I totally agree, some sort of verification process for new members is desperately needed. 

@Robert Kienzle & @Henrik Ståhl -

It’d be great if there could be additional verification checks added prior to posting being permitted but in the meanwhile @Robert Johnson and I have been trashing these posts as we find them. Unfortunately, it can take some time before he or I notice one of these to do so…

Kiron

Keep up the good work @Kiron Bondale & @Robert Johnson!

I’d prefer instead of a step that delays all legitimate new users posting, it would be good to look at options for spam filtering.  Who at Miro owns the community forums?  We have a catchup with our Miro CSM on Tuesday, so I’ll ask them.

It looks like the forum is powered by Insided, and they have a spam filter.  It may already be switched on for the board, and the spammers have already figured a way around, or someone may need to switch it on.  It then becomes an activity for moderators to moderate the line ball posts.   Looks like they have some other moderation and signup controls too . 

Interestingly one of Insided’s community donts is dont let the community self regulate entirely, which is probably a signal that Miro should be getting involved here. (I’m sure someone there has noticed )

@Kon S -

Good suggestions! The community isn’t self-regulated entirely as there are moderators like myself who keep an eye on posts and will deal with spam when we run across it…

Kiron

Hi @Kiron Bondale 

Thanks :)   And I appreciate your efforts to clean and keep the spam out.  

I took Insided’s post to mean that if we are relying on community moderators such as yourself, then that means (mostly) self-regulated.  :-)  I presume you have some connection back to Miro through a community representative though (Miro regulated), so hopefully you can follow up with them too and other mods to work out the best way forward. 

I’m personally still be leaning to an improved technical solution to filter spam.  The main challenge is that being global, having a network of humans getting across to all time zones may be difficult.  Even during business hours, a spammer can send half a dozen messages in minutes before a moderator can act.

Best wishes

@Kon S I think the spam filter is already on, I have written posts that weren't published immediately but had to pass a moderator’s approval. It's triggered when certain words (and/or phrases?) are used.

It can most certainly be improved. @Marina is the expert on spam filters!

Ok good to hear @Henrik Ståhl.  I noticed on Insided’s forums that from time to time the filtering became an issue, and they adopted the Akismet filtering which made the situation better.   Perhaps the spammers have just edged out Akismet’s detection capabilities for the moment.

@Kon S Yeah, it does seem a bit flaky. The two times I triggered it, neither me nor Marina were able to figure out what the trigger word/phrase actually was.