Why UtahMountainBiking.com is closed to new user registrations -- our spam-prevention policy

We have stopped accepting new forum members because we're being swamped with troll registrations, mostly out of Russia and the former Soviet republics, despite potent anti-bot measures. When new users pass the anti-bot test and submit an application for membership, the IP address of their computer is captured. We trace that IP address to a general geographic location. We also evaluate the username and the email address for evidence of bot assistance and for foreign ties. If an application originates outside of Utah, or if there's anything suggestive of troll registration, the forum membership application is simply deleted. During summer 2019, troll registrations exploded (again, as during the primary election season of 2015-16). It has become simply too much work for our admistrators, as the ratio of troll registrations to legitimate user applications has become over 3000 to 1 -- despite our best anti-bot measures which require a good command of English and a knowledge of bicycles to pass.

If you are a legitimate Utah rider who wants to post information to this forum, contact us by email. You must include your planned username and an initial password. Until you are an approved and registered user with your own password, you will not be allowed to post. You can still read and browse the forum without being a registered forum member. We appreciate your patience! 

Our anti-bot measures prevent most "spam registrations." (See the discussion below for information on why this is a problem for us -- and for you as a user of this website.) In order to register, you must answer a two-step "anti-spam-bot" question selected at random. As soon as possible after you apply for an account, it will be reviewed by our administrators. This usually is done within 48 hours -- but we're active bikers, not computer-jockeys. The account application will be deleted -- without notice to you -- if it meets certain characteristics of a spam registration. Assuming we've decided to take the chance that you're a legit biker, the final step of registration is to activate your account by responding to the email you receive from the board software. 

SPAM 1:  Bogus registrations - political and commercial
Trolls (often sponsored by Russia) try to get their registration onto many websites and forums. But these smaller forums are not really their primary target. They usually never post or even go back to look at what's on the website. Instead, the registration seems to be an attempt to make themselves look more like a legitimate US citizen. Having their specific email address associated with multiple accounts across the web makes it harder for social media companies to identify the troll account. By registering on our site, the internet activity associated with the troll's email appears more legitimate -- so the troll's Facebook or Twitter account is less likely to be deleted.

Small on-line businesses may contract with companies that promise to boost their "search-engine ranking." The actual work is usually farmed out overseas, most often in Russia. (The commercial spamming probably helps pay for Russia's political activity on American social media.) These commercial spammers use "bots" -- software tools that search the internet for discussion boards and robo-register as a participant. We use an anti-spambot tool that intercepts the bots. For American spammers, it's usually not worth the expense or time to use a human to answer a challenge question. That's why so many of our bogus registrations come from technically sophisticated but low-income areas of the world. Without heavy-handed anti-spam measures, there may be hundreds of these automated registrations every single day.

The bogus registration itself usually contains a link to the business, in an attempt to increase the "Google ranking." The idea is that the spiders of search engines will see the link within the member list -- and after creating hundreds of registrations on various forums, this will affect how likely a company is to pop up in the first page of results from a user search.

So that's Problem 1: clogging up our server space with bogus registrations. Despite our anti-spambot measures, only about 1 of 1000 registrations is actually legitimate.

SPAM 2:  Product or website promotion
Problem 2 is unwanted promotion of commercial products or of a website within the forum itself. Once registered, a spammer will do one of two things. He may post an obvious long advertisement for the company's products including links to the website, hoping no moderator is looking. Or he'll get sneaky and post a generic comment, such as "You make a good point. That is a very interesting." and the post or signature line will contain a link to a website.

SPAM 3:  Opinion manipulation
We were deluged with registrations from Russia during the run-up to the 2016 primary elections and are again seeing a dramatic uptick in registrations that come out of Russia as the 2020 elections near. These are the famous "troll farms." Once registered, a software "spider" from these operations revisits the targeted discussion forum to "harvest" any mentions of politics (or whatever it is they're pushing), then responds with a bot-generated comment.

WHAT WE DO:
Therefore, every registrant is evaluated: (1) Is the username suspicious for "auto-generation" of unique usernames by a bot? (2) Is the email address suspicious for a bot-created email account? (3) Does the email account's domain extender indicate an ISP outside the U.S.? (4) Does either the username or email address contain any text hinting at a porn site or self-promoting internet business? (5) Is the registrant's IP address outside the USA or English-speaking areas of Canada? or (6) Is the registrant's ISP known to be a source of spam? If our administrator finds anything -- anything -- about the registration suspicious, your account will be removed without notice. But you're welcome to email us to let us know you're legit, then re-register.

So why are Las Vegas or Los Angeles registrants not automatically approved? It's because of potential "onion routing." Periodically a U.S. computer -- until it's identified and shut down -- will serve as an "exit node" from the "dark web." Layered encryption bounces the internet activity through several computers, disguising the origin of the activity outside the US. For some reason, these applications tend to come through Las Vegas/Henderson, Los Angeles, or Florida. If you live outside of Utah, you may need to email us after you register. (Include your username.)

Why Montreal and Quebec? Same reason. Not that there's anything wrong with speaking French.

We appreciate your understanding.