With the start of the new forum, we are currently operating without the blocked address list.
I can copy the old list from the old forum to here but I thought rather than do that we could start fresh and see how we do. Many of the others were searching and spamming YaBB forums. I still have the addresses of our porno poster boy in the other forum so if necessary we can block him also.
If you find any problems, message, email or post here and notify me or John so we can take care of it as soon as possible. Thanks.
I will still be running checks on all new members to keep this forum a friendly nuisance free place. I can't catch them all first time but I can weed out most of them.
Are you the "good" cop and I'm the bad cop? or is it the other way round?
Well, we could draw straws.
In general I think you have a more pleasant demeanor, so I guess you could be the good cop. :)
IF anyone sees a questionable posting it can be reported to the administrators/moderators by simply clicking on the "Report to moderator" link located in the lower right of every message.
I have seen that a million times, but it still never registered ... just wasn't used to it I guess. d*
Note that as many other forums are having tons of trouble with spammers, the security on this SMF forum seems very good and I am able to keep the jerks pretty well eliminated. I am down to only kicking off and locking out about one to four per month or so now. One yesterday was the last one in quite a while.
I find that the sites with problems - 2 prospecting ones that I know of- do not have the security features available that we have and at least one of them cannot change because the forum software company owns the forum site.
They have eliminated member to member postings and must manually go through their -over 6000 member list to weed out spammers. With ours I can easily review pages of weird names (like - the troglodyte) d* and quickly review - google - block and delete them. I like it; :)
Glenn and others:
I have been getting notices of attacks to the old Yabb forums over the last week or so. There was as many as 42 a day a few days ago. I have since locked up access to these old forums for now (changed the settings of the directory). So you will get a "Forbidden" message when you try to access the old forum links.
Let me know if this is too much of a loss and I will try to rebuild these old links.
I guess they figured out a way around the easy security.
Other forums are really having a time.
Spammers were getting out of hand - maybe 20 in the last week. I assume a spambot beat our security at the easier level so I upped it to the hardest to read letters. Seems to be working now. None today. We will see.
[cool]
With the current economy, it apparently leaves the porno posters plenty of time to manually register and do their stuff. I have been deleting and banning from one to five or so per week. Our spam filter can't catch them.
The latest was from the Ukraine and he had posted video links and pictures.
If you happen to stumble upon this please report it to the moderator.
Some may remain here a bit as I am working out of town during the week so when home I have less time for the forum.
I will usually always check in at night and some of the time in the morning to delete and ban spammers. John may catch some of them at other times. Don will delete postings when here. Weekends and holidays I may catch some midday.
It is important to report to the moderator as it alerts me to spammers who may have had their postings deleted.
Thanks for your help and understanding in this matter.
Aside from families and probably kids there are impressionable retirees that frequent the forum. You all might want to think about assigning one of the trusted east coast retirees that is on daily moderator status to bleep this stuff first thing in the morning.
Quote from: glenn kangiser on September 06, 2009, 10:26:34 AM
The latest was from the Ukraine and he had posted video links and pictures.
It should also be noted that these links may also lead to infected websites that can install spyware just by clinking on the link. A large majority of the most virulent spyware circulating around today is coming out of the former Soviet republics, and has ties to the Russian mafia.
So resist any temptation to click on these links. Save all your porn business for home-grown American girls. ;)
Yes, I got quite a suprise yesterday moring when I logged in. I'll remember the "report to moderator" from now on. [shocked]
Thanks, Don and Pox. I have considered that and will ask for a volunteer to help out. I think John can install another moderator, no problem.
If there is someone interested with a little time, PM me and I'll get with John on it.
Moderators can bleep the posting then get to me to ban the member. I still need a notice of the posting as after it is deleted I need to find the offender and block then remove them.
John can ban them also although I think he may only have time to remove the posting most or some of the time.
That was a juicy one, eh, Considerations? hmm
Sorry about that. There will be a time or two that one will slip by for a bit. They are persistent little jerks from all over the world it seems.
Glenn:
Thanks for staying on top of this. You are doing more than I thought. Since I hadn't seen much recently myself, I assume it isn't a problem. d* d*
Is banning more than deleting the member from the SMF database?. If so let me know what you do.
I do know how to give Admin powers to other members who want to help out. :D That would be a great idea.
John
I have the ability to delete their posts, but not to delete the member.
Deleting the member may only be a stop gap measure until the offender signs up again with a different ID. It is also possible to ban the IP address the offender posted from.
well,
seems i have missed quite alot since the last time i posted. i have been busy with landscaping and painting, etc. hope all is well with everyone.
dan(apaknad)
Alright now!! I can now delete the spammers and ban them as well as delete their spam posts. I got one this evening before he was gone a minute. :D
Use that "report to moderator" link that is in the lower right of every message.
Quote from: MountainDon on September 16, 2009, 11:39:38 PM
Alright now!! I can now delete the spammers and ban them as well as delete their spam posts. I got one this evening before he was gone a minute. :D
Use that "report to moderator" link that is in the lower right of every message.
Another power mad administrator is born! [cool]
Just think of us as the Overlord Masters of the Executive Steering Committee. :D
We have nothing but your best interests in mind...
Quote from: John Raabe on September 13, 2009, 01:13:14 AM
Glenn:
Thanks for staying on top of this. You are doing more than I thought. Since I hadn't seen much recently myself, I assume it isn't a problem. d* d*
Is banning more than deleting the member from the SMF database?. If so let me know what you do.
I do know how to give Admin powers to other members who want to help out. :D That would be a great idea.
John
There are a couple more things that can be done to keep a particular member from posting again.
I went over them with Don.
Before deleting them, click the member name to get to their profile. Left side is a list that says "Ban This Member"
Click that then set the triggers -member name - IP address - e-mail address - host name can be set as a trigger also or an entire range of addresses such as 68.121.43.* can be set - that would block 255 addresses if the offender is in a block of portable addresses rather than a fixed address and he uses another name to sign in.
Odd names can be searched by member name or e-mail address on Google for spam postings on other boards, then do the above on them. I just browse the names every so often using a reverse search so new members come up first. I save the search in a tab on Firefox so it is readily available.
Delete them after setting the bans so they can't get back in with the same name.
I kill from one to 5 or so per week on the average.
Since I am gone most days now, it will help to have Don looking out for us too.
Thanks, John and Don.
Maybe we can keep ahead of them most of the time. :)
Thanks for those helpful techniques.
I guess if spam really gets bad, the next level is to require one of the Administrators to approve each new member. However, that would tend to slow things down, create more work for ourselves, and may still let a few bad eggs into the playpen. I hope we don't have to go there.
I delete and ban about that per day on another forum. Your filters are apparently working pretty good so far.
I put the filters up to the highest but we seem to have more who will do it manually now, or else their spambot software is getting better.
I saw that one of the new manual sign-ins who was banned, was on the other day but was unable to post.
Here is one - may be a bot from Amsterdam - it has tried to post or re-register 32 times since August. We deleted the member so it is called guest, but - without the bans it would simply have re-registered under a different name from the same IP address. The IP Block stops it.
(https://i778.photobucket.com/albums/yy62/the_troglodyte/banned.jpg)