No, I'm not missing the point. These aren't bots, they're people paid to get past the registration and login barriers, then start posting apparently reasonable postings but including a one-pixel link. You can try to block them at the point of entry by making the cost higher than the value in posting, agreed. But you can also stop them by making their postings readily detectable. You may not have noticed, but at least one of these "bots" has been creating threads. If images below a certain pixel size can't be posted, all the single-pixel issues go away. If images below a certain file size can't be posted, then most of the transparent-image-at-the-end-of-the-text issues go away, courtesy of Mr Huffman and friends.
In general, a blend of approaches probably works best. But these guys *are* vBulletin, so saying they don't like hacks is disingenuous. Don't make it a hack, make it part of the product. IB has more than 100 web sites; it's not just trying to fix PPRuNe, it's trying to fix their entire portfolio.
Last edited by Bushfiva; 16th Mar 2012 at 12:14.
Reason: Added two words for clarification