Spammers joining this Forum

[Smarty]

Guys,

Having just renewed my membership I am very concerned to know who is moderating this forum on behalf of the AMCA membership.

Checking the people joining this forum over the period of 22nd November 2007 to 2nd January 2008 there are nearly 30 pages of spammers who have joined. If you check the list of recently joined members you will see what I mean (chosen forum names and websites associated with the name is a dead giveaway).

I may be a pessimist but I think it's only a matter of time before this forum is inundated with SPAM.

Who is there, either here on the Forum or on the AMCA staff, to prevent this happening ?

Smarty

[Lonnie]

And with 30 per page!! It seemed to start (or get very noticeable) in early December and it is to the point that almost every "member" since is porn related.

I agree, the list needs purging.

[c.o.]

I had noticed some odd names on the forum, but had never checked the list. This is absolutely ridiculous. Admin-Guy obviously did a helluva job. This question has been asked before, but I haven't heard an answer. Who is running the board now???

[motorhead1]

Also interesting to note that not a one has posted.

[Paps]

Watching over a site can be a real task. I know ! I moderate and administrate a very large site, close to 2,000 at last count. When I first took over the duties of moderating and administrating, the site had been infiltrated with hundreds of spammers. They ranged from one extreme, such as porn, to other extreme sales pitch type spams. Cleaning out the trash took weeks. Thanks to the owners of the site, they provided me with some really useful spam prevention tools. IP address banning tools delivered the final blows on most of the spammers. I found most spams originate from the same IP addresses, as a norm. Banning user names does absolutely no good. They just come back with a new name. Another great tool I was provided with, was adaquate screening tools. No one can join without administration permissions. This means, no one can post without those same permissions. Moderating should be just that, basically policing what has been posted and enforcing forum policies. They deliver warnings and an occasional spanking when needed also. Administrators do the membership work and other related forum software issues at their control. Software issues beyond that become the webmasters duties. Paps

[milw.pirates]

spammers

you right,
looks like from aug. 2007,thru dec. 2007
from page 1 to page 116, alphabeticaly a thru z,the question would be how do you clean it out so nobody clicks on this garbage?

[Smarty]

There is one other scenario to think about. Most genuine member profiles have email addresses which are visible through the forum. These are therefore also visible to the spammers.

Something needs to be done sooner rather than later whether it be full moderation of posts and memberships as Paps suggests. Or starting memberships afresh through a vetted and moderated route. I.e. all forum memberships cancelled and members asked to re-apply with their genuine Membership Nos which can be checked against the roster held at HQ.

I know this will be a labour intensive process, but currently not only are there issues with potential SPAM which need to be addressed, but also potentially with privacy of email addresses.

Something needs to be done by someone in authority within the Club, or outside professional help sought to run and moderate this forum on behalf of the members.

PS just found the "hide email address" option on user cp edit options.

[jurassic]

forum R.I.P.

who cares? this forum is nearly dead anyways isn't it.?everybodys gone with buzz.maybe the club just wants it to die quietly.too bad,it was fun while it lasted.

[Baytown]

That's amazing!
I just opened some of the www links (I have very good anti virus cover etc) and the Google Spain search site came up multiple times.
I just don't understand what mongrels would do this and why?

Best wishes all.

Ken.

[c.o.]

This is all very sad. I would like to hope jurassic that your suggestion that the forum is dead is a little negative. There have been some great threads and a lot of thought provoking discussion on this board. I won't knock Buzz's forum, but I don't think that it compares to this one. There are a lot of good (and knowledgeable) people that participate here and I would like to hope that it will continue. The spamming issue is a little disturbing and it's a shame that folks like that can infiltrate a forum such as this. We are here to talk about old motorcycles and can find all that other garbage that the spammers are suggesting elsewhere. I thought to post here that you had to have a valid club number??? When will somebody who knows respond to all this.????? One of the only reasons I turn on my computer is to check out what's happening here!!!

[DWN]

I agree 100% w/ C.O. I belong to several mc clubs, and visit the websites/forums for each. But even though I have only one antique bike, and it's not one of the most talked about brands, I really enjoy this forum, and visit it more than the others.

I learn a little, or a lot, nearly every time I click on my AMCA link. Thanks for being here.

[AdminGuy]

Hey All -
Introduction first: My name is Michael Wells and I'm the new "Web Guy" for the AMCA. The tasks currently on my plate include migrating the site to a new server, a ground-up redesign, getting a commerce solution in place, updating this board, and fixing whatever else falls off, breaks off, or blows up. So when you ask who's doing all this stuff, it's me (mwells@gmail.com).

Here's what's currently happening in regards to this board:
While I can't do much to prevent the spammers from registering, most - if not all - of the new registrations (and their are about 30+ a day) are not able to post. I understand some have gotten through and posted wonderful deals on cellphones and pharmaceuticals, but it's been the exception for the most part. If you ever see a spam thread, hit the "Report this post to a moderator" link at the bottom of the post and I'll remove it immediately.

We just purchased the newest version of vBulletin (the software running this board). The current installation is approximately five years old and a full version out of date, meaning most of the useful anti-spam and user management features don't exist in the software we're currently running. The new version has much better spam and privacy safe guards in place, and the plan is to have it up and running by the end of the month.

That's pretty much it. Eventually, my hope is that a couple of the senior members on this board will be willing to step up and become volunteer moderators. Like Paps said, it can be a real task. If you're interested or have any other questions, drop me a line at mwells@gmail.com and we can talk about it.

- Michael

P.S. Smarty made a good point about the "hide email address" option on the profile page.

[Earl]

I have another Forum format proposal that I'd like to throw out here, for comments and consideration. This seems like a good place to mention it.

Rather than being allowed to post to a thread by a nickname or alias, I'd like to see mandatory use of our real name attached to the post. We could always add a nickname under our name, if a person desires. By connecting our real name to a posting, I think we would eliminate the low level name-calling done by one that's been a turn off to most.

It's been too easy for somebody to hide behind an alias and trash somebody by name, without fear of retaliation.


Sincerely submitted for conversation and consideration,
or maybe this topic needs it's own thread(?).
My name is Rick Morsher, from Lorain, Ohio

[D.Mac]

I've clicked on the "report this post to moderator" several times lately, and the offending crap went away quick, just as Michael says. It's one small way we can help police our site. As for this forum dying, it will only die if we let it. I go on several other forums also, and enjoy them, but none have a group of guys with the level of expertise that I see here. I think the forum is a valuable part of the club, a great recource, and look forward to checking it out almost every day.
Doug.

[Smarty]

Michael,

Firstly welcome its good to know that someone is watching over the forum and the AMCA website and secondly thankyou for your very informative and reassuring reply.

I don't profess to be a senior member of the forum and I've only been an AMCA member for 2.5 years but if you're looking for members to form a team of moderators then I'd certainly be willing to help out.

Like 99% of the responders to this thread I think this forum provides a useful if not vital service for the AMCA members to either communicate amongst themselves or on matters of greater imporatnce with the hierachy of the Club itself (its good to see the President and senior board members of the Club providing answers for the members directly, instead of having to trawl through the meeting minutes in the magazine). It provides a link also for the members around the world who can't get to the road runs or the swapmeets to communicate and build friendships with their fellow enthusiasts.

I don't believe it should be allowed to deteriorate the way other motorcycle related groups/forums have been left to.

Regards,

Martin in the UK