Drupal Update and User Registration Problem

Over the past few evenings I have successfully upgraded the site to the latest release of Drupal, now at 6.2!

Having hit a few speed bumps with incompatible modules it's taken a little while to get back to the level of functionality there before the upgrade. That said, it was a necessary upgrade for many reasons most obviously to me being that of the hundreds of fake user accounts that have been springing up on a daily basis. At points during any given day there were tens of new users accounts being registered every hour. To combat this problem I have introduced the reCaptcha module that makes use of the reCaptcha web service for 'human' recognition versus the annoying scripts that have been invading the site. At the same time, and I apologize to all this affects but I have removed all user accounts that weren't personally known to me or accessed within the last 12-months. Please re-join whenever you get the chance and again sorry for the inconvenience.

As part of this upgrade you will also notice that I have included a rating system to allow visitors to rate the posts and comments that they read. This will hopefully add to the user experience and encourage participation. Along those same lines I have decided to open up the comments to allow 'anonymous' input while utilizing the reCaptcha service to 'fingers-crossed' dispel any and all scripted abuse that has been witnessed in the past. I'll let this ride for a time and if I see any abuse occurring regroup and decided on what to do then. All comments, just like posts will continue to be moderated by myself and require approval prior to public display.

Well that's it for now! It's been a while and a lot has happened but without trying to dissect my life, my work and everything in the middle I am going to push forward with a new revitalized blogging schedule. On the list of topics that I have running around in my head at the moment are hardware upgrades to the site infrastructure (remember this - Old Hardware Post) and the reconfiguration and introduction of load-balancing and replication. These and more will be coming very soon.

Dave