Spam issues
Posted: Fri Feb 06, 2009 11:07 am
Good morning everyone. Earlier in the week, we started getting some registrations from spammers. These don't appear to be automated things, but rather people who spend their existence registering at various forums just so that they can post spam. Thanks to our moderators, those posts were caught right away and the user accounts were banned.
Since then, I changed registration to require admin approval to activate. Every registration request I've received since then has cross-referenced as a known forum spammer. I guess that means they've found us now, and we need to keep our eyes peeled.
Besides changing the user registration to require approval, I have also made a change to check all incoming traffic against a blacklist. This could potentially slow the system down a bit - how much, I still don't know. The impact would certainly be most noticable for users with slower Internet connections, if at all. If this becomes an issue, please e-mail admin@paperartistsonline.com, or get in touch with one of the moderators. We will try to do whatever we can to make sure you can get through.
Even with the blacklist checking turned on, my plan is to leave the admin approval switch on for new registrations for a while. If you know of someone who would legitimately like to be a part of our family, then send a PM to me, or an e-mail, and let me know that they'll be registering - their e-mail address, if you have it, would be great. That way, I'll go ahead and activate then without going all private eye on them first.
I'm sorry about any inconvenience this may cause. Hopefully this will get under control soon.
Since then, I changed registration to require admin approval to activate. Every registration request I've received since then has cross-referenced as a known forum spammer. I guess that means they've found us now, and we need to keep our eyes peeled.
Besides changing the user registration to require approval, I have also made a change to check all incoming traffic against a blacklist. This could potentially slow the system down a bit - how much, I still don't know. The impact would certainly be most noticable for users with slower Internet connections, if at all. If this becomes an issue, please e-mail admin@paperartistsonline.com, or get in touch with one of the moderators. We will try to do whatever we can to make sure you can get through.
Even with the blacklist checking turned on, my plan is to leave the admin approval switch on for new registrations for a while. If you know of someone who would legitimately like to be a part of our family, then send a PM to me, or an e-mail, and let me know that they'll be registering - their e-mail address, if you have it, would be great. That way, I'll go ahead and activate then without going all private eye on them first.
I'm sorry about any inconvenience this may cause. Hopefully this will get under control soon.