This is spam. Please, don't follow the link. You will probably get spyware installed on your machine for your trouble.
Moderators, could you delete this thread and ban the poster's IP address?
Is there a way to report threads like this? I looked around and didn't see anything.
That being said, ReAn 30 should do the trick: Base 5 (as per ReCo), +2 Voice, +2 Sun, +1 Extra speed. I guess you could try it at Touch range, but I'm presuming the cat is opposed to the whole idea.
I usually check the boards once or twice a day and delete spam, block IPs, etc. The guest-posted spam was getting really bad, so we turned guest posting off entirely; now the spammers have to set up an account first (which they sometimes did do before). We may not get as many as before, but ones like this will still crop up.
We don't have a reporting mechanism. It wouldn't really speed things up, though, since I wouldn't do anything until I got around to logging in again anyhow. I'm pretty sure nobody wants all other Atlas business to come to a screeching halt so I can log in and delete a viagra ad...
The one thing we're likely to miss is spam within an existing thread -- we don't keep up with all of those, so feel free to call it to our attention if any mid-thread spam appears.
We've been really happy with how well the forums have been going, but the spam is an increasing annoyance (and expense, since it takes paid staff time to get rid of it).
I haven't created an account in a long time, so this may be superflous, but if you include a picture-identification scheme at registration (such as identifying distorted letters) it should diminish spamming. It's likely this program has such an extension available, it's a common enough feature.
Not that there is that much spam, IME.
Yair
the other option available on many BBS software packages is "must register, any registered user can post, but until 'approved' posts by new users are moderated"
this lets a human see the first post by any user, and if it's about the "right sort of thing" pass on the message, and unblock the user.
I do this with the Lex hermeticum list on Yahoo...
This is how I do it on the dozen or so Yahoo groups I run, and how several USENET groups (that I know of) do it as well. New User X can post, but for a set time limit, or number of posts, his posts are hand approved by the mods. After that, his posts are automatically approved, and posted to the board.
Steve
Well, not before we'd taken the details, clearly.