Invite only has it’s advantages and disadvantages. We’ve had people pop up out of the blue with useful resources. I don’t think would happen if they didn’t come across a thread before joining up.
The next forum update ought to make sniffing out the socks much faster. And nobody likes it when Jay calls their parents. 😉
What about a delayed registration approval? It wouldn’t stop the most die hard trolls from eventually coming back. But you should be able to see if they’re stockpiling registrations, or otherwise they’ll need to wait a while and they might be over whatever manic episode they’re in the middle of (not making light of psychological issues, but: some of these kids have some).
When I say I think it should be invite only, I don’t mean it should be hard to get into or have limited numbers of invites or anything. But it would slow down some of the trolls and all but probably one would lose interest. Plus I don’t think there’s a need to make the forum hidden with that model. So it wouldn’t deter anyone from registering in that sense, though some few people will lose interest before the approval. It’s not to keep the trolls out entirely, as that’s not possible. But it makes trolls like the kid today unable to burn through five accounts in a row.
The new software sounds interesting, though. I’m not sure what’s currently in place.