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Gallery spam
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Message
Posted
That's a useful post Mark, because I'm not sure everyone understood that this isn't as simple a problem to resolve as they might think it. Even making the signing-up process more stringent would not prevent any determined spammer from exercising what they might think of as their skills to nobble the site. My advice to people is to live with it, because as individuals we can't do much else (other than report it), until the webmasters can find a cost-effective means of tackling it. We don't like to see the spam, it does limit the enjoyment of the site, but it'll take more than a few pedlars of dodgy products to destroy it.
I'm sure all the moderators understand the problems that lie in extending admin privileges - data protection legislation alone makes that a very hard thing to accomplish; but if we can help with that in any way, I'm sure we all will.
Posted
Mark and team thank you for explaining what is happening from your end, I’m sure it will help members understand what’s happening. From a moderator standpoint I totally support your efforts and will continue to do what I can to keep the forum clear of spam. You comments have made it easier for us to reassure people that everything is being done as quickly and efficiently as possible.
I agree with Robert about doing a much as possible to help get it sorted out .
Edited
by Paul (Dixie) Dean
Posted
You may not be aware, but we implemented robust anti-spam controls last week, and you should have noticed a reduction in spam within the forums. Several moderators, including Alan Bickley and Paul (Dixie) Dean, noted they had to move at least 20 spam posts this week, which were automatically flagged by our new system. To ease the workload on our moderators, we’ve now decided to block spam posts outright rather than simply flagging them.
It appears that spammers have taken note of these changes and shifted their focus to the gallery. Spam in the gallery was first reported six days ago, coinciding with our enhancement of the forum’s defences. With the forum now better protected, we’ve implemented similar anti-spam controls for the gallery.
We generally avoid releasing changes on a Friday, but given the urgency of the issue, we felt it was necessary. Please bear with us if there are any minor issues, and rest assured we’ll address them promptly.
We recognise this has been a frustrating period for everyone, and we’re grateful for your patience as we worked on these updates. We remain committed to providing a safe and enjoyable online experience for all our members.
Posted
Thank you Mark for the information and update , it will be a great help stopping the slammer outright . I’m sure all our members are grateful for all the behind the scenes work you guy do to keep the site functioning.
And I would ask everyone to please be patient over the weekend whilst the changes are being implemented.
Posted
Both myself and my fellow moderators have coped well with spam in the forum, because we can access it and ban the perpetrators.
The issue has recently arisen because we don’t have access privileges for the gallery, understandable for a variety of reasons.
Let’s see what these new implementations will do, I await with bated breath…
I’ve just gone on the forum and seen a number of call girl spam adverts, I’ll go and shift a few now…
Posted
Just adding my thanks to Mark for his valuable information. I appreciate knowing what is being done about the spam problem, and getting a better understanding of the complexities involved in trying to fix it. A big thanks to those working behind the scenes on a resolution, and to the wonderful team of moderators who are doing their best to keep the site usable.
Posted
I've been a mod/admin on a football site for many years. Admin have access to a member list so undesirable posts and members (very few actually, mainly spam) can be removed and banned very easily. Delete the post, ban the member. I appreciate it is different on here, The member list is essential.
Posted
A busy early morning session, the new system advised that there’d was twelve suspects spam posts blocked and needed moderators to check . I looked at then and marked as Resolved to remove them from the queue, just by chance I woke at two thirty as the messages were coming through and removed them immediately, but they would have remained there for one of us to clear later and not have contaminated the forum . Much better to having the system in place to initially intercept and block incoming spam .