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In case anyones interested about some of the things that go on behind the scenes....
One of the roles of admins and mods on any forum is to delete spam. By this I mean there are people who sign up and post a message purely to promote a commerical product. Most of these are viagara, weight loss and stop smoking ---- invariably the subect line is "I found this cool site" ... you then click on the link and they want to sell you viagara etc. (we have only had one foot product related spam)
The registered members who sign up to do this, get deleted. Repeat offenders (and we have had a number) get there IP banned, so they just can not access the forums.
All this takes work and time
How many have been deleted...
The most recent new thread here has 1098 in the URL, yet we only have 908 threads posted - that means 190 threads have been deleted!!! -- ie 17% !!! - most of those were for viagara, weight loss and stop smoking
I just do not understand the mentality of it .... it takes time to register, time to post the message - they must spend there day trolling the www to find forums .... almost all of them would be deleted quickly. They must be hoping that they stay long enough to get some business.
If you have seen none here, that gives you some idea just how quick we are to get to them .... HOWEVER, I am always nervous when I get out of bed in the AM, make the coffee and head for the computer ...Who knows what went on over night???
The spammers have been busy today - so far have deleted a zocor, nike and viagara promotions. ... I was so quick on to them that no one actually got to even read them .... so they wasted their effort signing up, only to be banned.
Dr Rothbart may suggest some outlandish (to most of us) stuff
However, I dont believe we are in any sort of position, scientifically, to say his theories are nonsense.
He self-promotes - ok, but to me his theory makes every bit as much sense as some of the other theory I see here (which, I'll admit, isn't much)
Cheers,
David
Enough is enough ... the amount of spam is getting ludicrous and taking up way too much time. If you have not seen any, it just shows how quick we are at getting rid of it ... it also shows what a waste of time that these losers spend registering and posting their messages for no gain as no one sees them.
I have taken the drastic step of blocking registration from those with certain email addresses from one of the free online providers and have blocked some IP addresses from parts of Russia --- that does mean some legitimate members from those parts of Russia and those others who use that certain free email provider will not longer be able to participate here .....I am sorry, if you are not happy about that, then take it up with your ISP in Russia or the administrators of the free email service ---- I just do not want to have to deal with it any more.
You cannot really say fairer than that. The majority of members on this site are decent people, with the occasional excessive banter between us all. We don't want to see gay porn ( yes I saw that one) or viagra adverts.
I think your spam-deleting efforts should be recognised and applauded. How about a prize for the worst spammer, naming and shaming them?
How is this for a moron: keithsterlo signed up and just posted this message:
Quote:
Can anyone tell me if this company is serious? <site deleted> - It's taken me ages to find a company that has no signup costs, 99% of them charge a start up fee. They pay you to participate and complete online surveys which can earn you up to $25 per survey. I don't have much money at the moment thats why i am looking for another income, I've heard about this sort of work but sometimes it seems to good to be true. Anyway I just signed up about 15 minutes ago and I am still trying to work it all out. Any feedback would be appreciated.
Thanks, Keith
***************
Its obviously nothing more than a self promotion for the site. A quick Google search for keithsterlo showed that he is hitting forums all over the place ..... what a low life.The sad thing is that he spent all that time to register and post the message only to have it deleted and him banned before anyone even got to see the message (except me)
The spam fighting continues - I have only banned 4 people so far today!!!
I guess some of them just don't get how to stay under the radar scope. What would you do if you were me and someone joined as a member here with the email address of casino@rusmafia.com ... "Casino" "Russian Mafia" ...talk about subtle! ... they were a member here for all or 10 seconds !!!
Also a special thanks to Donna who never fails to alert me to the spam when I miss it
Thanks for all those report posts for the spam that got posted this afternoon - they all have been zapped and the posters banned.
The software upgrade is supposed to help with preventing this, so I am going to have to investigate further how the automated bots were able to so easily break through.
Kinda ruins the day out at the footy with the Arena'ettes.
I spend 14 hours on a plane and all hell breaks loose! Thanks to all those who reported the rubbish. I was frantically deleting it all and editing a few messages at LAX wile waiting for flight! .... why does it get so bad when I away from the computer to monitor?
It sounds like you are working way to hard, l just asked a friend of mine how he handles such things on his forum, they have 998 reg. users and over 39,000 posts, here is his reply, it may help
"We restrict certain email addresses ie ending with .ru .de etc and also users are only able to view the forum after they complete and validate their registration and then when an admin approves it. So we get to approve who we let into the forum and any spam email addys etc are easily spotted. Also, i have an auto rule that deletes any registration that is not validated within a couple of days. So if a spam bot does register but not able to validate, then that account is automatically deleted. "
The problem with the spam bots has been solved - we have an extra step in the registration process to deal with that - there is an arthrimitic equation that has to be solved. I have banned some IP addresses in parts of Russia from accessing the site, as well as users using certain @ email addresses. A lot goes on in the background in this constant battle.
However, the most recent flurry of spam have been real people registering and posting (this time there was a dvd seller; another selling stethocopes) .... we will prevail.
How much spam gets deleted?
Linear Mode
