Moho Forum

@LM - would you consider some forum moderators? Seems we have more spam popping in. I'm not super interested but would be glad to just remove spam when I see it. Depending on how the forum software works you can also just assign moderators 'move' power to move offending topics to a hidden 'Lockup' forum - I did this on an old site I had.

Hi bupaje,

excellent idea –

this is what the “Postforum” is doing at the moment
to deal with this increasing nuisance:

"SPAM

SPAM will not be tolerated on Postforum. If you spam the site, your account will be banned, your IP address will be logged, and your internet and email providers will be notified with all of the information they need to track you down. This will typically result in termination of your internet access and email accounts through those providers. With luck, karma will ensure that you get hit by a bus next time you cross the street. Your message is usually deleted before it can reach a large audience anyway, so please just go away and bother someone else.

To Postforum users: If you see spam, please let me know and I will delete the message ASAP and initiate the actions outlined above. Please DO NOT reply to spam messages. It's extremely difficult for me to extricate the messages from the database once a thread has begun, and really, there's no point in responding - the spammers could care less. Just notify me with a link to the message and I'll get rid of it."



Cheers
Nolan

yeah, what's up with all the SPAM lately???

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@LM - would you consider some forum moderators?

LM seems to be asleep at the moment. Can't remember seeing any posts for at least a couple of months. I mailed him @ support@lostmarble last week about this, but haven't received a reply...

I remember when my own child was a baby and we moved - lots going on. I'm guessing LM is burning the candle at both ends as well.

I operate the same forum software on my own Thai info site. And I am fully aware of the time it takes keeping a site free of spam - it would be a good idea for LM to spread the workload so he can concentrate on the coding. Modding can be done by anyone.

Blocking spam can be difficult.

SPAMbot.
Much of the spam is generated by Spambots which serach out the software and when the find it, attempt to create an account then post junk to the forum. Using visual confirmation which is availanle on the later version is the best way of stopping spambots.

Freeloaders:
Bigger problem. These are people who manually sign up for the forum then spam ads and other junk. Some spamemrs have enormous cheek - One guy ran a poll on my site to ask which of the following drugs did people want to order. These have to be remove by hand and their ISP/enial/IP banned. That takes time. On my own site, all of Russia is now blocked from posting to my forum - I just got fed up with the rubbish they were sending out.

Membership list advertising:
Remember too that it is not just in the posts that spam appears: People advertise using the links from their membership details - (cheat-casino is an example of one such sign-up). Some of the text in their membership details can be very offense and needs to be removed.. I'll have to check but to clean these out used to require site admin authority. It probably still is.

Mods and Site admins
There are two kinds of moderators on a forum. Site administrators and moderators. Site admins are the gods, they have the power to do anything to anything on the forum, including software upgrades: Generally there are one or two admins on a forum of this size.

Moderators can be anyone the site admin nominates to moderate a section of the forum. They have to have permission of each section they control. From memory there is no way of giving anuone site-wide permission to moderate/delete posts: That is only available to the Site Administrators.

If LM elect to recruit Mods then they would have to have one or two per section: There would also need to be a moderators section (not visable to anyone who is not an mod/admin) ... moderators need to flag up problems to each other/LM need to provide messages to the mods etc. The mod's section would also be the first point of call for LM when checking the site - the other moderators can leave vital messages like "you need to change this or that - saves LM from having to read pages of stuff to find the remove materails.

Personally, I don't mind acting as a mod/admin if required ... I am very familiar with the software so for me there is not learning curve.

Rhoel

I'd be willing to just do spam patrol type stuff if feasable. I wouldn't be against more if time allows later on. I do have experience. I created a site several years ago which I gave up when the net bubble burst a few years back. I hosted the community forum using ezboard and even though I have been gone for two years the moderators that we built up over time have kept in going, and still growing.

http://p102.ezboard.com/bvisualbasicexplorer

There are a few reliable people on the forums who I think could be trusted, if they are interested, that could be given moderate duties. I'd probably set some limitations by LM initially since some people are touchy and if someone comes in waving the moderator baton to forcefully it would alienate them.

As time goes by active communties reach a critical mass that allows them to be self sustaining and allows admins to step back into a more supervisory role. It would take pressure off LM who might just have to make sure updates to the forum software are mainatined and adding any additional forums needed.

OK, I've given moderator status so some forum users: bupaje, Rhoel, Nolan Scott, and myles for now. Guys: feel free to delete SPAM posts when you see them.

If anyone else wants to join in, let me know (assuming you've had a presence here on the forums for a while).

WooooHoooooo!!!!

Yeeehaaaaa!!

Drinks all around!

Kick some arse dudes... uh...

... but don't let the power go to your heads.



-Vern

Already on the case - found three spam posts by the same person (using two different names but one computer IP number). It's all gone to that great spam graveyard in the sky.

Hopefully because the moderators are in different timezones, spam should not last more than a couple of hours before its spotted and removed.

Now we can get back to discussing Moho agains.

Rhoel