it's a hard one all this...
i just heard about the sign up thing, and may enforce it, but you are right, it means more hassle for new people.
the spam bots have been a little less of late, a few months ago it was really bad - up to 20 a day!!
i have heard about other plug ins for the phpbb but they seem very complex and i don't know how to edit code very well so that may not be an option...
any further ideas appreciated...
thanks dudes