Forum over-run with advertising bots

[kestasjk]

"and it means people who want to post on the forum but don't want to join a game for some legit reason"
The only legitimate reason for someone wanting to post without joining a game is to ask a question of the mechanics of the game or the mechanics of the site. You could have a "Ask a Question" forum site where new users could ask questions

True that would be better, but probably that forum would continue to get spammed.

Here's another idea that might work:

The user has to select the default SCs of a random country. Apparently having site specific anti-bot challenges is the most effective measure according to the current phpBB anti-spam guidance, only issue I can see is if people have trouble using it e.g. on mobile devices

[TheOverlord]

Kinda just got into Diplo and in my first online games right now, but I have severe memory issue both short and long term, it would be basically impossible for me to remember the exact start of a specific nation. And I imagine it would also be hard for anyone even without memory issues that just got into diplo.

[Jamiet99uk]

Kinda just got into Diplo and in my first online games right now, but I have severe memory issue both short and long term, it would be basically impossible for me to remember the exact start of a specific nation. And I imagine it would also be hard for anyone even without memory issues that just got into diplo.

You could just look it up. It isn't exactly a memory test.

[learnedSloth]

Kinda just got into Diplo and in my first online games right now, but I have severe memory issue both short and long term, it would be basically impossible for me to remember the exact start of a specific nation. And I imagine it would also be hard for anyone even without memory issues that just got into diplo.

Wouldn't the admin email cover this rare edge case?

[kestasjk]

I hope so, and hopefully the way it lets you click and check off territories you've clicked will let people trial and error it even if they can't connect the long territory name to the map name.

Anyway I've tested and deployed it, let's see how it goes

[JECE]

It seems like a better solution to the idea of restricting forum posting to those who have already played games. At first I liked that idea, but then I remembered that we regularly get posts from upstanding members of the Diplomacy community that post in the Forum for some specific good reason and yet have no intention of ever playing a game here. Kestas recently posted on vDip, for instance.