Some ways to deal with smap-chars.

[chinger]

Just some ideas for Imms on what to do with spam.

• Make command "ignore <char>". After using it yuo should stop reciving tells from this char
  pro:very little changes in games, very easy to implement, can be useful even without spam
  Contra: Everyone will have to block spam chars one by one. Do not work if there is Very many spammers.
  
• Make a possibllity for player to mark character as spammer. When more that N player mark someone as one - turn off tell for him. Of course Immortals shoul harsly punish for false marking.
  pro: Easy to implement. Spam chars are blocked faster than by the first way
  contra: Prone to abuse. Do not work if there is Very many spammers too.
  
• Immortals will approve any char from new ip addres (from where there is no chars known yet). They will talk with him about this char, his RP and so on
  pro: Impossible for robots to register.
  contra: Major hurdle to a new players, especially when there is no any Imms online. Hard work for Immortals.
  
  May be this work can be somehow transfered to exising players?
  
• Make registration through captcha (may be only for new ip). Since MUD is working in the text mode, the best way to do it is to show at registration link in internet to captcha picture on some webserver and wait for enter of what is on this picture.
  pro: Hard for robots to register. Minor hurdle for players (unless someone is playing through text-only terminal..... )
  contra: Hard to implement. Have to have some web server with working scripts for captcha storing in generation.
  

I hope it will help, or, at least, show ways to some new better ideas.

[chinger]

And as a short-term fix I think the best way is to forbid the use of tell for first-level character.