These attacks of spam are gettting quite.frequent now. What is going to be done to vet new applications for forum membership.
Admin lost control
- Thread starter tenpole
- Start date
Have you reported the attacks to the Moderators via the Report button, as they are volunteers and are not on line all the time?
Parksy
Moderator
- Nov 12, 2009
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Pursuitpaul said:
Like Damian, I do my best to monitor this forum and to remove spam and to ban those responsible.
The time is now 08:41 am, you were good enough to report the spam a couple of hours ago so at the latest you reported the spam at 06:40 am.
As it happens I'm on holiday in Cornwall, using a cheap laptop and with patchy broadband reception,no phone internet and very limited access to my email in-box.
Nevertheless Damian was vigilant and has removed the spam, but if he hadn't seen it I would have stayed in the caravan until it was done regardless of planned trips to some beautiful places and an irate other half who has no connection with this forum waiting for me.
With the greatest respect, I find the title of this thread slightly insulting because it has clearly been demonstrated that rather than having lost control, we are very much in control as usual.
I've no doubt whatsoever that our highly competent digital editor Lizzie Pope, who also constantly monitors this website, will soon put some sort cyber barrier in place to strengthen our defences.
- Jun 2, 2015
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Well done MODS for your sterling work. It is a difficult job (I know I do it on a completely unrelated forum) especially when the spammers attack. It takes up a lot of time trawling through all of the new posts especially if (like the unmentionable weight of the nose thread) you have seen the same question being asked a hundred or more times by new members. I for one think that you are doing a brilliant job keeping on top of stuff and I hope Lizzie keeps the biscuit barrel topped up in the staff room.
I have see this type of attack before were their is no control with new members and old post . In the end the only way to stop it was all new members were vetted by ways of means their first post was not allowed to be added to forum before being looked at first by those at the top 
On opening Outlook this morning I had dozens of notifications from PC although I no longer frequent the forum due to one particulair poster. IMHO both moderators have done an excellent job in removing all the spam and have done so in the past. As someone has already said the Headline for the thread is a bit misleading and unfair!
Regardless of the mods vigilance which is I am not putting into disrupute at all, the attacjs will need a better tech solution. As the mods say to do the old fashioned method of banning user then trawling through so many posts is too time consuming.
The attacks are getting more sophisticated in overcoming the forums defences.
The attack was probably a bot with very little human involvement at all.
The attacks are getting more sophisticated in overcoming the forums defences.
The attack was probably a bot with very little human involvement at all.
- Mar 8, 2009
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I appreciate what our mods. do for us in keeping this forum 'clean' and 'open', and enjoy it's content. - I'm not into the "techie" stuff and what's involved in protecting it, but do appreciate what they do for us on this to me an enjoyable and entertaining forum, and yes there are occasionally a few over sensitive contributors (or ex) but they generally get over it,, and reappear later, and I suspect read it even if they don't contribute?
- May 24, 2014
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Having been heavily involved on the admin side of a very large forum I can appreciate what the mods do for us. The mechanisms in place to protect forums are poor to says the least and all the mods and admins can do is to try to stay on the ball. This is time consuming and has been pointed out many times that the mods are volunteers. They can really only be reaactive, its difficult to be proactive. These are mainly spam attacks and the only way to limit things like this last attack is to limit the amount of posts a new user can make. However that depends on the scripts allowed by the BBS service and may not be allowed by the hosts.
Keep up the good work.
Keep up the good work.
I use a phone for posting on forum. Without reading glasses.
Please excuse my grammar, spelling and punctuation.
Please excuse my grammar, spelling and punctuation.
To Parksy and all the other moderators I protest that this thread was seen as an insult.
I admire the voluntry work you do and respect your vigilance and fairness in moderating the forum. I however think you need better tools to combat the flood of spam attacks which I can see getting worse in future.
I am not blaming the site moderators at all. This recent attack happened early in the morning inundating so many people with updates thread notifications if they subscribed. For some people this may have caused inconvience, for me I have not yet checked my email but as a new member I dont have so many posts to be notified of.
What should have happened was a auto block trigger until an admin can have a look at the content and approve or reject the posts.
I admire the voluntry work you do and respect your vigilance and fairness in moderating the forum. I however think you need better tools to combat the flood of spam attacks which I can see getting worse in future.
I am not blaming the site moderators at all. This recent attack happened early in the morning inundating so many people with updates thread notifications if they subscribed. For some people this may have caused inconvience, for me I have not yet checked my email but as a new member I dont have so many posts to be notified of.
What should have happened was a auto block trigger until an admin can have a look at the content and approve or reject the posts.
- Jun 20, 2005
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May I politely remind our newer forum it's that we are very lucky that Haymarket have stuck with the forum.It costs money to run.
If it were not for our Mod Volunteers including Damien and Parksy there would be no PCv forum.
Spammers are a nuisance but thanks to the vigilance of our members and Mods no real harm is done.
It just means Parksy and Damien have to waste their own personal time remedying the issue.
So yes. The title of this thread is insensitive but I am sure was chosen without the inside knowledge of how this forum exists.
Well done the Mod boys!
If it were not for our Mod Volunteers including Damien and Parksy there would be no PCv forum.
Spammers are a nuisance but thanks to the vigilance of our members and Mods no real harm is done.
It just means Parksy and Damien have to waste their own personal time remedying the issue.
So yes. The title of this thread is insensitive but I am sure was chosen without the inside knowledge of how this forum exists.
Well done the Mod boys!
I Must say I am a Moderator to a Forum and as many have said our time is not sat by a computer all day. Its sometimes very difficult to keep control . Not sure how this forum works but the one I am a mod on all messages go to an Administration Area and held waitng for the Moderators to check them before being released to the forum I have to say I had two spam mails this morning ,sadly I was I about to contact Steve when this PC decided all by itself to download windows 10. Never mind. Parksy Damian keep up the good work .
Sir Roger
Sir Roger
Surfer said:
You probably had the emails due to being 'subscribed' (intentionally or unintentionally) to each of the threads. If you didn't see the remedy on another thread then you need to click the 'Unsubscribe' button at the top or bottom of each thread to which you are 'subscribed'.
However, as the spam threads have now been deleted please save this info in case you get any more unwanted emails.
- Mar 14, 2005
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tenpole said:
AS a relativley new member of the forum, you may not appreciate all the good work our volunteer moderators do in their own time. I think your comments about it being only two hours since you reported it and the fact you reported it at 6:40 am! Most caravanners probably are not even up at that time, so please be reasonable in your expectations. Moderators have lives too
Parksy
Moderator
- Nov 12, 2009
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tenpole said:
Perhaps I used the wrong term in the heat of the moment Tenpole, maybe I ought to have written 'misleading' rather than 'insulting'?
The fact is that neither 'admin' in the shape of Haymarket Digital Editor Lizzie Pope or the two moderators, Damian and myself, have 'lost control'.
We are very much in control and will remain in control despite the efforts of illegal unauthorised advertisers (spammers) to disrupt the forum or website.
This website uses the Captcha system which screens the vast majority of electronically generated unauthorised advertising (SPAM) but if a determined spam merchant decides to open a membership account using false details and goes on to post multiple adverts, perhaps using a spam bot, the results are all too obvious.
We are extremely grateful to the loyal forum members who alert us to untoward incidents when we're not immediately available, and also to those who have responded positively to these issues.
It's not difficult to ban a spam merchant from the entire website and to delete their every post, their avatar and signature and all visible trace of them from this forum, I've even done it from Sainsbury's cafe in Penzance using their internet and my smartphone with a few little clicks, so please don't worry. The odd one or two will always penetrate our electronic defences but our members are our best resource, and as soon as we know about the spam it's as good as gone :evil:
- May 24, 2014
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I think the best respnse is to find out which company is selling fake Raybans and flood their email server with pictures of Aquarolls, and moreso, pictures of Sausage in her knitted bikini seductively posing across a wastemaster.
That should be enough to convince them of the error of their ways. B)
Seriously though, theres nothing really that can be done until an attack happens. So simply keep smiling through, we're British, we can hack it.
That should be enough to convince them of the error of their ways. B)
Seriously though, theres nothing really that can be done until an attack happens. So simply keep smiling through, we're British, we can hack it.
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