Inappropriate Personal Messages - Spam Posts - Moderate New Members?

[Big Dog]

This thread and poll will address the issue of forum spammers and if we should moderate new members posts.

Please civil as you express your thoughts and be sure to vote in the poll.

Thanks!

[n003lb]

Well, I may be an extremly inactive member here, so my vote shouldn't carry much weight, but I say no to moderating new member posts.  As far as I know, you haven't had much problems with spammers here, of course this is the first time I've visited the site in several months.  If you have had some serious problems with them, then yeah, I guess they should be moderated.

I've already cast a vote for no in the poll.

[Big Dog]

Thanks for adding your voice to the discussion.

It is the Winter Holiday Season, so it is nice to have pack members come back for a visit that we've not seen in a while.

[K9 Obedience]

If the site is to be kept, "family friendly" then the answer must be yes! That one spammer was a particually awful and obscene one. As a parent, and had one of my children seen the photo I would not let them use the site again. As adults we can dismiss such filth but had a youngster seen the message sent through the dogexplorer e mail, they may have been very disturbed. Another point to question is the fact that here in England it is against the law to act in such an inappropiate way. I am sure that any new members would not object to their posts being moderated, it seems to be common practise on other sites.

dog lover.

[Big Dog]

Thank you for taking the time to add your vote and thoughts.

Our goal is to be family friendly, of course, and that spammer's actions were clearly unacceptable.

Hopefully the change made to the "announce thread" feature should prevent any e-mails going out.

I'd love to see a bit more feedback before I force the new members to have their first posts approved but I'm open to the change if need be.

By the way, on average I ban IPs, user IDs and some e-mail domains at the rate of about one per day, sometimes several, 7 days a week due to clearly spammer sign-ups.

Thanks!

[Kelley]

Hi, i've voted too, dont want to spoil the fun for us genuine users )

Kelley
x

[n003lb]

Here is an idea.  Is there any way for you to setup the forum software so that new users cannot attach files or link to outside sites unitl they reach a certain number of posts?  Perhaps you could set it up so that if a user tries to post a link or a picture, the post must be approved by you first.  That way if, like was said above, someone needs some immediate advice, they can still get it and the rest of us will still be protected from the scum of the internet.

I know I have seen other forums do that, but I think all of them use vBulliten software for the forum, and that costs a small fortune to run.  I don't recognize your software off hand, but I can tell it isn't vBullitin, and it doesn't look like phpBB either, which I believe also has the ability to limit attachments and links.

Ford Truck Enthusiasts is an example of a forum that will not allow user to link to an outside source.  So is Civilization Fanatics forum.  I never understood why they had the feature until now.  This incident here has examplified the reason.

I frequent a lot of forums, and contrary to what K9 Obedience said earlier, I have not found many that moderate new members, and a lot of them are gaming sites that are frequented by kids.  Of course, this is also the first time I've had an experience like this.  Out of all the forums I frequent (probably 20 or so a week) I have never had an inappropriat PM or email sent to me, and I've seen very little in the way of inappropriat posts made.  It seems like a huge deal right now because it just happened and this is a small "community" that you wouldn't expect such things in, but I would be willing to put money down that it never happens again, and if it does, it's quite likely the same person doing it.

Oh well, just my 2 cents.  Whatever you decide, I support it, and I'll keep visiting the site, even if my visits are somewhat infequent.

[Big Dog]

Here is an idea.  Is there any way for you to setup the forum software so that new users cannot attach files or link to outside sites unitl they reach a certain number of posts?  Perhaps you could set it up so that if a user tries to post a link or a picture, the post must be approved by you first.  That way if, like was said above, someone needs some immediate advice, they can still get it and the rest of us will still be protected from the scum of the internet.

I know I have seen other forums do that, but I think all of them use vBulliten software for the forum, and that costs a small fortune to run.  I don't recognize your software off hand, but I can tell it isn't vBullitin, and it doesn't look like phpBB either, which I believe also has the ability to limit attachments and links.

Ford Truck Enthusiasts is an example of a forum that will not allow user to link to an outside source.  So is Civilization Fanatics forum.  I never understood why they had the feature until now.  This incident here has examplified the reason.

I frequent a lot of forums, and contrary to what K9 Obedience said earlier, I have not found many that moderate new members, and a lot of them are gaming sites that are frequented by kids.  Of course, this is also the first time I've had an experience like this.  Out of all the forums I frequent (probably 20 or so a week) I have never had an inappropriat PM or email sent to me, and I've seen very little in the way of inappropriat posts made.  It seems like a huge deal right now because it just happened and this is a small "community" that you wouldn't expect such things in, but I would be willing to put money down that it never happens again, and if it does, it's quite likely the same person doing it.

Oh well, just my 2 cents.  Whatever you decide, I support it, and I'll keep visiting the site, even if my visits are somewhat infequent.

Kelley - thanks for voting and particpating - I'm very happy to hear from everyone.

n003lb - we are going to need to get you a chair if you keep sticking around!

There are several reason why forum admins don't like to allow links in posts - but the number one reason is that every link out of a site takes "page rank" away from the site (and the page with the link on it) in the eyes of Google.

Some sites allow - or don't allow - links in forum signatures for the same reason.

While I won't allow members to spam the forums, I want them to get value if at all possible, beyond just the contact and exchanges of ideas, so I allow the signatures to have live links. And if someone is doing something really unique on another commercial site, or there is an announcement about pet food toxins on a governement site, I sure want a member to share that news if they can.

I had thought Winston Churchill said the following, but it seems I was wrong:

"Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty." -- Wendell Phillips, (1811-1884), abolitionist, orator and columnist for The Liberator,  in a speech before the Massachusetts Antislavery Society in 1852, according to The Dictionary of Quotations edited by Bergen Evans

My point being, I certainly hope to err a bit on the side of liberty for all of us while trusting my own oversight and the help of many of you to sweep the droppings up when spammers and other misguided folks try to mess things up.

On attachments, those are not allowed now and have never been "turned on." I was concerned about server security and storage sizes but the storage issue is less of a concern now... security is still an issue so they remain off. The trouble post did not have attachments - the images were embedded graphics (see the Doggles pictures elsewhere on the board) and then external links.

And much to my dismay, digging deeply into the admin menus, documentation and support boards for the forum software, I can't see where I can moderate the first posts with this application.

It is SMF - you are right - not phpBB or vBulletin.

I can hand approve each new member but hope that won't be needed.

Perhaps upgrading the boards will bring better moderation and permission options... I'll look into that too.

I'd rather be taking pictures and making videos about dogs!



Speaking of which, OT, yes, but there will be a bunch of new dog pics going into the dog picture gallery, maybe by the end of today.

Back to the salt mines for me...

[Big Dog]

Well packmates I've just installed so-called "captcha" to the registration process.

This requires someone to "see" these numbers and letters and hand enter their values before they can register. Hopefully this will cut down the amount of robotic attempts.

Nothing is perfect, but it is another layer.

Where is a good dog bark when you need one?

 

NOTE: If you are trying to register and having tech trouble, please send a note to us at this link:

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[K9 Obedience]

I have just discovered what "personal messages are and where I look for them. I had four in my box.
One of them is that filthy photo of the asian man. I want to know how to delete it to remove it from my personal message box?

dog lover