I know the spam pushers could create new accounts to post more crap, but htat would be an effort and they may give up if quickly deleted and blocked?

Dowel has flooded the forum with spam this am so he/she could be purged with out much concern for their feelings I would say.

All removed.

I'd love just to be able to ban the domains/IP addresses of these spammers but only our admin in absentia has access to such features of the forum software.

Thanks SJ.

Can I ask, is there any merit in using the warning triangle to report spam postings etc? Or does it just make me feel better?

Common sense would dictate that if a post offers phones / gifts or anything that looks iffy - just ignore it. You can see it via the tooltip without even opening the thread. Its not that difficult:rolleyes:

Col

Can I ask, is there any merit in using the warning triangle to report spam postings etc? Or does it just make me feel better?

Please use them. I don't get to visit the site much at the moment so any hint that there's spam (since I get an email when you hit the triangle) means I can come along, remove it, and ban the user.

Stewart,

As posted in another tread, what is this boardtracker thing.
Does it trail someone's activities per site or what ?
Shouldn't it be blocked .


Cheers, Ron

You can see it via the tooltip without even opening the thread. Its not that difficult:rolleyes:

Col

Hi Colin,

You're right that you can decline to open spam. The problem is that if the posters are encouraged in any way, they may flood the site to the point that it becomes unusable for the intended purpose. Whoever 'Dowel' is posted some half a dozen adverts. If he/she wasn't discouraged by being blocked, there might be an ongoing escalation.

Hey Keith, I see your "jello" is back in the green. :D

Hey Keith, I see your "jello" is back in the green. :D

He's still an unknown quantity though :D

RV

He's still an unknown quantity though :D

RV

Yeah, he still has some work to do. :D

rak,

BoardTracker would seem to be a site that catalogues what's being said on a number of forums, giving users the chance to search across them all. In short, a search engine specifically for forum content.

The BoardTracker (http://www.boardtracker.com/) site states this. There's also a post about it on The Admin Zone (http://www.theadminzone.com/forums/showthread.php?t=13611).

Stewart,

It seems that it's more than a forum content search engine. I do support the con's that are given in the Admin zone thread on this subject.
I feel that AWF should be removed from Boardtracker, but would value other members ( and the owner) opinion.

Cheers, Ron

Ultimately, it's Jon's call. Doubt he even knows about it.

But, in fairness, none of our forums here are hidden away only to be found once you've joined. As such, nobody is losing out.

Hi, Does advertising include links like ... Football (UK)?
Which by the way does not work!!:D
And should it just be Glasgow Football!!!
B

Yeah, he still has some work to do. :D

RV / Mrs. Gorilla,

Well, some people obviously take notice of the 'jello' (jelly to our British readers).

I am very happy to be an 'unknown quantity' and regard that as a significant step on the path to forum forgiveness.

From minus 10 to +4 in a couple of weeks - somebody must be appreciating my posts, or perhaps I am just not pissing people off so much anymore. Anyway, thanks for pointing it out as I hadn't noticed - honest! :D

Hi, Does advertising include links like ... Football (UK)?
Which by the way does not work!!:D

To be honest, Jon has stated that he was reconsidering the rule around signatures. I decided to give it a push in the right direction - it's unenforcable.

As for the link, cheers. The guy who ran the site cancelled it because a) he couldn't afford to run it; and b) like most sites of late, it was inundated with spammers.

To be honest, Jon has stated that he was reconsidering the rule around signatures. I decided to give it a push in the right direction - it's unenforcable.


Just my 2¢, but I do think it's quite enforcable. The catch is that you need administrators.

I'm member of another forum, and they keep the ship tight run, with very clean display and almost immediate banning of spammers and locking of useless threads. However, there's four (five?) administrators, four or so moderators, which explains why it's so well run.

Could at least encourage Jon to consider giving moderator admin privileges if we want the site to run smoothly.

I know, but since he doesn't even respond to emails, it's a waiting game until he decides to pop back one day. :(

Surely his firm's phone numbers/physical address is listed somewhere? After all, the forums seems to be linked with access-programmers.co.uk?

Like This (http://www.access-programmers.co.uk/contact2/contact.htm#Phone)?

Ultimately, it's Jon's call. Doubt he even knows about it.

But, in fairness, none of our forums here are hidden away only to be found once you've joined. As such, nobody is losing out.


Stewart,

I think these came on the forum through boardtracker. Wouldn't that be
sufficient to remove board from this forum ?


http://www.access-programmers.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=113155


http://www.access-programmers.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=113144

It could be a good reason.

I think that there seems to be some sort of spam campaigns against vBulletin boards at the moment. I'm a member of a variety of forums and I've noticed the same names appearing over and over. My Talk History site, which is not subscribed to BoardTracker, has been subject to lonely ladies everywhere too, in addition to all manner of pharmaceuticals, etc.

It could be a good reason.

I think that there seems to be some sort of spam campaigns against vBulletin boards at the moment. I'm a member of a variety of forums and I've noticed the same names appearing over and over.


I noted that as well, but found that some of the forums I'm a member of are
considering removal of the boardtrack thing. Plus the fact that they actively detect spam and remove that sh#@t from their forums immediate.

And what's a Google Spider ? :confused:

Google Spider is just some zombie computer that Google has that travels the internet cacheing web pages and assessing their relevance so that when you do a Google search, the right(ish) content comes to the top. Spider, because it crawls the web.

It could be a good reason.

I think that there seems to be some sort of spam campaigns against vBulletin boards at the moment. I'm a member of a variety of forums and I've noticed the same names appearing over and over. My Talk History site, which is not subscribed to BoardTracker, has been subject to lonely ladies everywhere too, in addition to all manner of pharmaceuticals, etc.

Just a question, but if BoardTracker scans forums to make an index of forum content, why would it need to look at user profiles? I saw on the "Who's Online" section at one point that it was looking at someone's user profile.

Probably because it's a bot. And bots follow links regardless.

The admin could try turning on image verification at the registration stage - this will stop most bots from registering.

I had no idea it wasn't on but our (n)ever present admin is the only one that can do that. But, in all honesty, given that I'm a member of a number of forums where the thing is switched on, it would appear that spammers have found ways to get around such a protection system. The latest trick to prevent bots signing up now is to ask a question onscreen and provide an input box with a submit button - this, at least, requires cognition.

It is currently set to on. The people who register the bot for Boardtracker actually register the name manually, then add the site to their auto process.

I don't really find them harmful because they aren't actually doing any damage. The only concern I had is the bandwidth, which I questioned Jon about, but of course, no reply there.

when you see a new member appear with the name "sexfreeporn"...that can't be a good thing :eek:

..that can't be a good thing :eek:

depends how you look at it;) :p

I asked Jon to make me an admin so I could better manage the spam and start adding all their domains to the Domain Blocking section. He changed me to an admin but buggered it up somewhere along the lines and I now have less permissions as an admin than I did as a moderator. Of course, since he did that I've heard nothing. :mad:

depends how you look at it;) :p

Depends if your wife catches you looking at it!

Depends if your wife catches you looking at it!
Well that's easily handled, send her out to see to the kids, do the shopping, cook the tea etc. etc.