kudzurunner
1337 posts
Apr 15, 2010
7:43 PM
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Folks:
Effective immediately, the membership policy of this board has changed.
I have taken the following steps:
1) tiffany & co. has been executed
2) Only I can approve new memberships, and nobody can apply for membership. Which is to say: there is a new membership policy that is unlike ANY prior membership policy.
3) For the next two weeks, and perhaps longer, NO new memberships will be created or approved. I'll change the policy to something more liberal only when I feel like it. I don't feel like it right now.
What are the combined effects of these three actions?
Simple:
1) The spam will stop. Dead.
2) All current members will remain members
3) Once our administrators have deleted all the spam, the forum will remain spam-free
Obviously, this is not a long-term solution. But in the short term, it's a great solution. We will have a spam-free forum and all of the current members--all 4000+ of you--will be free to post to your heart's content.
Eventually I'll need to loosen things up a little. For the time being, though, things will have a chance to cool off.
FYI: tiffany & co. is another name for the guys who spammed us yesterday. I emailed them and asked them not to spam us. They are obviously sadists who said, "Fuck you, buddy!" My reply is... well, unprintable. But the gist is: WE WIN, you idiots. And YOU LOSE. [This rant sponsored by Spam-Off.]
Enjoy the weekend.
--Adam
Last Edited by on Apr 15, 2010 7:46 PM
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GermanHarpist
1356 posts
Apr 15, 2010
7:45 PM
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Be sure to post it bold on the top of the forum so that people that want to join know what's going on.
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YT
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Kyzer Sosa
354 posts
Apr 15, 2010
7:54 PM
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There should be legal repercussions for stuff like that. In the real world, if someone harasses you by any means, you can call the police and have it stopped in a hurry. If they dont, its fines and the threat of jail time. In the e-world, its up to admins to tighten things up, and in this case, go to the extremes to protect their land.
I dont blame you Adam, its a lot of work to usurp these f***ers...and I agree with your actions wholeheartedly. Sucks about new members, GH said it tho. A friendly explanation to newcomers is in order.
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Kyzer's Travels
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Nastyolddog
553 posts
Apr 15, 2010
7:57 PM
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The ISTJ in me says thats fine,
Inspector NOD
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conjob
38 posts
Apr 15, 2010
8:34 PM
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i stalked this forum for ages before i posted anything, it shouldn't be too much of an inconvenience for them, give them a chance to get the hang of the place
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conjob
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kudzurunner
1338 posts
Apr 15, 2010
8:35 PM
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I hereby give my blessings in advance to the administrators. As long as it's legal and ethical, please do it. Bring the offending websites to justice. Track down their ISP's. Petition to have their licenses revoked.
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LeonStagg
161 posts
Apr 15, 2010
8:43 PM
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Nice work, good action plan.
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Gwood420
128 posts
Apr 15, 2010
8:45 PM
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i wonder if they were still mad that i wished they all would contract AIDS... among the other great emails i sent... :)
edit.. sorry.. i was MAD!!!
edit 2... damn adam.. i didnt get a reply :( oh well..
Last Edited by on Apr 15, 2010 8:47 PM
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groyster1
21 posts
Apr 15, 2010
8:47 PM
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I am glad I am already a member I am trying to learn all I can and some or most of the discussion is very positive there are occasionally some pointless arguments but of course all are entitled to their opinions
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Greg Heumann
397 posts
Apr 15, 2010
9:11 PM
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Thanks, Adam
Moderating/managing a forum is more work than anyone who hasn't done it can possibly know. I appreciate your efforts.
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/Greg
BlowsMeAway Productions
BlueState - my band
Bluestate on iTunes
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shanester
175 posts
Apr 15, 2010
10:11 PM
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Thanks Adam and Administrators for keeping the forum spam free.
You guys always respond quick!
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There is nowhere to go and nothing to find, only something to create.
http://www.youtube.com/1shanester
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gene
441 posts
Apr 15, 2010
11:31 PM
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Good move, Adam!!
:) :) :) NO MORE SPAM!!! :) :) :)
Free at last!
(Now, how could I resist that! :D )
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Kyzer Sosa
361 posts
Apr 15, 2010
11:57 PM
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4000 members, Adam, wow... I had no idea.
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Kyzer's Travels
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nacoran
1670 posts
Apr 16, 2010
12:03 AM
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There can be legal repercussions for spamming. There are sites to report it and ISP's will shut down spammers addresses, but it's a lot of work. They can also be reported to the search engines. As someone pointed out in a couple other threads there are a couple kinds of spam. There is the, 'Click On This' spam that is trying to sell something and there is the 'Fool the Search Engine' links designed to push up the number of links to a site to boost the search engine rank. Search engine companies hate these guys as much as we do and will penalize them for doing it by tanking their ratings.
I have a couple technical questions- basically, to delete a piece of spam a moderator clicks delete next to the post, a confirmation message comes up, and zap, it's gone. The problem is the spammers have it automated. Is there a way, using macros or something, that we could zap every post by one person? If Adam had a tool like that we could undue what they did with a click of the button.
The next technical question is, is there a service out there that could handle registrations with captcha's or whatever, that wouldn't have to be integrated into the site, so it would be easy to implement, maybe something like the email registration, only needing confirmation to approve. (I read yesterday that Twitter is going to require captcha's for the first 100 posts.)
Is there a way to limit the number of posts one member can post in a day? A limit like 30-40 would probably allow even frequent posters to post all they want, but limit spammers. Could it go up the more posts you have that are legitimate? I saw post numbers in the high 200's for Wholesale and YaoYing and they did it all in a few minutes. Is there a way to limit how quickly someone can post? Is there a way to allow moderators to freeze a poster so they can't do any more damage while they wait for Adam's vengeful hammer?
This deluge had my head spinning.
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Nate
Facebook
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captainbliss
61 posts
Apr 16, 2010
2:24 AM
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@kudzurunner and the admins
A big "thank you" for your time and trouble in keeping this forum functional.
A thought:
There are free forum platforms out that that allow sub-forums for different topics, that have all kinds of security / moderation / admin features integrated, that allow "sticky" threads (always at the top) and which do all kinds of helpful things (including, I'm sure, some of the things that nacoran is suggesting) for running a community of 4000+.
So...
Is it worth looking into a more fully featured platform for the MBH forums?
xxx
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I'm running a FREE 90 minute blues harp workshop @ The Blues Kitchen, Camden, London (UK) on Saturday 17th April, 3pm | BYO diatonic in C | see www.theblueskitchen.com for more info...
Last Edited by on Apr 16, 2010 2:25 AM
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arzajac
147 posts
Apr 16, 2010
3:11 AM
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Adam has stated in the past that he likes the way the forum is. With respect to the one main forum which doesn't have any subforums or sections, he has said that it resembles a street corner. Current discussions happen here and now, period. I get that.
But, it's also possible to use a full-featured forum platform that can properly handle spam without using any of the features and keeping the forum pretty much as-is. Just easier to manage.
That's my 2c. I'm just pointing out what's available.
Last Edited by on Apr 16, 2010 3:17 AM
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snakes
502 posts
Apr 16, 2010
10:05 AM
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Thanks to those giving their time to moderate this forum. I appreciate the time you take for this task.
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Tuckster
480 posts
Apr 16, 2010
10:15 AM
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I second that,Snakes. Thanks,guys!
Last Edited by on Apr 16, 2010 10:15 AM
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harp honkin
38 posts
Apr 16, 2010
10:49 AM
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Thanks Adam
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eharp
641 posts
Apr 16, 2010
4:51 PM
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maybe we can make this forum function with snail mail.
i'll start a new thread and send it out to the 4000+ members.
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nacoran
1683 posts
Apr 16, 2010
5:51 PM
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I have one other possible idea for how to bust the spam. A pay firewall. They spam because it's free. If Adam set a nominal fee of say $5 for a new membership we could reopen registration. Actually you could set it even at $1 and it should still work. Maybe that could be the discount rate if you write Adam a really nice email explaining how poor you are, the scholarship version as it were. You still get banned if you violate the spamming rules, and you don't get your cash back. You can still read the comments for free and maybe Adam could throw in a couple downloads with the registration to sweeten the pot, or just include an account with a purchase. All the fee is really designed to do is make it expensive to spam, and, it has the added benefit of getting financial info on any would be spammer.
With PayPal, even kids should still be able to get an account without too much problem.
Just brainstorming.
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Nate
Facebook
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The7thDave
67 posts
Apr 16, 2010
6:06 PM
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I'd like to add my thanks to the moderators, and also my congratulations--I've actually seen very little of the spam in question.
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rharley5652
128 posts
Apr 23, 2010
1:18 PM
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Way to go Adam ,...great job !!!
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Simply Unique Kustom Mic's By Rharley
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kudzurunner
1364 posts
Apr 23, 2010
3:47 PM
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@narcoran:
I think what I'm going to do is re-open registration but make it so that I manually add people. In order to join the forum, you have to email me and tell me who you are and what your interest in the harmonica is.
I'll do that soon. I may create a window so that I open it for a specific period to new registrations, then close it. I don't have the time to manually administer it every day.
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