new user restrictions are too much [Sadly mandatory due to AI spambot/hackbots]

[managr]

I totally understand manually approving new posts. That's a reasonable anti-spam measure.
But why do that AND also restrict external links on top? If you're manually approving posts, you can see if the links are spam or not.

Another thing that I noticed is that as a new user I can't send a PM to an admin/mod. I just wanted to report a bug, but I can't.

[Chief Blur Buster]

Part 1: A correction to your message
You can still contact us. There's a "Contact Us" that works even if you haven't logged on.
It's just not via the usual PM mechanism. Scroll to the bottom for the "Contact Us" link.

Screenshot 2026-02-18 at 4.28.48 PM.png (12.22 KiB) Viewed 24 times

.

Part 2: The rest of message:
Problem:
- Too many hackers.
- Too many AI bots.
- Too many spammer PMs.
- We were considering shutting down these forums.
- May I humbly suggest Facebook or X (or even 4chan/8chan), if you prefer a wee-bit-less moderated venue?

Too many spammers were sending us private messages, often to the wrong person. Instead, please use "Contact Us" instead if you don't yet have private message priveleges.

Therefore, it is no longer safe or feasible to change the rules without a dramatic increase in budget, but the forums currently doesn't even pay its own bills. Because of hacker & AI contamination trying to break into these forums 10x more aggressively than 2 years ago...
...It is necessary to accept these rules as-is. We don't have Meta's or X's budget.

It's so bad already that there are already 3 layers of firewalls/scanners (including AI) and filters even before volunteers gets to see posts to be approved.

It's much harder to run a classic discussion forum in a "hacker/AI safe" manner in 2026 than in 2013.
Hobby-league forums are the ones suffering the most now.
(Even CloudFlare alone is not enough!)