How do we stop them?

[Inziladun]

And....it looks like they're gone! Is it too early to say, Long live the Barrow-Wight! Praise him with great praise?

EDIT- *sigh*, as of 14:47 here's another registering.

[Mithalwen]

Too soon, just me and a dozen lower lines from an eyesight test chart just now

[Galadriel55]

Hmm, only one on right now. ??? Dare we hope?

[Tar-Jêx]

Originally Posted by Galadriel55

Hmm, only one on right now. ??? Dare we hope?

They've been purged a few times, I think. We got above 3200 at one point, then down to 3150, and I think we broke 3200 again before back to where we are now.

Hopefully we can stop this. What if it's 4chan? Then we're all screwed.

[Inziladun]

I'm really curious about the motives behind them. What are they after?

[alatar]

Have you considered that, maybe, the bots have grown more sentient, and as a consequence, have developed a taste for Tolkien?

[Kuruharan]

Originally Posted by alatar

Have you considered that, maybe, the bots have grown more sentient, and as a consequence, have developed a taste for Tolkien?

Maybe there is hope for the future after all.

[Mithalwen]

Originally Posted by Inziladun

I'm really curious about the motives behind them. What are they after?

The ring my precious. ?..it callses them....

[Inziladun]

Maybe it's part of a dark plot of movie-moguls to stifle criticisms of the films!

The ones I've seen on today all seem to have registered two days or more ago, and perhaps they can't post because they haven't gone through the authentication procedures.

[Galadriel55]

Originally Posted by Tar-Jêx

They've been purged a few times, I think. We got above 3200 at one point, then down to 3150, and I think we broke 3200 again before back to where we are now.

Please tell me I need to get new glasses, because these numbers appear to be above three thousand. ...THREE FREAKIN THOUSAND!!!

Originally Posted by Inziladun

Then there's apparently a coordinated plan to infiltrate this forum, involving several dozen persons. I still don't see what motives exist for creating so many bogus accounts, but they cannot have legitimate reasons for doing so.

I think it's more likely that one or two people are behind a large chunk of the ridiculous accounts. Maybe they hope that by quantity they'll be able to overwhelm the forum and get people to click links... Still, quite a lot of effort and little hope for success.

[Tar-Jêx]

Originally Posted by Galadriel55

Please tell me I need to get new glasses, because these numbers appear to be above three thousand. ...THREE FREAKIN THOUSAND!!!




I think it's more likely that one or two people are behind a large chunk of the ridiculous accounts. Maybe they hope that by quantity they'll be able to overwhelm the forum and get people to click links... Still, quite a lot of effort and little hope for success.

If I recall correctly, when I joined, we were at 2800.

On the bright side, all these accounts are gaining us publicity (maybe). However, it's a number of people spamming accounts, rather than joining in our engaging discussion.

[Galadriel55]

Originally Posted by Tar-Jêx

If I recall correctly, when I joined, we were at 2800.

Wait... that doesn't seem right. The counter on the main page says "Most users ever online was 1,388, 12-23-2012 at 11:24 PM". Couldn't have been over 2K...

Thinking about it, though, I just noticed that I didn't even look at this counter since (before) 2012, because from what I remember last, the most members was hit at a time before I joined. Still, in 2012 there weren't that many more active Downers; must have been another spammer attack...