Let's not degrade the site
#1
Let's not degrade the site
I guess the **** is the work of "spammers". How do we get it off? People want to look at ****, that's their issue, but this is a bike site. You open the site..first thread is "blonde *****".. come on that's embarassing. Who ever has the know how to delete this stuff..I come here for bikes.I don't want "*****" in my face.. or my wife's or some office folks who come on my "bike" site...
Thanks Dave...to the spammer ..you are a pathetic
Thanks Dave...to the spammer ..you are a pathetic
#2
I agree Dave - this is not the place. I think only moderators and administrators can zap these guys if they get through the jamming mechanisms. With Erik in Iraq, I think Greg is the only one that can zap them.
#3
Bikes not boo...
Yeah I figured that.. Greg is obviously busy..Is the other lad with the Armed Forces over there? Think about those guys lots..Brave people..Sounds like more heading over..we have some guys in Afghanstan..tough deal.. I'm not freaked by the spammer..I deal with broken marriages often..this stuff beamed at a site with lots of guys will be peddling something..first one's free want's some more..heh heh...Plays it's own dirty little part in ruining good things..should send the spammer to Iraq.. use him for mine sweeping.. kidding..sort of ....Guys.. if he see's lots of hits..he'll be back ignore the freak
Dave
Dave
#4
Dave, guys n' gals,
I'm doing the best I can. I maybe hit the site twice per day for about an hour. I DO go to work, ya know!
I have just emailed the forum owner about the problems. We do have the image verification routine in place, and it works - I tested it personally. I have narrowed the spammers down to 3 specific servers. We're going to try to get those blocked. The IP addresses are all over the place so there's no use blocking the IP, since it seems to change all the time. The only other thing I can do is go to a totally manual registration verification which will require me to email prospective members and have them email me back. That is sort of what I've done with the last few days' of new members.
If anyone has any constructive advice they'd like to offer I'm all ears. For the time being we'll just have to deal with it and I'll do what I can.
I'm doing the best I can. I maybe hit the site twice per day for about an hour. I DO go to work, ya know!
I have just emailed the forum owner about the problems. We do have the image verification routine in place, and it works - I tested it personally. I have narrowed the spammers down to 3 specific servers. We're going to try to get those blocked. The IP addresses are all over the place so there's no use blocking the IP, since it seems to change all the time. The only other thing I can do is go to a totally manual registration verification which will require me to email prospective members and have them email me back. That is sort of what I've done with the last few days' of new members.
If anyone has any constructive advice they'd like to offer I'm all ears. For the time being we'll just have to deal with it and I'll do what I can.
#5
Appreciate what you do!
Hey Greg;
No criticism of what you do at all..You do an amazing job. Can't tell you how helpful and enjoyable this site is..get's me through some "grey" winter days..Lot's of freaks out there...The "Darkside" is active in this culture..
Thanks Greg...I think we all owe you alot for your help...Love to buy you Dinner some time..
Thanks
Dave
No criticism of what you do at all..You do an amazing job. Can't tell you how helpful and enjoyable this site is..get's me through some "grey" winter days..Lot's of freaks out there...The "Darkside" is active in this culture..
Thanks Greg...I think we all owe you alot for your help...Love to buy you Dinner some time..
Thanks
Dave
#8
Ditto.....hard on the bank book though....I come in here and get ideas for my hawk.....then I buy them online.....then the fiance finds out....then we fight....then we have make up sex.....
Thanks Greg....
Thanks Greg....
#10
Dave, guys n' gals,
I'm doing the best I can. I maybe hit the site twice per day for about an hour. I DO go to work, ya know!
I have just emailed the forum owner about the problems. We do have the image verification routine in place, and it works - I tested it personally. I have narrowed the spammers down to 3 specific servers. We're going to try to get those blocked. The IP addresses are all over the place so there's no use blocking the IP, since it seems to change all the time. The only other thing I can do is go to a totally manual registration verification which will require me to email prospective members and have them email me back. That is sort of what I've done with the last few days' of new members.
If anyone has any constructive advice they'd like to offer I'm all ears. For the time being we'll just have to deal with it and I'll do what I can.
I'm doing the best I can. I maybe hit the site twice per day for about an hour. I DO go to work, ya know!
I have just emailed the forum owner about the problems. We do have the image verification routine in place, and it works - I tested it personally. I have narrowed the spammers down to 3 specific servers. We're going to try to get those blocked. The IP addresses are all over the place so there's no use blocking the IP, since it seems to change all the time. The only other thing I can do is go to a totally manual registration verification which will require me to email prospective members and have them email me back. That is sort of what I've done with the last few days' of new members.
If anyone has any constructive advice they'd like to offer I'm all ears. For the time being we'll just have to deal with it and I'll do what I can.
Just a thought..
Another thing that can be useful is for members to use the built in 'report this thread' button. This will send the admins and email regarding the thread/post in mention and might make their life a little easier.
**Edit**
I just noticed there is 1,194 members and only one moderator? Guys, get some moderators in here!
**Edit
Cheers.
#11
What I think we have been experiencing lately is not a barrage of bots but those of warm, paid, bodies that register on our site to post this ****. Imagine a sweat shop with a thousand workstations in it. Image that the boss says to one employee, "Pull a Google search for every 1957 Chevy Enthusiast Forum and go register at each of them and invite them to visit our "site". It's a game of numbers and it's big business. To the next employee he says, "Go find all the 1956 Chevy . . . " and on and on. At the end of the day the **** sites have new members and they could give a hsit where they get them - even from sites like ours! Besides the bot software that we have in place the only way to police this hsit is to have full time mod presence so these posts and posters can be shot down immediately. Even then one or two are going to get by. That's when the wakeup call from the group helps the mods out. Just my .02
#12
Don't get me wrong, I realise that not all of these spammers are bots but leaving the forum registration open with no email or image verification is just asking for trouble.
I run a few large forums myself (wont advertise here) and understand the pain these narrow minded fools spamming the boards cause the admins and members for that matter. I think the best way to weed them out is more moderators. Every site I have setup or ever been a part of offers around one moderator per 100-200 members (depending n how active the forums are), this seems to be a good ratio.
Remember, this is just my 2 cents, the last thing I want to do is come here sounding like I'm telling the admins how to run the site. Just some friendly advice from a fellow VTR rider.
Cheers.
I run a few large forums myself (wont advertise here) and understand the pain these narrow minded fools spamming the boards cause the admins and members for that matter. I think the best way to weed them out is more moderators. Every site I have setup or ever been a part of offers around one moderator per 100-200 members (depending n how active the forums are), this seems to be a good ratio.
Remember, this is just my 2 cents, the last thing I want to do is come here sounding like I'm telling the admins how to run the site. Just some friendly advice from a fellow VTR rider.
Cheers.
#16
Let me address a few issues here. The spammer we got today registered today and posted the spam. The server is XXX.mail.ru. That's another one I'm after right now. The image verification IS in place. I tested it. Craigus, when you registered a couple days ago was it not there? BTW, I added 2 to your post count.
I'm probably going to go to a completely manual registration process if I can get a reply back from the owner. This is getting on my nerves, as I'm sure it's getting on yours too.
As for moderators, we only really have 473 active members. I consider an active member to be one who has had activity (logged in) in the last 30 days. That's probably a higher value than normal since I recently sent out an email to all members regarding the SHOG Rally.
We have two moderators. One is deployed. I am the other. For quite some time we had none at all. Compare this to 1000RR.net which also has two moderators. They have 6720 members and 586 of those have over 100 posts. SuperHawkForum.com has 1187 members and 74 members with post count greater than or equal to 100. BTW, 17 of these haven't logged on in a month. Basically what I'm trying to say is that this is a small forum. It originated a few years ago because we had an email list several hundred strong and it went away. This forum was born of that, and when it was started had no moderation at all, just a basic set of guidlines - not even rules, per se. This lasted for a few years until we started having some problems due to a server move, at which time I became moderator. About a month ago I was upgraded to Admin which has significantly more useability with vBulletin. That is where we sit.
The forum members here have always been self-moderated for the most part. I can remember a handful of times where there was a heated argument but they took it offline on their own or were asked by other members to take it offline. Sometimes, hell most of the time, they just agreed to disagree. BTW, this is the way I intend to keep it. I wanna make it easier on you guys if there are any problems and I also would like to expand a little. I've started with the SHOG Rally and have added more features to the forum (like smilies ) and the member locator, and would like to soon add a sponsor or two to help with the income. Currently the only income we get is when users click on the Google advertisements at top and bottom of this page. Maybe we can arrange some group buys as well in the future. I'm not moving too fast on any of this because it takes time and coordination and I don't want to move too fast because of the "forum climate" and some people just don't like to change too quickly. I understand that.
The future of this forum is solid. As long as we have new members joining and we can keep most of the old members around then the climate will stay the same and we will continue to see our Superhawk Family grow. [Shameless plug for the Rally] Putting faces to the names and riding and hanging out together will only bring us closer together.
I'm probably going to go to a completely manual registration process if I can get a reply back from the owner. This is getting on my nerves, as I'm sure it's getting on yours too.
As for moderators, we only really have 473 active members. I consider an active member to be one who has had activity (logged in) in the last 30 days. That's probably a higher value than normal since I recently sent out an email to all members regarding the SHOG Rally.
We have two moderators. One is deployed. I am the other. For quite some time we had none at all. Compare this to 1000RR.net which also has two moderators. They have 6720 members and 586 of those have over 100 posts. SuperHawkForum.com has 1187 members and 74 members with post count greater than or equal to 100. BTW, 17 of these haven't logged on in a month. Basically what I'm trying to say is that this is a small forum. It originated a few years ago because we had an email list several hundred strong and it went away. This forum was born of that, and when it was started had no moderation at all, just a basic set of guidlines - not even rules, per se. This lasted for a few years until we started having some problems due to a server move, at which time I became moderator. About a month ago I was upgraded to Admin which has significantly more useability with vBulletin. That is where we sit.
The forum members here have always been self-moderated for the most part. I can remember a handful of times where there was a heated argument but they took it offline on their own or were asked by other members to take it offline. Sometimes, hell most of the time, they just agreed to disagree. BTW, this is the way I intend to keep it. I wanna make it easier on you guys if there are any problems and I also would like to expand a little. I've started with the SHOG Rally and have added more features to the forum (like smilies ) and the member locator, and would like to soon add a sponsor or two to help with the income. Currently the only income we get is when users click on the Google advertisements at top and bottom of this page. Maybe we can arrange some group buys as well in the future. I'm not moving too fast on any of this because it takes time and coordination and I don't want to move too fast because of the "forum climate" and some people just don't like to change too quickly. I understand that.
The future of this forum is solid. As long as we have new members joining and we can keep most of the old members around then the climate will stay the same and we will continue to see our Superhawk Family grow. [Shameless plug for the Rally] Putting faces to the names and riding and hanging out together will only bring us closer together.
#17
Thanks for the info.. It's nice to know the sites history as I'm only such a n00b here.
I agree the self moderated sites are always the best. I'm the admin of a small Aussie photography community and I can't ever remember having to do any moderation. 8-)
As for the rally it's a shame I'm so far away, I'd love to get out with a bunch of VTR's w00t! :-x
Oh.. and thanks for my posts back..
Cheers.
I agree the self moderated sites are always the best. I'm the admin of a small Aussie photography community and I can't ever remember having to do any moderation. 8-)
As for the rally it's a shame I'm so far away, I'd love to get out with a bunch of VTR's w00t! :-x
Oh.. and thanks for my posts back..
Cheers.
#18
Greg, if you feel like you could use another moderator, feel free to let me know. I'm a moderator on jeepsunlimited.com, with 71,000 members, and 4wd.com with 9,100 members. It kills me to see the spam messages pop up, and the only thing I can do is report the post. Most of the bot's usually come in spurts, so hopefully this wave will end soon.
John
John
#19
Yeah, for some reason it seems like they've targeted us for the new year. I think maybe it was removing the image verification for a short time that did it. I dunno. All I know is that it is in place now which means there are losers sitting in a room and subscribing to forums such as ours and getting paid (?) for it. It just baffles me....
I deleted another 5 new spammer members today. Dunno if this is as bad as it gets or if it will get worse before it gets better.
I deleted another 5 new spammer members today. Dunno if this is as bad as it gets or if it will get worse before it gets better.
#21
Hey Craigus,
Mate like you I received a rally invite, and thought "if only". It would be nice to meet some US owners.
For meeting a group of Aussie VTR owners, log on to "www.ozfirestorm.com.au". We have a very active group of members, and no doubt you can meet a few in your area.
Cheers,
Shayne
Mate like you I received a rally invite, and thought "if only". It would be nice to meet some US owners.
For meeting a group of Aussie VTR owners, log on to "www.ozfirestorm.com.au". We have a very active group of members, and no doubt you can meet a few in your area.
Cheers,
Shayne
#22
Hey Craigus,
Mate like you I received a rally invite, and thought "if only". It would be nice to meet some US owners.
For meeting a group of Aussie VTR owners, log on to "www.ozfirestorm.com.au". We have a very active group of members, and no doubt you can meet a few in your area.
Mate like you I received a rally invite, and thought "if only". It would be nice to meet some US owners.
For meeting a group of Aussie VTR owners, log on to "www.ozfirestorm.com.au". We have a very active group of members, and no doubt you can meet a few in your area.
Cheers.
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