Damned spammers ruin it for everyone, ya know?

I started a small forum last year and did alright until this past August, when a couple Ruskie spam bots got past the non-existent phpBB anti-spam features. In a single night, they posted 100+ new threads, each with a pharma spam link, each ended up going out on our Twitter account, as I had an app setup to pass authenticated links out, allowing non-members who follow on Twitter a sneak peek behind the curtain. We lost about half our followers over night. Sonsabitches. Murder. Death. Kill.

Turned out the last update I'd performed on the board - which reported successful - didn't actually complete. I tried a new update, which then took down the entire board. At that point, I did the bare minimum to restore the board before migrating to SMF, which allows me to ask an illogical question to would-be members as part of the registration process. "Have you driven a _ _ _ _ lately?" (fill in the blank)

As for anonymous visitors, I don't think they're all bots. I mean, as long as this place has been around and as immense as the volume of knowledge is behind it, there's probably a good, metric [censored]-ton of keyword SEO in place, pulling in all manner of rock-crawling, mud-slinging, off-roading heathens (and those who aspire to such greatness).

It's unfortunate they don't join us, but the more people here talking about why they do the things they do, how they do them, and what they are, the more likely these passersby on the information superhighway are to take the next exit and venture down the path less traveled. As they say over on DirtyImpreza.com, "Dirt is for racing, tarmac is for getting there." This place has a certain appeal.

You guys built it.
We will come.
Expect us? <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />