Spambot users with no edits
I have read the spam page and implemented some of the suggestions but I cannot find the answer to my questions. To repeat:
1) Does the registering of accounts alone (no spam added) cause any problems?
2) Is there a way to prevent account creations from showing up on recent changes?
1) Yes, as they may be able to can edit altho you may restrict editing to registered users with advanced registration protection.
2) on RecentChanges select: Namespace: User / "Invert selection", save as favorite.
But again, you actually don't want to hide such accounts, you want to prevent their creation (e.g. with Extension:ConfirmEdit). Please stop double posting threads.
I had the same problem and took a few measures (on advisement) to control the on-slot of spambots. The one step I see working is Extension:AbuseFilter and a filter a developer friend wrote for my project. Not sure if this is the answer to all but, it works for me and I know how frustrating this problem can be.
Thanks for the help. Your method for removing account creations from RC works fine but my first question remains. I can stop the spambots from editing but is there any harm in letting them create accounts?
Subfader, what do you mean by 'double posting threads'?
Users can potentially do other things then edit ( See Special:usergrouprights on your wiki for the full list ) like sending email to other users. Assuming you have those things also similarly restricted there is no harm.
An alternative way to disable new users appearing in RC is to turn off new user logging altogether - see manual:$wgNewUserLog
