
Btw, I clearly prefer chesspub. If you want to know why I will send you a PM.

GMTonyKosten wrote on 05/22/06 at 00:07:34:


Hi!

It's, I believe,  my fifth message on this fine forum...

I am mainly interested  by Chess, Chess Theory, Chess Analysis, Chess Practice, Chess & Art and finally Chess & Philosophy... All what I know, all what I am able to express today is on my website and I would be very please if I was allowed to express such ideas with you and other members of the CHESS PUBLISHING Community... Is it possible without risking to see my message deleted?

Michel the "Chess-Theory" Webmaster

Greetings,

Frendo
I understand - but there is one major difference.

You, and many others here, have a history of contributing to the site in terms of quantity and quality of your posts.

A spam-bot does not.

The fact that an off-site url is included in a post by a respected member would mitigate against the need for holding up the post. Even so, the "hold up" shouldn't be that noticeably longer than normal when posting - the automated cross-check shouldn't take too long.

However, this really only applies to those who have no history on the site.

It has been mentioned that only when someone has made a minimum number of posts that they're allowed greater freedoms on the site...

I know of at least one site where, not only do you have to post at least 60 posts - but that the mere quantity is not sufficient to gain these extra freedoms. Quality of posting is also assessed and if deemed below par, the poster will have to continue contributing until the top staff grant the extra privileges.

Certainly, using a Captcha (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Captcha) will help prevent spam-bots signing-up - this in conjunction with account validation (one week to validate, else the account is erased) would defeat most bots.

From what I've read, YaBB uses Perl (MyPerl?) - the above linked article itself includes a link to a Perl script to incorporate a Captcha.

Even with this strategy, the more detemined spammers may still begin to get past this precaution.

Kindest regards,

James

Greetings,

GMTonyKosten wrote on 05/23/06 at 15:46:22:


Tony, although I'm unfamiliar with YaBB, there are a number of ways to help prevent spam.

Consider...

1) Most spammers are "one-hit posters" - single post, new IP address;
2) Their "post" normally includes a off-site link;
3) Major spammers and other abusers are on "known-spammer" list(s).

Given the above, a simple anti-spam strategy would be:

1) Any poster who includes a link to an off-site domain - NOT "www.chesspublishing.com" - would alert yourself and all site mods/admins;
2) New posters should have their IP address/domain immediately checked against known-spammer and other abuser lists - especially if their post includes a link as in 1);

In fact, in 1) above, the post could be held up (not posted) until the included link has been cross-checked against known spammer/malware/etc lists.

If it proves to be spam, etc, then it could be dumped without it ever appearing on the forum and you could ban the attempted poster (IP/email).  

Kindest regards,

James