Anti-Spam measures

Post by **Tim** » Fri May 26, 2006 9:25 am

Hi everyone,

We are increasingly getting bombarded by spammers who just register to post links to irrelevant websites. We have taken some measures at the back-end to try and limit this but some are still getting through. Therefore we will be removing any account that is registered on the system and not verified within 5 days.
In addition, any account registered with an irrelevant website link will be removed immediately. This doesn't apply to the regular contributors to the forum as long as those links adhere to our general guidelines.

Finally, we reserve the right to remove any registered account with no relevant posts.

We realise that in some rare cases, geniune users could be affected by these measures. We apologies for this but we are spending a lot of time cleaning up these forums rather than contributing!.

Post by **Tim** » Mon Aug 14, 2006 2:02 pm

There has been some increased Spam activity in the last couple of days as some of you have noticed.

Please DO NOT click on links that are not motorsport related or links that are posted by new members and look suspicious. By clicking on those links you could be risking downloading viruses, trojans, spyware, illegal material, etc ...

We try to remove them as quick as we can but we do have to sleep as well

Thanks to those who have reported some of the posts.

jacfan · Post by **jacfan** » Mon Aug 14, 2006 3:44 pm

I am just wondering, how do you report a post? On some sights they have a thing to click and report but here I am not sure what to do or who to report something to.

gkaytaz · Post by **gkaytaz** » Mon Aug 14, 2006 5:30 pm

jacfan wrote:I am just wondering, how do you report a post? On some sights they have a thing to click and report but here I am not sure what to do or who to report something to.

Normally the best way would be sending a PM to an admin. However that risks all admins being bombarded by PMs whenever someone posts a junk message like that "sorry" thread. So, I'd suggest to sit tight and refrain from clicking on those links, and wait for an admin to delete the original post. Our admins are doing an admirable job dealing with the needs of this message board. Still it's possible for them to miss an occasional hitch. If a day passes and the post is still there, only then message an admin and remind him/her. At least I'll do so.

Post by **Tim** » Mon Aug 14, 2006 6:21 pm

That is a good suggestion gkaytaz,

We are usually quick with removing these posts as we constantly monitor the forums, over the weekend it seems we all decided to take a short break and this happens!.

Having said that, there has been an unusually high number of false registrations over the last few days!

Post by **Tim** » Mon Aug 14, 2006 6:25 pm

jacfan wrote:I am just wondering, how do you report a post? On some sights they have a thing to click and report but here I am not sure what to do or who to report something to.

As gkaytaz suggested a PM to myself or Ed should do!

Thanks for the concern

rah · Post by **rah** » Tue Aug 15, 2006 3:04 pm

Just another thought. Is there any merit in giving admin powers to someone who is on quite a lot. Mlittle, Julian or T-K have proved themselves well in other forums and they are also on at different times to you and Ed.

Post by **Tim** » Sat Aug 19, 2006 10:13 am

Thanks rah for the suggestion. We have actually thought of that but it is unfair to expect more from those who are already very active on these forums. Some are already moderators and have the responsibility of monitoring posts in their respective forums.

It is our responsibility to ensure that these forums are free from spammers. It is a common problem accross all the forums on the web but we are determined to minimise the effect even if it distracts us a bit from our real job.

Thanks for the support.