Forum Upgrade - Downtime on Jan 11

[JPL]

Lots of spamming lately.

Is help needed?

 

[NORTON]

I am one of them.
Strictly voluntary.
It's easy when it's one user name. I can wipe out all the posts.
But when it's 25 different user names it gets to be a 15-20 min a day job,,,,
as it has been for the last few weeks.

I contacted the administrator asking for help and asking to at least keep the russians from posting in their fonts. Those people scare me.

I don't have time for this chit. Some other plan needs to happen.

 

[JPL]

Every new member should be approved first by an real person

 

[SparkE]

- links should not be allowed until you have amassed over 20 posts

- you (a mod) should disallow posts by IP as well as by username (hopefully this is possible).

- hopefully the forum software will easily allow you to check who/where the IP is registered. If it is out-of-country, you should block the entire sub-net address (say : 144.99.35.* , meaning everything in the 144.99.35 sub-net). (hopefully the S/W allows you to do this)

 

[SparkE]

Just went and checked (out of curiosity) on one of the sites I mod, and there are PAGES and PAGES (well over 15) of "moderator action log" that are nothing but :

Banned IP for reason “Found in the Stop Forum Spam database”

(except for 3 new IPs I banned over the past 3 weeks, and the corresponding deletion of the SPAM msgs).

I *highly* recommend banning by IP, and IP subnet. Otherwise (the mod just bans the username) they just create a new username from the same IP (or IP subnet).

You are kinda screwed if the subnet (owner of IP adr range) is HUGe and in the US (such as a cell carrier, or a cable provider - like Sprint or Comcast) because you can't really block those ranges or you block a bunch of valid people who might get assigned that IP.

Your forum software *might* allow a (say) week-long ban only, so that you can block A.B.C.* for 7 days, enough to maybe get the spammer to move on, but then allow others back on.

Again, good luck.

 

[NORTON]

SparkE,

Sounds like you know this stuff.

Do you want a new hobby as a moderator for a little known forum for a little know EV?

I figured out how to ban and delete all posts by user name,,, on my own. No training or manual came with this volunteer position.
I don't know about dealing with IP.....

Administrator,

I could use help.
I asked you to , at the very least, disallow the scary russians with their scary font.
You said improvements are 'in the works.'

I'm about to sit on my hands and wait for these improvements....

 

[Exchevyspark]

Norton, I have been helping, as requested in the email - I logged in 2 times yesterday, and once this morning and removed spam.

Thank you so much for your help with this - but it takes a bit of time. Coding something custom to sniff out Russian Fonts and ban those posts is not something I can do or afford to do - especially in a day or two.

I will upgrade the forum software, and, as SparkE talked about, get the stopforumspam plugin working on the newer version of the forum software.

I will do this tomorrow - there will be some forum downtime, probably about 2-4 hours.

 

[JPL]

Is it possible to make the forum Tapatalk compatible?

 

[Exchevyspark]

OK, Ive deferred this upgrade as we the mods/admins are discussing the possibility of completely changing the forum software.

Who are you?

 

[Exchevyspark]

Is it possible to make the forum Tapatalk compatible?

Possibly... I looked into it a couple years ago and there was a bunch of security issues with it, and the creators of PhpBB recommended not installing it (things like everyone's PMs visible, new users would be logged in as moderators etc)

 

[Exchevyspark]

Upgrade complete!

 

[SparkE]

PM sent.

 

[NORTON]

Nice upgrade !

Thanks!

 

[JPL]

Kudos to the Admin for the upgrade.

 

[JPL]

Ok thanks. Is just this the only forum I use that is not compatible with Tapatalk.