the SPAM

This morning I reported I think 26 spam posts. We have been getting quite alot lately! There must be a way to stop them - OK computer guys, help Keith out here.

With doing my old woodworking equipement restorations lately, I've become active on OWWM.org. That site requires a moderator to approve you as a member. I think after you try to post 3 times, they will look at your posts and decide you are just not a spammer. Then once approved, your posts will go onto the site.

EDIT: I found more - the count is at 30 now!!

I thought you had a side business selling football jerseys and golf clubs

It sure buries real posts deep on a page with as much as we've been getting.

I totally agree with you Pete! I hate it for the newbies that are legit and want to become a member here but I think we need to stop this ridiculous onslaught of spammers.

In order to be become a member of CCFan you have to have a moderator approve your membership. Not sure what that would entail but I think most of the regulars here would support the the terms of use.

The state of the2001.com is a real shame but the site needs a major upgrade and also a significant clean up of its database which would take some serious work and some time.
I don't know what ccfan's forums are based on but the2001.com is running an old version of PHPBB which has several significant problems (spam related), the newer versions are much better...
There is lots of useful info on the PHPBB site about preventing spam although preventing all spam is a dream for any site and its a constant battle, have a look here for some info, worth a read so you understand the constant battle:
http://www.phpbb.com/community/viewtopic.php?t=1437125

I am pretty new here but would put forward the proposal for a couple of Moderators maybe some of you longer serving guys (as I am new I won't put my name forward but will help if I can) that are trusted to delete the spam and disable the spammers accounts when they arise. I only suggest this as a method for taking some of the strain away from Keith and obviously its his call but I would hate for this site to come under the same spam attacks as the2001 which is sadly now just a historical data site now due to its mess. This could be done on a trial basis to see how much spam is captured and how many posts are deleted.

This is just a suggestion...I don't know how much of an issue this is for the site and Keith other than seeing the spam and without knowing the forum system used here I don't know what is involved in adding some moderators.

mdvalant wrote: I'm with you MattB. Not saying Keith can't handle it by any means, but he needs our help...we're here, and sticking around for awhile!

+1

Years ago we had the same problem on the Supra forum . I posted that I was sick of it and was not coming back. A couple days later I got a email asking if I would be a moderator and help with the spam problem.
Since then spam is lucky to last 1 hour before one of the mods deletes it. Its a lot to ask for one person to control all the infractions on the forum . With such a loyal following here I'm sure Keith would have no problem getting 6 or so volunteers to help.

I shouldn't have just singled out Keith. I do know he does get help from other moderator(s).

I think it's less work to just delete the post and block their IP. Only Admin's can delete an actual member, so besides there being a bunch of suspended spammers that never come back it's really no big deal. The posts may last a couple of days if nobody is around to clean it up.

I think if they could just get cleaned up faster that would be a big help. It just clutters up the site. I think it looks bad too, especially for new members.

lol not sure where I was going with the friends list...kinda goes with the chat feature I guess....who ever is online just shows up in the list so yea. Just dreaming :)

Blocking IP's is a bad idea as you may be blocking legit users from the forum, the IP addresses of spammers are likely to be random or proxy IP's and they probably never use the same one twice.

Please don't misunderstand my intentions of the suggestion of moderators, this is a great resource and I just want it to stay that way, I in NO WAY want anyone to feel that this is a poke against the running of the site. SPAM is just a massive problem everywhere online with no easy solution.

I didn't think you guys would be iDevice users...I though you would be too busy getting wet and having fun with the family/friends to worry about who's online!

Hanging on CCFAN is like living in a small town...

Look how fast the Mayor gets back to us! Love it. Thanks for checking it out Keith!

Keith I will put my hand up to help delete the spam posts. I probably see them first due to time differences. Although Pete and Eric are consistently on early, they obviously have sleeping disorders.

lewy2001 wrote: Although Pete and Eric are consistently on early, they obviously have sleeping disorders.

Well Mark maybe but, I think it has something to do with me getting to work between 4:00 and 4:30 am.

It was great for you to offer yourself for taking care of the spam. I'd be afraid of doing it myself - since I'd such a computer geek I'd probably wipe out the whole site!!

I tell all the losers i know, if you make a ton of money one day, you dont take the next day off, I have alot of discipline, dont know why i brought that up, probably because getting up early is part of the daily routine.