The forum i help out uses phpBB forum software. Its open source and free but there are tons of "addons" that are sometimes called mods or modules. The correct name for these is "extensions". When you upgrade the base forum software some "mods" are not compatible with the new software. Just like some addons/extensions stopped working with newer versions of Firefox and Chrome.
HNI uses vBulletin forum software. Not just any version either, its a version only used for forums owned by Internet Brands. As far as i know they do not sell it. Internet Brands owns vBulletin and sells other software as well. There are a buttload of extensions out there for these retail versions of vBulletin. Some are open source and some cost money. It very possible that some of the extensions are not compatible with the in house version of vBulletin, at least not without a little tweaking.....So its very possible that the new software upgrade made things worse as far as spam prevention goes.
Its been my belief for a long time that the "higher ups" are very aware of the fake names and all kinds of other spam related BS. They choose not to do a thing about it because it artificially increases membership and forums hits. This in turn makes the forum appear to be more active and valuable.......
When a forum has a greater value it also cost more to advertise on that forum...Thats the Fact JACK.
Years ago i started a thread called Odd Names. I listed thousands of bogus names with spam links in the profiles. I even sent a PM to the ADMIN and i got a reply so i know for sure he got the PM.....Wanna guess how many of those fake accounts have been deleted? I dont know for sure about vBulletin but i know for sure there is a way to delete accounts that have not been active with other forum software. The vast majority of those odd names never posted. They only created accounts and never even logged in again.
https://www.huntingnet.com/forum/off...hua-names.html
I know for a fact that forum software has a user search ability using all kinds of criteria. I know that admins and super mods have a better search interface for this purpose too such as by ip address and email.
This same admin deleted a post i made about adblock software. Told me he didnt want it discussed. I never got a PM about it until i PMed him first. I would think if he has enough time to log in and delete something as safe as that he could be more active removing possibly dangerous content and spammers advertising for free.