Okay, going off of what I've learned, this is how an unread thread appears on the front page of CAA:
Now, if you click on that thread, and read it, and go back to the main page, it has an icon such as this beside it:
Or in the case of the "What are you listening to" thread in the first pic, it has a thumbs up icon beside it. Whatever, there's a lot of different icons for threads, but as shown in the second pic, there is an icon of SOME type beside the thread title.
However, using the example of a spambot caught earlier on the site:
You can see, no icon at all appears beside the thread title. I'm not sure why this is, but every spambot I have seen on CAA lacks an icon beside their thread title on the main page. So if you see a thread like, say, this:
You can be sure it's a spambot.
That's what my post in that thread, about how they've gotten smarter, meant. Spambots now often try to appear to be people. And when people reply to a spambot thread, it generates more spambots on CAA.
So if a person has a thread with weird grammar in it, or a LINK (this is a big hint), even if it's a link about our own site (as in that thread "I'm glad to be here at www.christiananime.net"), you can be almost sure it's a spambot. And if you go to the main page and see no icon beside the thread title, then it's pretty much assured.
So please. Don't respond to these threads. It only brings more of 'em here.
And if my theory is flawed, feel free to correct me.
:)
:comp::bang::poke::forehead:
