Hey Community! I'm posting this in the forums because the Shoutbox isn't always a reliable way to make sure everyone gets info. I wanted to let you know what the site's Admin and Arbiter teams have been doing to combat the dramatic influx of bots and bot spam we've had over the last few days, and to give you a heads up on how it might impact users.
First off, steps have been taken to try to weed out as many bots as possible during the user registration process, and hopefully that will stop most of them. Bot accounts and IPs are being banned as soon as they are identified. Neither of these measures should impact current forum users. If you are directing new members/recruits to the forums please let them know they'll have to jump through a few hoops but tell them to stick it out. We are seeing a lot of activity happening behind the scenes that makes these steps more than warranted for the time being.
Another extra step we are temporarily taking is to make it so that new topics require site team approval before they will be publicly posted. This is the step that will impact all of our current users, so please be aware that there may be a delay before you see your new thread appear on the site. Especially with the holidays upon us, please give it a day or so before following up with the Arbiter team if you don't see your thread appear; it may just be that all Arbiters and Admins are engaged with their families away from the computer.
If despite all these precautions bot posts somehow still make it through, please be absolutely certain not to click on any links in them - both for the safety of your own computer and also to make sure we aren't flagging the site as fertile ground for further attacks.
