Spam
I see this forum gets spammed quite a bit. It's not too bad but it must be annoying for the admins to have to constantly clean it up. (Maybe they like having something to do though? :) )
Does Forumer provide admins with the source code to their forum to mess with it as they see fit or is it just a stock pacakge that is given without the ability to modify it?
I ask because there are two things I've noticed.
Firstly spammers always put a URL/hyperlink in their first post. Secondly regular users never have a URL/hyperlink in their first post (if they do I have not seen it, so it's an absolute minority if so).
If the source is available a simple modification along the lines of "if post count = 1 and post contains URL then ban and delete post" would eliminate spam.
They should really get a real job instead of annoying people with ads. I wouldn't engage in such immoral work for any kind of money
Well the upside is that spammers just use "bots" which scour vulnerable forums (namely PhpBB like this one), create an account automatically, make one post of spam then never return. So if a measure like I described was implemented it would take a while for the creators of these bots to get wise to it and update the software. The creators get paid the big chunk of cash for making the program then the people who actually use it to spam forums only get paid a pittance for each clickthrough on a link, somewhere in the vacinity of single digit cents.
Though yes both the programmers and the users of spam software are bastards, like telemarketers. If I want to buy something I'll go and buy it, stop fucking pestering me.