SPAM, New Features, & Forum Changes

We've been receiving a huge amount of spam attacks lately, most of them from overseas. This website gets approximately 75 or so fraudulent registration attempts, over 2500 spam comment attempts, and about 30 or so miscellaneous hacking attempts EVERY DAY. We have state of the art security and anti-spam systems installed that block all of these, but every once in awhile things get through.

One place where spam attempts are the highest is in the forums. My preference has always been to leave at least one main forum open for unregistered users to post, but when we did that we were hit with spam faster than I could delete it. The spam problem got so bad, I was eventually forced to change the forums so that only registered users could post. Since I made that change, however, nobody has been using the forums.

After much prayer and consideration, I've decided to make several BIG changes.

1. I'm going to have to delete the forums.
   This doesn't mean that The Porch and The Upper Room are just going to go away, however! They will just be moved into the rest of the site as new channels. The Crucible, our collective member blog, will be dissolved into The Porch, as a community channel for posts on any topic. Community posts for members only will go into a new channel called The Upper Room.
   
   
2. Unregistered users can now submit content!
   Now, you can submit content for publication on IntoTheFlame.com even if you haven't registered! All articles will be moderated and everything that meets the site's guidelines will be posted. To be given credit for your posts you will need to register.
   
   
3. NEW commenting features are now open to all!
   Now, even unregistered users can post comments and reply to comments on articles, but like articles, only registered users will be able to receive credit for their comments. As always, if you ever run across any spam or anything defamatory or abusive while browsing the site, please let us know.
   
   
4. NEW channel headquarters page!
   I'm working on new section that will clearly outline what each channel is for and give you clear and concise guidelines for posting content to the many different sections of this website.
   
   
5. Updated site terms and conditions.
   I'll be updating our site terms and conditions to reflect the new site structure and more clearly define how your copyright ownership of content you post on IntoTheFlame.com is protected.

I'm in the process of finalizing these changes and they should all be made by sometime this afternoon. Thank you so much for your interest in this website and I hope to see you posting soon!