The Unseen Servant forums

The thing about using a robots.txt file is that it's great for the good bots, but it's not enforced in any way, you're just asking the bots nicely.

The problem is very rarely the good bots, it's the bad ones that pretend not to be bots.

Yeah, it depends on how much control the setup has. In that the bots seem to be tagged as bots, that might help limit their registration.

Another option would be to significantly limit what not "approved" visitors can see, and "approve" users after their two posts. If we explain the bot issue in the welcome message, most people would understand. If they don't, well, that's okay too.