Sometime in the last few weeks a vulnerability in a major "human verification" system used in many places, including vBulletin software was discovered. This has led to a huge increase in bot generated spam on this and many other forums. I'm pleased to say that with the help of our tireless staff we have affected countermeasures to avoid the worst of the problems but we have needed to make a few small changes to our posting rules on a software level.
For the foreseeable future there will be some limits imposed on the first five posts a new poster makes. Specifically if any of your first five posts contain a URL link or any of several very common terms in spam posts (viagra, porn, ect.) your post will not be displayed until it is reviewed by a moderator. We've begun sending new members a welcome private message when they sign up explaining this issue but it appears that a few people who joined this forum before we instituted the welcome PM but who haven't made more than five posts might wonder why their posts aren't being displayed after the submit them. I'd like to apologize for any confusion or inconvenience this may cause.
And let me take this occasion to welcome littleroundman to our small and friendly family of jackbooted thuggish moderators. LRM is a dedicated and skilled finder of fact who has earned the respect of anyone who's followed his efforts on many forums. I'm honored that he's agreed to join us.
