hi all,
here is my take on all this, it works for me, take it as you wish, for starters running a forum as administrator is not easy hell it is hard enough just being a moderator, for which the likes of Parksy and Damian should be held in the highest regard for the job they do to keep this forum functioning.
while the forum is not state of the art in it's function in fact it is quite large with a a big membership and at times high volume posts on the message boards, one of the problems with it is it does not have private messages, so a mod has to e-mail the members if asked to, it is not done automatically, and second it does not have a shout box, where members who are on line can converse in an instant outside the message boards.
this can create a problem, in so much as posts are self verified and posted as they are written and does not keep spammers off the pages, these have to be deleted by hand one at a time, and the spammer banned.
if you go to a verified system as some have suggested all posts are stacked up in a admin queue, in order to be allowed on the forum, could one imagine the time it would take to read and verify every post in a queue when the forum is busy would almost be a full time job, it is no easier just vetting the first post by a new member, as a spammer would just post one fictitious post until accepted then start spamming.
while the system is not perfect it is better than some that have a admin queue as this prevents follow on replies to posts just entered, unless the admin is sat at the computer 24/7 so it is not practical.
ordinary members can do a lot to keep the site spam free however by reporting it as soon as seen. they can also protect themselves from the spam E-mails in several ways.
first, do not subscribe to any topic, then alerts will not be sent to your inbox.
second, instead of logging on and then reading the forum one can have a look first as a guest, then log on if there is anything you wish to reply to.
third, anything that comes from the site you do not wish to accept can be transferred to the trash bin and marked as spam, everything after that will go straight there not in your inbox.
please note, if you do this keep the moderators E-mail in your contacts or the site cannot get in touch, as all communications will be marked spam.
all the forums that I am on have been dealt with in this way and I never receive any trash, of any kind, except of course the bike forum I own, but that is set up with it's own administrator e-mail.
here is my take on all this, it works for me, take it as you wish, for starters running a forum as administrator is not easy hell it is hard enough just being a moderator, for which the likes of Parksy and Damian should be held in the highest regard for the job they do to keep this forum functioning.
while the forum is not state of the art in it's function in fact it is quite large with a a big membership and at times high volume posts on the message boards, one of the problems with it is it does not have private messages, so a mod has to e-mail the members if asked to, it is not done automatically, and second it does not have a shout box, where members who are on line can converse in an instant outside the message boards.
this can create a problem, in so much as posts are self verified and posted as they are written and does not keep spammers off the pages, these have to be deleted by hand one at a time, and the spammer banned.
if you go to a verified system as some have suggested all posts are stacked up in a admin queue, in order to be allowed on the forum, could one imagine the time it would take to read and verify every post in a queue when the forum is busy would almost be a full time job, it is no easier just vetting the first post by a new member, as a spammer would just post one fictitious post until accepted then start spamming.
while the system is not perfect it is better than some that have a admin queue as this prevents follow on replies to posts just entered, unless the admin is sat at the computer 24/7 so it is not practical.
ordinary members can do a lot to keep the site spam free however by reporting it as soon as seen. they can also protect themselves from the spam E-mails in several ways.
first, do not subscribe to any topic, then alerts will not be sent to your inbox.
second, instead of logging on and then reading the forum one can have a look first as a guest, then log on if there is anything you wish to reply to.
third, anything that comes from the site you do not wish to accept can be transferred to the trash bin and marked as spam, everything after that will go straight there not in your inbox.
please note, if you do this keep the moderators E-mail in your contacts or the site cannot get in touch, as all communications will be marked spam.
all the forums that I am on have been dealt with in this way and I never receive any trash, of any kind, except of course the bike forum I own, but that is set up with it's own administrator e-mail.