openecu.org

Can't see many people sticking around with all this spam making it to the board. It's a real shame.

Anything someone can do?

-Steve.

If I want to see porn sites I go to porn sites. This site if a car site, Im with you Steve The moderators shold delete that porn spam.

I have to admit, it is pretty darn annoying to me as well. (Believe it or not, all my 'ebony fisting' and 'herbal remedies for sexual impotence' needs are already well filled). But on the flip side I know how much time and energy it takes to delete spam off our support forums.

That sort of time and energy can be hard to must in a volunteer effort. The alternative, making it hard to sign up in the first place, also has some drawbacks.

-jjf

I'd recommend not letting guests post anymore unless they're registered and making a more secure forum registration would definitely help...

mikado wrote:I'd recommend not letting guests post anymore unless they're registered and making a more secure forum registration would definitely help...

I double this !

Otherwise we need some more active moderators to clean the board...

I have to agree with you guys, more time is spent avoiding the spam to find the usefull information that we have all been enjoying in the past.

It's a shame that the forum admins don't seem to give a shit about this serious issue. Almost any phpBB forum I know of out there has secure registration forms so spam can be held at a distance, but this doesn't seem to be anyone's priority here unfortunately.

Please don't bite the hand that feeds you. There ARE other priorities besides fighting spam (ECU Defs and new model kernels). Offer up your advice in a more constructive manner and it might actually amount to stopping the spam than pissing off the "rather busy" admins and moderators.

You know that America is pretty busy with holidays right now? So is Colby and Freon. Plus they race and have there own lives.

Point out the differences in ECU Flashes registration and the other phpBB sites. I did not find much of a difference in the few I went to, so post a thread to any that does.

I want the IPs posted in the forum of the dirt bags posting ads. Maybe sue them for advertising fees/harassment, get Colby some sick disassembly lab .

mikado wrote:It's a shame that the forum admins don't seem to give a shit about this serious issue. Almost any phpBB forum I know of out there has secure registration forms so spam can be held at a distance, but this doesn't seem to be anyone's priority here unfortunately.

We do have anti-bot regsitration on this site, plus some additional things to block human assisted spam automation. Ultimately, unless we require that each person be approved manually, I'm not sure what more can be done. Even if I approved them manually, how much time would I need to spend sniffing out who was a spammer and who was not?

I agree it sucks, and I'm open to suggestions.

Colby

Maybe if each cable had serial number, allowing only to post if using a registered cable? My friend does something similar for his product, allowing posting even if it is second hand can still be registered. I realise not everyone has a cable though so not sure. Just an idea

I want this board to reach beyond just users of the Tactrix cable though. I know that when I am searching the web for information, I don't like to have to wait for a moderator to let me onto a forum...

The way I've used to actively 'protect' public assess sites from spam is via something called a 'block list'. For an example (and a block list) see how PmWiki does it. This is what I based my scoobypedia Wiki on.

http://www.pmwiki.org/wiki/PmWiki/Blocklist

Perhaps you could parse PmWiki's global blocklist (text file) to 'filter' edits/submits. Not sure what forum software your using so don't how hard this is for you.

Anyway just my £0.02 worth.
-Steve.

I've moderated (and been a member of) mailing lists where the first message from a new member was sent to a moderator for approval. Spam usually gets caught there, and the member is ejected. However for non-spam messages, the user gets approved so they can post without being moderated in the future. That technique worked well for some mailing lists I am on (and two I moderate).

That workflow might require changes to the BB code, which may or may not be worth it. Given the rate of spam, I think the "throw moderators at the problem" approach could work, if we had 2-3 more moderators.

FWIW, I'm willing to punt spammers on sight. I can see how ya'll might prefer members with more history, and I'll take no offense if my offer is declined.

The backlist approach is a good idea too, if its technically feasible to get it implemented in the BB code.

I installed the 'humanizer' mod the other day, and it seemed to reduce the amount of spam on my boards quite well...

Mark

...on another note....are the permissions set correctly on the avatar directory as mine failed to upload...

the worst part is how bad the grammar is...

seriously.