Science/Engineering/Technical forums

Lately we've been bombarded with new prospective members with member names that look more or less like they were created with a random alpha character generator, and are getting hit by some bots our ISP is flagging as probable spam bots. I'm not getting any extra spam myself, other than this, and obviously these new joins aren't reading the policy that we want real hames here if we can have them, as we are real people, friends. I've been accepting most of them, and sending them PM's from the board, but I never see any of them logged in, and am wondering what should be done. The only reason to join here is to post -- you can read all you want as a non member, and if you don't log in and post, or get your messages, I have to wonder what the motive for joining was.

I am asking for comments from members who do post, and giving notice that at the end of this month, I will go through the member list and wipe out all members with zero posts, there is no way that having a ton of deadwood helps either us or them (if they are even human). We're not making money on this, there's nothing we sell here, an no reason to have a long member list that doesn't contribute anything -- anyone can read (and is encouraged to) if they want to learn, but if you are going to join, we expect at least a post on "announce yourself" so we know who you are and how we can help. If you just want to lurk, no need to be a member here.

You have been warned. We don't need to let this build up to the point where it can swamp our attempts to erase them all in the event of some sort of attack or flood of garbage.

Doug Coulter, owner.