Click Bait Messages Via Private Messaging

[Nifty]

We're keeping a close eye out for any reports and issues, and continue to tweak the anti-spam dials and levers!

It's a constant cat-and-mouse game with these bad-actors. Fortunately, I think we do a better job than most sites at keeping things clean and tidy. In fact, have any of you ever hang out on Facebook, Instagram, etc. and seen the junk that slips through their filters? ... and they have literally millions of $$ and teams of experts at their disposal.

So, all things considered (e.g., our limited resources), I think we're doing a pretty good job keeping this free service running relatively smoothly.

We appreciate everyone's helpful feedback and support!!

 

[Nifty]

Hey Friends!

Wow, we had a busy weekend with spammers! Hopefully none (or at least very few) of you even noticed... which would mean our many efforts weren't in vain!

These spammers aren't amateurs. They are always trying sneaky things to achieve their goals. The one they deploy a LOT is to focus their spam efforts over the weekends and in the evenings... when they hope fewer moderators / admins are online.

We've also noticed that many of they are coming from Russia (or at least Russian IP's). I'm always VERY VERY hesitant to block IP address or ranges of IPs (since they can sometimes stop legit visitors, also since the spammers can spoof their IP's pretty easily).

... that said, it was active enough over the weekend that I'm considering blocking a range of the worst-offending IP's and also even blocking whole countries (like Russia) from accessing the site.

I don't like to take those kinds of actions, but when 99% of the site visitors from a specific country are spammers, then it's a little bit easier to justify strong action.

So, just wanted to update y'all, thank you for your help in identifying and reporting these bad-actors, and for your patience as we play cat-and-mouse with them.

 

[stratman]

You were up before your chickens!

We have been seeing a lot more mischievousness lately.

Thanks for taking out the garbage and thank you for letting us know. Always a welcome post to read.

PS Who is our Moderator? No one is listed under Staff Members.

 

[Nifty]

You were up before your chickens!

LOL! It's true! Actually I was up late vs. up early.

Thanks for taking out the garbage and thank you for letting us know. Always a welcome post to read.

It's definitely a team-effort!

PS Who is our Moderator? No one is listed under Staff Members.

Great question! Since our community is so well behaved, we haven't really needed much in the way of "moderation".

That said, I have peeps in different time-zones that help out on all my sites... one of whom is an old friend of Sumi. She talked me into bringing on-board all the way back in June 2017... and SUPER glad I listened to her!

 

[Printguy]

Just an idea: You may want to start thinking about how to prevent the ongoing data harvesting on your site. To clarify, I received a sex spam PM immediately when I logged in after some weeks of absence. That meant that some bot was monitoring the user activity on this site, and there was no safeguard in place to prevent it from doing so.

 

[Nifty]

Hi @Printguy, thanks for your message. Sorry you were the recipient of this spam. As mentioned above, there's no way to keep ALL spam out of a platform. Even Zuckerburg with his gazillions of $$'s can't do it.

You may want to start thinking

"start"? Hopefully you can see through this thread that we've been working on this for YEARS and put countless hours into this. We actually started working on keeping spammers away from the sites back in 2006.

ongoing data harvesting

Let me be very clear: Spammers are not "data harvesting"... at least not in a way that is any different from what Google, Yahoo, Bing, etc. do when they access 100% public information. The only way to stop them accessing public information is to close-down the forum.

I received a sex spam PM immediately when I logged in after some weeks of absence. That meant that some bot was monitoring the user activity on this site, and there was no safeguard in place to prevent it from doing so.

Yes, it's pretty simple for a bot to see which users are actively posting, logged-in, etc. on a public website / forum. Almost all forum software is like this.

Again, I don't want to detract from your personal experience or dismiss how much spam sucks. We hate it too! (which is why we put countless hours, money, etc., into trying to stop it). That said, it's important to avoid misinformation and focus on the facts and solutions.

 

[stratman]

one of whom is an old friend of Sumi.

Are they on this forum? Who is it?

Sumi was the best of the best in my book. The world be a better place with more like her.

 

[Nifty]

Are they on this forum? Who is it?

He primarily uses the @Support account.

 

[stratman]

He primarily uses the @Support account.

Ahh. That's the person that announces the POW winner.

Since our community is so well behaved, we haven't really needed much in the way of "moderation".

We are a nice forum and I am grateful you created it. There have been some Muppet insurrections from time to time since The Hat stepped done that needed member interdiction because no visible Moderator presence. He kept the forum from turning Wild West, although I think he let slide my elbows in the bathtub image that you (?) deleted. It definitely would have won POW if it were my pic.

 

[Support]

Ahh. That's the person that announces the POW winner.


We are a nice forum and I am grateful you created it. There have been some Muppet insurrections from time to time since The Hat stepped done that needed member interdiction because no visible Moderator presence. He kept the forum from turning Wild West, although I think he let slide my elbows in the bathtub image that you (?) deleted. It definitely would have won POW if it were my pic.

HI. Its Actually the @PK Project Manager who does the POW announcements.

I (@Support) am the person who were close friends to Sumi and that convinced me to join. Met her in 2002 back then when I started with my first job in the small town where she lived. She just came back from her "2 year tour" from the UK. Basically us South Africans can only work for 2 years and had to return. 2017 when she was in Ireland she came to me with this opportunity to assist. I was a bit skeptical to do this, but she called me out of the UK (not sure what that call had to cost) and we had a nice discussion. So there I started fixing images on articles. And then later I did notices that used HTML coding. I was in my element cause I did a short course on HTML coding. 4 years later (and an ever changing job description and I still enjoy it here (From BYC right through to B&R) I do miss Sumi and I cannot meet the greatness that she was across all the sites. My phone calendar still rings on her Birthday which was on the 9th.

I do check in every second day (except weekends) to see if everything is still fine here. Mostly for account issues and the occasional report. And also the Spammers.