Yesterday, Thursday 31 July around 17.18, the Edgeryders website came under attack from spammers. Spambots created about 180 new users and proceeded to create posts about contacting customer service of airlines. Ironic that chatbots imply that talking to humans is valuable… which of course it is.
Anyway. I have since deleted all spambots I could find and their content. Also, I imposed admin (manual) approval of all new users before they can post, so that the spambots are stopped at the gates – at midnight they were still coming in.
The problem with that is that legitimate users now get stopped too! This might affect specifically @reef-recruitment and @reef-buddies, as new exploring members create accounts and are told by the site to wait.
Apologies to new users and everyone affected, but this seems like the lesser evil. @matthias and @daniel are looking into the matter with a preventative lens, and I hope to soon be able to restore the previous configuration. Meanwhile, thanks everyone for your patience, and special thanks to @LuciaM for reaching out and flagging the issue.
EDIT As of mid-December 2025 the issue is resolved and the restrictions on signup have been removed.