Hi, all! Due to an unfortunate rash of spam/fake members signing up for the site since January 2018, I am moving to a new system of moderating new member signups. In the past, everyone who signed up for Cookie Connection automatically had access to the site, without any moderation/review by me. However, this process has (recently) allowed a large number of fake members (10 to 20 per day) to join, and has created an ENORMOUS amount of cleanup for me - about 1 or more hours each day to delete and ban fake accounts. As this amount of additional work is unsustainable on top of my current workload, I have no choice but to be more restrictive in who gets immediate access to the site upon signup. I regret that not everyone will be able to instantaneously join the fun on this site, but I see no way around taking the following precautionary measures.
Effective immediately, if someone tries to sign up for this site AND is also located in an area of the world from which we get most of our spam, that person will not be allowed access to the site until I have reviewed and approved his/her member profile.
I am not sure if this new procedure will lessen my workload, as I will still have to review and delete accounts, but it will definitely prevent fake members from propagating spam into other areas of the site, and minimize further cleanup work.
Of course, this change of procedure will not affect any current (already signed-up) members, other than that you will be less likely to encounter spam members or spam posts on the site.
Thanks. Any questions? Please post them below.
