- This topic has 23 replies, 11 voices, and was last updated 12 years, 6 months ago by
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Hi folks,
Yes, it’s driving me crazy too!!!
For a long time, our humble site has received dozens and dozens of new users each day, all from automated spammers. Thankfully, there have been few actual postings. I clear out the spam user IDs every day, often several times during the day.
I’m sure you’ve noticed we have recently been getting hit with a bunch of actual spam posts every day. I try to get rid of them and the offending user IDs promptly. But I do have a day job. So you will see junk mail. Sorry about that.
I’ve written to our host (our founder FrankieD’s brother Jeff works for our hosting company) to see if there is something we can do to mitigate this.
Meanwhile, I modified the anti-spam settings to increase the time interval between posts to the site maximum of one miinute. As members, after posting a note, you will have to wait one minute before posting another note. That “waiting period” includes making changes to the note you just posted.
Also, each member may now only post five notes in a ten minute period. If you have posted five notes within ten minutes, you will have to wait until the oldest note is outside the rolling ten minute period before you post another note.
What these settings mean to the spammers is that they may get the first note posted, but we will prevent them from auto-posting the same content in multiple forums.
Based on our usage patterns over the past couple months, I don’t think either of these changes will really affect you. But let me know if you find them inconvenient.
PMOSSBERG 40754.9307407407 Paul Mossberg
Former Owner of a 1981 Classic Roadsters Ltd. Duchess (VW)
2005 Intermeccanica RoadsterIf you own a TDr and are not in the Registry, please go to https://tdreplica.com/forums/topic/mg-td-replica-registry/ and register (you need to copy and paste the link)
Paul, Thanks again for all you do to keep this forum going in the right direction. Any inconvience the posting limitations may cause are well worth the wait . Hopefully it will cause the spammers more problems than it causes us .
Yes, thank you for cleaning up the site and getting rid of the spam. You’re doing a great job.
Paul keep up the good work. We can all deal with a little spam now and then ,You may have thought you started this digression but in fact it was going on long before this.
TDREPLICA Map
http://www.arcgis.com/home/webmap/viewer.html?webmap=7f9174ad614e43b680deba085b0abf48
Paul,
I think that I speak for the group, even though I’m new here, when I say that we appreciate the effort you put into moderating this forum. It’s a job like the proverbial duck on a pond. You appear cool and calm on the surface while your feet are moving like crazy under the water. We don’t know the half of what you do to keep TD.com available for us.
Spam is inevitable. The user names and subjects are not hard to spot. I just ignore them.
Thanks for moving those feet.
Peter King
Paul,
I’ve been deleting the topics as I find them. However, I do not have the admin access to delete their user ID’s or I’d be helping you with this problem.
Mark H.
Man, the spam is getting worse and worse.
Ya’ll never really see it, but we have always been hit by auto-registration programs that add fictitious members. That is fairly easy to deal with, as there is an admin tool to batch delete members that have never made a post.
But lately, as I’m sure you have noticed, there have been dozens and dozens of spam posts every day. THEY have to be deleted one at a time.
I’ve writtten to our web hosts to see if something has changed at their end.
Paul Mossberg
Former Owner of a 1981 Classic Roadsters Ltd. Duchess (VW)
2005 Intermeccanica RoadsterIf you own a TDr and are not in the Registry, please go to https://tdreplica.com/forums/topic/mg-td-replica-registry/ and register (you need to copy and paste the link)
Let me try this AGAIN…..
Three of you kind hearted souls were kind enough to forward spam posts from this site to my personal email. (Please read the prior sentence as it it were dripping with sarcasm. The sarcasm you would get from a teenager. In New Jersey!)
Enough already!
I get it!
Really!
Truly!
I’m deleting dozens of spam posts each day. And deleting the offending user IDs. And blocking the offending IP addresses.
I do NOT need copies of the damn things in my email.
DO NOT FORWARD SPAM TO THE ADMINS!
OK?
Get it?
Just ignore them. They WILL be deleted. But I don’t sit here 24/7 monitoring the forum.
Paul Mossberg
Former Owner of a 1981 Classic Roadsters Ltd. Duchess (VW)
2005 Intermeccanica RoadsterIf you own a TDr and are not in the Registry, please go to https://tdreplica.com/forums/topic/mg-td-replica-registry/ and register (you need to copy and paste the link)
Hang in there Paul. I know you’re doing all you can. These SPAMMERS are terrible. But you’re doing a great job. Thanks for all your effort.
Allen Caron
VW based 53MGTD - "MoneyPenny"
"If one thing matters, everything matters" - from the book The ShackPaul, keeping this site up and running for all of us to enjoy it is a lot of work. I’ve learned to spot the offending posts (it’s pretty easy) and just ignore them. I know you or someone else with authority will take care of it. Thanks for doing all of this work behind the scenes that keeps this forum for our enjoyment and learning opportunities.
Many kudos for all of your efforts. I’ll bet that you didn’t know you would be “taking out the trash” when you took on this job!
Paul, is it the site’s software or the server we use that lets the SPAM get through? If we got an new server provider would we be able to avoid this PITA???
Mark,
It has to be. It’s nothing we admins can control.
But, unless we have someone here that can rebuild the site, we might lose a lot of the pages, like the history, the manuals, the photo galleries.
And I have no idea how much web hosting fees would be elsewhere.
Paul Mossberg
Former Owner of a 1981 Classic Roadsters Ltd. Duchess (VW)
2005 Intermeccanica RoadsterIf you own a TDr and are not in the Registry, please go to https://tdreplica.com/forums/topic/mg-td-replica-registry/ and register (you need to copy and paste the link)
Hi folks,
I haven’t really been keeping track. But it seems that most of the spam is posted to the “Other Stuff For Sale” forum. All of this morning’s spam was in that forum.
I have now idea HOW automated spam software works. But I do know they register user id’s automatically and then look to post their ads. It is possible they use key word searches to do that.
As a test, this morning I locked the “Other Stuff For Sale” forum so no one can post there. The only legitimate posts are from back in March. So I don’t think I’m inconveniencing anyone.
Paul Mossberg
Former Owner of a 1981 Classic Roadsters Ltd. Duchess (VW)
2005 Intermeccanica RoadsterIf you own a TDr and are not in the Registry, please go to https://tdreplica.com/forums/topic/mg-td-replica-registry/ and register (you need to copy and paste the link)
Paul, Thanks again for all you do to keep the forum running properly. I know that the spam is a time consuming problem but I also know that you are doing all you can do to clear it off as soon as possible.
Any format changes that you need to make to make the job easier for you should be more than acceptable to the rest of us here.We have the choice to just skip over the stuff ,but you have to actually deal with it.
Just remember that the ”real” forum members DO appreciate your efforts.
Paul — I recall clicking the !Report button and dashing off a note about some spam awhile back. If that made me one of the “three kind-hearted souls,” I’m sorry.
1981 Lafer TI
1600 cc Type 1 engineNo worries Bill. I know it was done with good intention.
But we really do try to stay on top of this stuff.
If only all those spam “promises” were as real as the clutter in the in-box!
Paul Mossberg
Former Owner of a 1981 Classic Roadsters Ltd. Duchess (VW)
2005 Intermeccanica RoadsterIf you own a TDr and are not in the Registry, please go to https://tdreplica.com/forums/topic/mg-td-replica-registry/ and register (you need to copy and paste the link)
Hi gang,
I can’t prove a connection. But since I locked the “Other Stuff For Sales” forum, the numebr of spam posts has dropped signifcantly.
I’m still seeing a high volume of spam user ids get regsitered. So I do think blocking that forum has had an efect. Unless you all think we need it reactivated, I’m leaving it locked.
One request for you all…
Please do not post replies to spam posts. You might feel better telling a spammer to go away, but the only ones that see your comments are your fellow forum members. The “spammers” are software. Not real users. So the people behind the spam will never see your comments. Essentially all you accomplish is more spam for us!
Your replies to spam also become more work for me. I’m not complaining. But I have to delete each post manually. I can’t delete the entire thread at once.
The best course of action is to just ignore the spam.
Thank you for your cooperation.
Paul Mossberg
Former Owner of a 1981 Classic Roadsters Ltd. Duchess (VW)
2005 Intermeccanica RoadsterIf you own a TDr and are not in the Registry, please go to https://tdreplica.com/forums/topic/mg-td-replica-registry/ and register (you need to copy and paste the link)
I am going to try this one more time.
DO NOT FORWARD SPAM NOTES FROM THIS WEB SITE TO MY PERSONAL EMAIL.
I realize it is done with good intentions…but please!!! Enough is enough! Just ignore the damn stuff. I check this site multiple times a day. Far more than any of you realize.
I have asked publicly and privately…but one of us INSISTS on referring spam notes to my email. All that does is create junk mail for me, wasting my time. And frankly is a waste of this member’s time. I’ve corresponded with this member privately through email and through the private messenger. But for some reason, he just doesn’t get it.
So one MORE TIME…I clean up spam multiple times each day.
STOP SENDING IT TO ME!
Paul Mossberg
Former Owner of a 1981 Classic Roadsters Ltd. Duchess (VW)
2005 Intermeccanica RoadsterIf you own a TDr and are not in the Registry, please go to https://tdreplica.com/forums/topic/mg-td-replica-registry/ and register (you need to copy and paste the link)
Another forum that I’m on requires admin approval before you can post. What about putting some restrictions on new members signing up that have to be approved and cut down on spam that way?
I help administer a Richard Petty Motorsports fan club that works that way. Unfortunately the software FrankieD integrated to manage the forum on this site, does not have a “pre-approval” tool.
When I shut down the “anything else for sale” forum, our spam posts dropped by about 90%. The few we do get are manageable.
We still get a couple dozen automated use registrations each day. But they can’t post like they used to. I can block IP addresses, specific email addresses and domains. So if I see a recurring registrant, I block the IP address and the email address they registered with.
The admin work is pretty straight forward. My concern was having spam from here forwarded to my email. I’ve heard from the folks that were doing it. They promised to stop!
PMOSSBERG40845.9165277778
Paul Mossberg
Former Owner of a 1981 Classic Roadsters Ltd. Duchess (VW)
2005 Intermeccanica RoadsterIf you own a TDr and are not in the Registry, please go to https://tdreplica.com/forums/topic/mg-td-replica-registry/ and register (you need to copy and paste the link)
- The topic ‘June 2011 Recent Flurry of SPAM’ is closed to new replies.