It has.
Formerly, people who registered and were awaiting email confirmation could still use the PM system without ever having to actually finish registering. Since Tech-Forums upgraded to the new version of vB last year, spam bots couldn't get in anymore, so people had to physically post spam. We have a great mod team who have been very quick in stopping spam. Since their posts did not have any impact, spammers found this little loophole to try to get their unwanted advertising out.
I have changed the permissions of this user group, as well as the registered user group (less than 40 posts). The users awaiting email verification group can no longer use private messages AT ALL, sending or receiving. Registered users cannot initiate PMs at all, and can only respond to PMs that a member sends to them. I have also disabled their ability to post attachments (both groups).
These measures should prevent anymore of this type of spam. I am currently looking into how I can disable the ability to post images and active (clickable) links for these groups. They would be able to paste the text of the link, but not to make it active. Hopefully Dave and I can figure it out soon.
While these changes may make things a bit more complicated and even harder on new members, it must be done. Rules are not made for the majority, but for that small percentage who try to go against the norm.
