Is there really a reason of buying OEM Software?

[Terabanitoss]

TRASH

[jdlh199]

This is not OEM software. This is SPAMMERS selling illegal software, which is copyright infringement.

Why do you think you get no support from the software manufacturer?
Why do you think the site is hosted in Russia?
Why do you think they are using an old expired website address? Who is the Ellsworth Band?

www.ellsworthband.com
Official Site of Ellsworth - Ellsworth is an 100% original acoustic rock band with ukulele, bass, drums, guitar, a 3-part harmony, and 2 lead singers. They are heavily influenced by ...

Would you really give your credit card details to these criminals?

[JI2002]

To get non-chemists out of the forum, every new member needs to take a chemistry quiz, if they can't get more than 7 or 8 out of 10 questions correctly, then they can't login.

[Noser222]

What is the electronic configuration of Gallium?

(from Spock's quiz in Star Trek IV)

[tom jupille]

Just for the record, the amount of spam/porn/spyware/trash . . .
has been increasing. I usually check the Forum once or twice a day and delete all the garbage, but there are times when I'm traveling and can't get a reasonable internet connection.

If you see one of these before I get a chance to delete it, do not open the post, (and if curiosity gets the better of you, above all do not click anywhere on the message!!). A lot of what looks like text actually has embedded links.

[Kostas Petritis]

Tom,

Do you think that the subscription and post of these messages are done automatically (i.e. with macros) or does someone actually goes and creates an account and post these messages. In the first case you could probably add an additional step for the account creation process?

Alternatively/in addition, you could give Moderator privileges (i.e. just the right to delete messages) to 2-3 trustworthy people that visit the site quite often. If they find a spam message, they can then delete it...

[DR]

If memory serves, there is a portion of the registration process that requires a manual entry based on an image file that is tough for an OCR program to read. This keeps the spambots out.

I think a screening question or two, or assigning some limited mod. priveleges to a couple of trustworthy volunteers (from different time zones, ideally) would keep manual spammers to a minimum.

I'm still waiting to hear from IS over one spam message I errantly clicked on.

If there's a "Bad Post" button (eg: ) that could be activated, I think these buttons IM mods so that questionable threads can be quickly addressed, that may help too.