In case you haven't been following the "Recent Spam Attacks" thread... due to a major increase in spam accounts being registered using Gmail accounts, I have no choice but to put Gmail email address on the ban list as of February 2, 2009.

Gmail accounts were put on the ban list last week but current members were having problems accessing the site so they were unblocked about 24 hours ago. In those 24 hours we had three new spam accounts registered with Gmail email addresses.

If you have a Gmail account and are currently registered with SFGAmZone, you will need to create an alternate email account for SFGAmZone or you risk not being able to access SFGAmZone at all (you can always set the alternate email to forward emails sent there to your Gmail account, just so that your Gmail account isn't in our system).

This was a very difficult decision to come to, but it will wipe out a good chunk of the spam accounts being registered. SFGAmZone is not the only one being forced to do this.

Is Yahoo ok? I using now, but I'm making sure that I can use Yahoo.

Funny thing...I actually have a GMail account....but I'm listed under a Yahoo! account. Lucky break for me.

Everything except Gmail will work fine...

This is the actual list of users waiting for activation, they are all obviously spam accounts. Notice how many of them use Gmail accounts...

For the record, I think if you currently use a gmail address here, you will still be able to access the forums just fine. The only thing is you will not be able to register a new account with a gmail address. This happened to me on one other forum; I PMed the admin there and he set up an account for me.

To Jon though: Please make sure you put a notice on the registration saying gmail.com addresses are not allowed. Since this is my primary email, I really wish I'd know this before I try to register on some forums.

Unfortunately, Invisionfree does not let me change registration processes aside from basic registration and COPA registration.

What does that mean?

It means I can't add "Gmail Accounts" do not work for registering" to the page where you sign up for the forums.

I understand now.

If you haven't notice there are alot of weird screenames that haven't even post not once yet. Possible spammers.

In response to the mass email: I can still log in just fine. I think restricting the gmail accounts only affects registration, and not current users.

Gmail accounts have been green-lit again for now. Invisionfree installed a new spambot filter so I've taken Gmail off the ban list to see if it's any good.

Does this mean that I can bring back my Gmail?

I never changed mine and it worked just fine for me while gmail accounts were blocked. It only affected new account registration, not current accounts.

I'm lifting the ban, the new spam filter works fine.