by CreepyUncleAndy on Tue Apr 03, 2007 9:00 am
The mods can always cancel/ban/delete spammers (and their posts) -- but this takes time, and there are a finite number of mods.
The spammers can always create new accounts, and spam, and spam, and spam -- and there are an infinite number of spammers.
The mods could limit (but never totally stop) the flow of new spam by making the following adjustments:
(1) The Anti-Spam Solution used by Google Mail -- require every new account to register with a telephone number that is unique to that account -- this number will be called (or text messaged) by a human operator or machine which will give whoever answers an activation code that must be entered for that account to use the site. That phone number will be uniquely registered to that account, such that it cannot be used by another account. The phone call will also have a recording of Lack's voice telling people not to deadbeat or multiplay.
(2) Draconian Measures -- mods will be selected (and kept) based on how aggressively they police their forums. If you are a mod, and do not delete every item of spam in your forum, a more aggressive mod will be found to replace you. If you are a spammer, your account will be banned, then deleted, then all of your information will be sold to various third-party junk mail distributors -- the spammers shall be spammed.
There is an interesting parallel between the "War on Spam" and the "War on Terror":
In the Army, I had several good conversations with and attended numerous lectures by numerous Commissioned- and Non-Commissioned-Officers, all of whom had something very much like this to say about the "Global War on Terror" (the official name of the war we are currently waging:
"We cannot 'win' the war on terror; at best, we can only do pre-emptive and ex-post-facto damage control, and reduce the 'war' to a stalemate. Every 'terrorist' we kill becomes a martyr to inspire others to take up arms against the 'Imperial West, and every 'innocent civilian' who dies because of our mistakes becomes a rallying point in the jihad against us, 'The Great Satan'. Politicians who speak of 'winning the war on terror' are either delusional or outright liars. However, we have been called upon to do the impossible, and so we must soldier on"