Has Dave been hacked again.

[GeoffS]

There doesn't seem to be an option to disable or remove the ability for users to send email. It would be possible to disable all users email ability via an SQL script but this would not remove the users ability to turn it back on.

You mean users' preference to receive e-mail, right? If you turn it off for everyone, individual users can still turn it on, but then that's their prerogative. The main issue is making sure a spammer can't easily send a million messages in one day.

Correct. It does need the mentioned modification to globally remove a users ability to receive email.

The primary issue is the inconvenience for users receiving the spam. A secondary issue is that forum users may report these e-mails as spam, which may affect the ability for the forum to send other e-mail in the long run. (Registration e-mail, thread notifications etc.)

Once a users ability to receive email is gone, part of the spam problem is also gone. With the modification, a user can still send mail but only in a limited fashion i.e. to report posts, contact admin or moderators, etc.

[xrunner]

As am Admin of SMF forums for years - IMHO - the email capability between users is an anachronism these days (with regards to spammers). I would not use it at all and would not enable the ability. If anyone wants to email another person for some reason, they can simply ask for another user's email address via a PM.

How can email be disabled on a global basis though? I can't find such an option. Seems to be up to each user.

I didn't word the sentence well. I meant I wouldn't personally use it to email another member (if another member had it enabled) or enable the ability (in my profile, or speaking to anyone that is reading this, they should not enable it in their profile).

If I see anyone that has it enabled I turn it off (in their profile) and send them a PM warning that their email address could be gathered by spammers. Then once they realize this they can do as they wish.

I think they should have given the Admin an option in

Themes and Layout Settings --> Member Options --> Configure guest and new user options for this theme

for this ability to be unavailable on the registration screen for new members by default. As it is it's off but available to be turned on at registration, so many people think "Oh email is important I need to turn this on ..."