Spam making site almost unusable

As topic says.

I go on much more popular sites that have nothing like the amount of spam this site gets. Whatever method you're using to combat this is obviously not working :(

We're getting hit by a new kind of spam where (I think) human paid spammers bomb forums in real-time to promote events currently happening or about to happen. It can still be effective since if it takes us a few hours before we visit the site and clean it up then it can still get search traffic.

I've cleaned up about 200 threads today, which was the worst one to date. I'll be talking to Tom about what we can do to prevent it happening again, we've got some ideas.

1) One of most effective way is to block IPs. So, the same person/bot don't create multiple users.

2) Another good method is to give real users the ability to report spams like Youtube and other sites do it. It's faster to catch the bad apples.

3) Another way is block links from users with less than x days or x posts.

For example, the user http://www.scirra.com/users/bolo01 is a member for about 10 minutes and it's posting spam to the website.

4) If the post is suspicious, you can put it on hold until an Admin can verify it and then make it live. Wordpress does that very well with comments!

I hate spammers!

... 2) Another good method is to give real users the ability to report spams like Youtube and other sites do it. It's faster to catch the bad apples. ... I hate spammers!

The Scirra Forum has that facility, and I use it as soon as I spot a spammer. Click on 'Post options | Report post'. Quick and easy to use. I also post a reply saying 'Spam - reported' to let people know I've done it.

Yes, I hate spammers, too.

(But I think that to say "Spam making site almost unusable" is pretty OTT.)

Very sorry for the spam problem. We have a lot of possibilities we can explore, but it will take time to cycle them and see what works best so please bear with us!

No prob! Keep up the good work!