*** Sky - problem with moderator options ***

[WT]

Sky,

In the last few days, a couple of spammers have registered and and posted spam on every forum they can. I have banned them and, where I have access, deleted their posts. There is still some spam on foreign language and your video advertising forum.

I noticed two problems, and would ask you to fix them asap to keep the job achievable:
Preferably disable the ability for posters to reply to posts on forums with no moderator (eg, close the threads), like the one for screen captures from your videos (and you will need to delete the spam). Or, less preferably, add Ger ad I as modertors of them and, if she is still active, Kate.
The moderator facility to ban a spammer and remove all their posts is NOT WORKING. They get banned and the post being dealt with is removed, but it does NOT delete all the other posts, leaving trawling through every Board by hand or running a search as the only way of finding the remaining posts. Please prioritise fixing this fault asap so all posts by the spammer can be deleted in one action - within days, not weeks!
Thanks.

When you have replied, I will move this to the Message Board forum.

[skymouse]

Hi WT,

Many thanks for bringing the problem to my attention. I have set the status of all the screen cap sections to “closed” (some of them already were, and others not). I'll have a look at the remaining sections as soon as I can, which will have to be after I've finished some current server maintenance work.

Regarding the bug that you mentioned, I will try some experiments, and will then report it to the software vendor to see whetehr it's something they already know about and whether it is scheduled to be fixed in the next update.

SM

[Ger]

WT, I almost posted a similar message last weekend. In fact, I wrote it but the message board didn't let me post anything.
But you are right in everything you wrote. I stumbled upon the same things last week when suddenly new spammers showed up everywhere.

Ger.

[Ger]

Those spam messages are still at places that WT and I can't moderate Sky. I hope you realize that some links in those messages take you to sites that give a lot of crap on your computer if you go there.
It's fine if you want to moderate that part of the board yourself, but I think you should do that daily. They are there now for a lot of days.... You make it look as if you don't check them at all.

[skymouse]

Sorry, been working 60+ hours at a time on server move etc and finally had time today to delete those spams!

On a side note, I guess Captcha is now becoming useless at preventing spam bots.

SM

[Ger]

So nowadays spambots are able to sign up on their own and later on sign in automatically and post messages? In that case it's indeed pretty hard to keep them out. Isn't it possible to add a screen where you have to enter a code before you enter the message boards? Or are those bots even capable to do that as well? I can't imagine. The site I maintain for my work always asks to enter a given code before posting a message is possible.

Something else... The new site on the new server looks fine and works well. But I get the menu on the left of the screen instead of centered. And I don't get the extra login screen anymore when I go to the movie section. Perhaps it's a result of the new layout and it's supposed to be that way. I was just curious :)

Ger.

[skymouse]

So nowadays spambots are able to sign up on their own and later on sign in automatically and post messages?

Yes, technically it's quite easy for spambot software to do that.


But I get the menu on the left of the screen instead of centered.

Which menu do you mean? Please let me know and I'll have a look in case it's something that is not supposed to have changed.


And I don't get the extra login screen anymore when I go to the movie section.

Yes, previously we had that extra login because the video files were on a different server from the other parts of the site. Now everything is on the same server so we don't need a separate login any more.