Thank you for your report!
We have received your report and it is currently under investigation by a forum moderator.
Gallery spam
Welcome to the forum.
Here you can discuss all things art with like-minded artists, join regular painting challenges, ask questions, buy and sell art materials and much more.
Make sure you sign in or register to join the discussions.
Hang on Studio Wall
This is a Studio member-only feature!
Join our Studio membership and save your favourite Painters Online content, from gallery artwork to step-by-step guides, to your own online mood boards. Create your go-to place for inspiration and learning. Plus, members can also enjoy a range of exciting features including monthly art videos and a digital magazine library.
If you are already a Studio member, simply login to your account.
Not a Studio member? Why not try our free 30-day trial - no commitment, no credit card required
Message
Posted
To be honest I don't think a reconfiguration would make any difference, and then there is the cost of the upkeep of it, especially in this day and age when the internet is also being upgraded, more often than ever before to prevent hackers from goodness knows where. At the end of the day I expect it will be up to each publisher to way up the odds and decide whether the genuine posters' details are safe, and will they be able to tell who are the genuine ones who want to join. A difficult task. We live in strange times.
Posted
Yup - that's right. And unless there's a more stringent sign-up process, that's what they'll do. Question is, is it worth the company reconfiguring the site so they can't? The spammers aren't geniuses - the insecurities of the site let them in.Simple - Warners have to do it, or extend their admin processes to include Wednesday 17:00 to Monday 09:00, otherwise they will lose subscribers. A lot of people ask me if they can see more of my paintings and at the moment I'm happy to share my gallery address with them. I personally don't want to direct people to this site if there's a chance that the gallery is advertising illegal drugs or fake currency. I'll cancel my membership/subscription and go somewhere else, and I think that there are a lot of people who feel the same way. Secondly so many of the emails I receive from Warners direct me to the Painters Online site, it must be a major advertising asset, one which I'm sure they don't want to lose. Lots of people have offered to administer the gallery pages and others have even offered to become employees of the company to do so. I think they should think again about allowing extended admin rights to a select few trusted members.
Edited
by Andrew Roles
Posted
The Writing magazine I buy along with, Leisure Painter and the Artist, are all within the Warners publishing group, the writers forum has already been closed down as they the site can't guarantee safety of personal information, that's what I read. Other sites I frequent, to do with the arts, don't seen to have this spam problem. To join a closed forum, you have to go through a moderator, but that's no guarantee, is it. If a person did get in and caused trouble they could be booted out, more would follow, I'm sure. Could slow the process down though.
Posted
Allowing some trusted moderators admin rights to the Gallery sounds an absolute no brainer to me. It would be such a pity to lose this valuable site. Just for curiosity, what do the powers that be have against this very sensible proposal?Yup - that's right. And unless there's a more stringent sign-up process, that's what they'll do. Question is, is it worth the company reconfiguring the site so they can't? The spammers aren't geniuses - the insecurities of the site let them in.Simple - Warners have to do it, or extend their admin processes to include Wednesday 17:00 to Monday 09:00, otherwise they will lose subscribers. A lot of people ask me if they can see more of my paintings and at the moment I'm happy to share my gallery address with them. I personally don't want to direct people to this site if there's a chance that the gallery is advertising illegal drugs or fake currency. I'll cancel my membership/subscription and go somewhere else, and I think that there are a lot of people who feel the same way. Secondly so many of the emails I receive from Warners direct me to the Painters Online site, it must be a major advertising asset, one which I'm sure they don't want to lose. Lots of people have offered to administer the gallery pages and others have even offered to become employees of the company to do so. I think they should think again about allowing extended admin rights to a select few trusted members.
Posted
I’ve been told that by allowing access to the gallery to none employees, would mean that they would also have complete access to the whole site.
Could be a dangerous situation I suppose, access to all our accounts maybe! Someone could potentially go berserk and wreck the site etc etc. They can’t take the risk…
These are my thoughts, not Warners.
It needs to be segmented in the same way that the forum is, but it obviously involves the technical people, that’s if it can even be done… I don’t know!
Posted
Cheapest solution. Pay some IT staff to do out of hours on-call, on a rota, and then if a bad post appears on the gallery one of the current moderators can contact them and they can remotely access the system and delete the offending item.
Almost all companies have on-call staff to manage their systems out of hours.
Posted
Alan is correct with his comment it’s a random selection and as it doesn’t have a choice it just picks up anything.
It’s unfortunate but it’s part of the system not even the techs can choose what it selects . I’m sure the publishers are fully aware of the problems but it’s how to deal with it effectively at minimum cost , it’s no different to any business really especially in the current financial climate. What is shocking is that it’s hitting us in our own homes and it’s literally in out faces also there is an element of it spoiling something we like and it’s frustrating because we can’t do anything about it.
Give Dawn and the team time to get working on it and they will sort it out , yes for now I hear it’s a global problem it a local easy fix glitch .
Edited
by Paul (Dixie) Dean