It's time for Chad to learn about the wonders of IP banning.

I mean what the fuck, an idiot posting pornography twice in the same week? Damn. I remember a year or two ago there was a similar situation. This was funny once, but now it's getting ridiculous. How about we start IP banning hardcore wankers like that.

Also why not force ID check when registering, kinda like "input your student ID and your macID", and you can't register unless you get a match? It's 2016, I think something needs to be done about it.

Hi George. Thanks for bringing this to my attention - and thanks to all of the members who have been reporting the posts from this trolling user.

We've been cleaning up the post and banned the users that were reported. Dozens of posts were removed within an hour of them being posted a few days ago, looks like he/she signed up with a different account and starting posting again today.

If you do see any more of those garbage/NSFW posts, click the 'report' button and I'll delete all posts from that user and ban them.

Their IP is banned. But trolls don't use just 1 IP. They use services that mask their IP so it's different each time.

I don't have access to Mac's database of Mac ID's to verify them. Best I can do is turn back on McMaster email verification to require they have a mcmaster email that they click a link to verify, but people were having issues receiving the email as it seems to go to spam or not get delivered properly.

Thanks for your help reporting the posts thus far. Keeping the forums clean is top priority.

Mac e-mail verification has been turned on. Continue to report any NSFW posts, and they will be cleaned up. Thanks!

Oh good. The guy actually reposted that shit yesterday morning, and I had to email you because this morning it was still up. Don't know what those admins are doing. Badmins.

Thanks for the notification. The email verification should hold back any more issues for now. If you see anything just let us know. Thanks!

What about future students who don't have an email yet?

Can you give another type of account (without email verification), but without ability to post images and stuff?

An interesting idea George, thanks!

I have now set it up so that unverified e-mail accounts can post in the 'Prospective Students' forum, but not the other forums until they are e-mail verified.

However, the problem is that I can't automatically separate accounts that are @mcmaster.ca from other types of emails.

I've put a message on the registration page saying that if you are a prospective student, email [email protected] om and I'll allow them to sign up without an @mcmaster.ca email but it's a manual process for me to do each time.

Two options we can look at doing:

1) Keep it @mcmaster.ca only to sign up, and they can post in the prospective student forum only until they verify their McMaster.ca email, then it lets them post to any forum.

2) Open up email to any email address, but require email verification before they can post in any forums. Once verified, they can post in the forums. This will at least require a troll to sign up new email accounts each time they register after their account is banned.

Old option: The way it used to be up until this most recent troll, is that we accepted all main types of email addresses (mcmaster.ca, gmail, yahoo, hotmail) and then allowed them to post to the forums without verification.

Which would you guys prefer? Right now it's set up as #1 option while we're on 'lockdown' from the recent trolling issue. But I think we're going to switch it to #2 soon.

The problem with #1 is that people who don't have a McMaster email (including alumni students, prospective students, landlords looking to post houses for rent, any small business owner in the Westdale area looking to post about an event or announcement, etc) can't post in the forums.

However, the problem is that I can't automatically separate accounts that are @mcmaster.ca from other types of emails.

None of the options are perfect. Because in all of them you can go around the system. Especially since there are plenty of @mcmaster emails posted online and you can just use that to create an unverified account to yet again post smut.

There needs to be an actual restriction to posting images (also links if possible) when your account is unverified. So maybe there's a way to make the website engine ignore the [IMG] mark unless their account is verified.

But at least with verification, they would have to actually own the e-mail account and open up the email to verify their account. If they use any e-mail found online, they still wouldn't be able to verify it. Nor would they be able to use the same email as someone who already signed up (it doesn't allow duplicate emails). That'll slow down the trolls needing to verify to post in the forums at all.

The other option is to make it so that the user has to have a certain number of posts/reputation before it allows them to put [img] tags in their posts. This could be a possible option to deter new users who come on strictly to post images right away. They would have to make an effort to post other non-image posts first, which we could catch them as spam before they get enough to post images.

No matter what we do, it requires vigilant users making sure to report any posts that are bad, so we can clean and ban the trolls quickly. No system is perfect, especially for trolls who aren't bots and figure out ways to get around things.

I think it's always better to go with options that are more lenient to allow more users to join, and keep close eye on trolls and moderate as quick as possible anyone trying to abuse the system.

Nowadays, it is just George who uses this site, and with even more stricter contingencies, we will have even fewer people using the site. George might quit as well, I think he uses fake account as well ;P

The other option is to make it so that the user has to have a certain number of posts/reputation before it allows them to put [img] tags in their posts.

But the guy who was posting smut in here, he was banned twice in the span of 2 days, in his 1st account he made normal posts, before starting trolling several weeks later. So clearly trolls find enough dedication to complete their mission.

ya, I think either way trolls that are determined to troll will find ways around it.

I'm going to loosen up restrictions requiring mcmaster email, but still require email verification. If you guys see any trolling, be sure to report it - I'll take care of it as soon as possible.

Thanks for your help everyone!!!