As of today (2012-09-16), the number of 3DNA forum registrations has reached 500! A quick browse of the ‘Statistics Center’ shows that over 80% of the registrations (400+) are after March 2012, when the new 3DNA homepage/forum were launched.
The sharp increase in registration is mostly due to the streamlined, web-based way to distribute the 3DNA software package. As far as I know, the number of 3DNA registrations/downloads in the past six months is significantly higher than that of 3DNA v2.0 for over three years. Equally importantly, I have been able to fixed every reported bug, addressed each feature request, and updated the 3DNA v2.1 distribution promptly.
I also feel confident to declare that up to now, the 3DNA Forum is spam free (at least to the extent I am aware). To this end, I’ve taken the following three measures:- Installation of the SMF “Mod Stop Spammer”; as of this writing, it shows “3920 Spammers blocked up until today”.
- By using 3DNA-related verification questions. At its current setting, a user must answer correctly three of the ‘simple’ yet effective verification questions. Early on, I decided deliberately not to use CAPTCHA as an anti-spam means, based on my past experience.
- I’ve continuously monitored (new) registrations, and taken immediate actions against any suspicious registration. Due to the effectiveness of above two steps, so far I only have to manually handle just a few spam registrations. Nevertheless, it does illustrate the fact that no automatic method is perfect, and expert inspection is required to ensure desired results.
Overall, the new simplified way to distribute the 3DNA software package is working as intended; now users can easily access all distributed versions of 3DNA, and I can focus on support and further development of the software.
