Too Many Spam Accounts

Recently, I've noticed some accounts showing business stuff or whatever. I know they are instantly disabled, but it annoys me a bit.
All of you may know that a day ago or two there were problems when downloading hacks or other stuff, telling you a malware warning. Not sure though, but could it be related to those spammers? Would there be any way to stop those people from making an account?
It may sound stupid, but it's just a doubt or question I've been thinking about for a while.

It's probably the same user(s) (most likely from the same IP address) from India who advertised IT services. I think they advertise various businesses in his country and his accounts are named after those. I can assure that over 99,5% of users aren't interested because they don't live in India. This country is so poor that only very few people have Internet access and Western or Japanese media companies wouldn't be successful there. Only minority of connected people know about Mario and apparently even fewer about SMW hacking, probably because they stumbled on these topics.


Yes, an opportunity to prevent the same IP address from creating new accounts exists for those who've created too many accounts.

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I have a Discord server as well!
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Basically, I believe in peace and bashing two bricks together.

Look, if there was a way to block out 100% of spam accounts with perfect accuracy, we would have used it a long time ago. IP bans are already a thing, but all of those spammers are in different click farms and have different IPs.
As far as I know, the malware alerts were completely unrelated to the spammers. And the spammers have existed for a long time already.

How about forcing all new users to give a one-word answer to a random Super Mario World-related question, and then having their account only successfully be created if the answer matches whatever is on file for that question. It doesn't have to be case-sensitive because that would be unnecessary, and the questions don't have to be that hard. Questions could be:

What is the name of the first level in Special World? (Gnarly)

_____ Island 2 has a unique level mechanic with sub-levels that change depending on time and coins collected. (Chocolate)

What colour of Koopa Troopa gives Yoshi the ability to fly when eaten (Blue)

....You get the picture.

Something like this might help curb spam accounts.

Yes, questions please! That's what I've been suggesting for ages.

Not sure if 14-year-old me could have answered the ones Todd suggested, though. From my experience running the German board, even much easier questions should suffice. I had something along the lines of "what color is the first letter in our logo" for a while, as well as "what does SMW stand for", and that seemed to be enough to deter spammers. (Though the sample size was never huge and the board is now mostly dead.)

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Users should be able to send a PM to a staff member or administrator suggesting new questions that, obviously, get reviewed for obscurity and sensibility first.

A questions system will not eliminate all spammers, but it should eliminate most of them.

Todd's sample questions are pretty ideal I would think (maybe not the Chocolate one?).

Bare minimum knowledge of SMW probably isn't necessary if you're say, doing SM64 hacks. *But*, the ability to do a simple search to find info not only filters spam but also ensures real users can read/search the help for the tools/forum they're using to a degree. (FAQ-related questions would probably be good too).

Just my 2¢