Can we change the default of the �move� button to not post a redirection topic?  Please?

yes, good suggestions.  I'll see if it can be done.  The spammers always seem to show up when I'm travelling  
Anyhow I think I've taken care of it now and made it so new members need to be approved by me so hopefully this will thwart their efforts until Monday.

Thank you Leaf!

Ok - this is what I've done so far

Members who have the status Lurker (under 3 posts) need to have their post approved by a diamond member before it will go live.  Once they have made 3 posts, they can post as normal.  Diamond members should now see a Moderate tab on the top.. this is where they can see posts than need approval.  I'll also try to check the unapproved posts regularly, and delete accounts that are simply wanting to post spam.

Hopefully this reduces the amount of spam we get here.

Ok - this is what I've done so far

Sounds like an excellent move!  Hopefully this will reduce the amount of spam posted here, which is downright ridiculous in spurts.

Unfortunately, on my own blog, I had to simply turn off comments. I was getting 10 spam posts for every valid one.

Is there anything we can do with a spam post which appears within a legitimate thread, i.e. not a new thread of its own?
(Other than report it)

Perhaps I misunderstood the new restriction. Leaf said (in the chat box) that people with 3 or fewer posts need approval for their post/new topic.

I just reported a post that was a reply and in looking at the perpetrator, that was the only post the person had made.

All posts, replies or new topics, need to be moderated for newbies if that's possible to do.

The spammer's next trick might be to post irrelevant but not obviously spam stuff  until they're off moderation. Any way we can extend the moderation period - reset the clock so 3 more are needed - if we haven't seen a post that looks legit yet?

The spammer's next trick might be to post irrelevant but not obviously spam stuff  until they're off moderation. Any way we can extend the moderation period - reset the clock so 3 more are needed - if we haven't seen a post that looks legit yet?

Most spamming is done by bots I think.  It is probably much to much work to pretend to be part of the conversation and then start spamming.  It's pretty easy to delete a user and all their posts as well, so the rare time it happens, they are pretty easy to zap.

Leaf (or anybody) can you explain how to delete a post in the moderate area? There is one there now from our friends the essay writer. There�s a green button with the word approve. I don�t want to do that. Theres a dropdown that says �with selected� then you have a choice of approve or delete. if i choose delete it says are you sure you want to do this and i say yes. nothing happens. both ipad and iphone. what am i doing wrong?

perhaps there is a bug in mobile browsers or on safari.  I just deleted it on chrome on a desktop.  You are doing the right thing though.  There should also be a 'delete / remove' button on the bottom of the post itself.  The dropdown is to do an action with all posts awaiting moderation.

Yeah, I didn�t see a delete on the post itself either. Glad to know it�s not just me, though. Next time I am at my computer I will look, but I use firefox on mac so it might be what Sean sees.
edit: i just added chrome to my ipad so next time i will try it with that.

With Chrome on a Mac (Mojave) I tried to delete one of the spam posts and received the following error message:

"Wrong value type sent to the database. Array of integers expected. (topics)"

I have to share this exciting news announcement as this is a spam thread. Pumpkin Spice Spam is a real thing 

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/autumn-coming-so-course-pumpkin-spice-spam-too-n1042531

Ah, ok, I was wondering what to do with it.

Having a move to Garbage option would be great.