A temporary change to the members list

[Steve Ashton]

Ladies and Gentlemen,

In our endless battle against spammers and hackers I have been going through the entire member list of the forum. All 12,000+ of them. One at a time. The reason for this is because many spammers put their junk in their user profile but never attempt to actively post to the forum.

If you click on the members list under the community tab at the top of the forum you will see some changes.

I have temporarily activated the spammers to show on the list. (they show up in red.)
I have also created a new usergroup to allow me to keep track of those I have checked. This usergroup is called "Non-Active Members". It includes those who, while members in good standing, have never posted to the forum or not logged in for over a year.

Oh, and FYI, if you ever wondered what an "active member" is --- It is any member who has logged onto the forum and made at least one post within the last 90 days.

I ask for your patience in this. You can imagine the task of reviewing all 12k members. As soon as I have completed this sweep I will turn off the spammers again and return the member list to its original look. If you are curious about my progress you should be able to watch those with no posts to gradually change to either "Banned as a Spammer" or "Non-Active Member" as I work through the list.

[Cynthia]

Thanks for keeping the spammers out of here.

Hmmmm... I think I need to get my hubby to log in and post every so often.

[artificer]

If I were anywhere near BC, I'd buy you a MUCH deserved drink, Steve.

Thank you again for your continued efforts against the endless tide of spam.

[Mike_Oettle]

Your hard work is appreciated, Steve! Keep up the good work.
Regards,
Mike

[Eleazar]

I would imagine that you should be able to minimize the list a little by using a good SQL script.

And now I'm an "Active Member" LOL

[ThistleDown]

Another pound of "special blend coffee" to be delivered next month, Steve. Many thanks.

Rex

[Standard]

Thanks Steve, and the rest of the moderator, for your continued efforts to keep our clan safe.

[Steve Ashton]

I thought some of you may be interested in what this "Banned as a spammer" catagory is all about and what gets someone banned as a spammer.

Spam is bacically the electronic equivilant of unsolisited junk mail. Most Spam today is done by computer programs and not real people. The programs are constantly searching the web for large and active forums and sites. They place their spam and leave in just a few moments. They then continue the search for another forum.
They rely on shear bulk. If you put a million pieces of junk mail out there someone will click on it. Even if for no reason than curiosity to find out what it is.

There are several types of spam.

Active Spam - This is where a person will register on a forum and post their junk mail directly to a new or existing thread.

Drop Box Spam - A person will register and place a website link in their signature block or somewhere else in their profile hoping someone clicks on the link. Ads for fake Nike shoes or knockoff jewelry are popular for this type of spam.

Virus, Worm and Trojan Horse Spam - These are just malicious programs designed to disrupt other computes or to take over other computers and use them to spread more spam.

Drug Spam - People advertising Viagra or other drugs to unsuspecting members.

Porn Spam - Spammers trying to get people to click through to their porn site.

Listed Spammers - There are sites that list known spammers by screen name, email address and IP address. We can check suspected spammers against these lists. We also submit spammers we find to help keep these list updated for other forum owners.

Bot Spammers - Spammers program computers to search for large or active forums and place some type of spam on them automatically.

Bot Sleeper Spammers - Spammers set up computers to register on forums with the intent of creating a back door back onto a site if they get caught and banned.


We usually catch spammers when they register. We run all IP address and email address against the lists of known spammers when someone new registers. We also place all new registrations into a Moderation queue until they have made a few posts. This way our Forum Moderators can check for posts made by spammers and hopefully delete it before our members even know it is there.

We also check the IP address of all new members and find out the general location of the person who has registered. For example, China is a hotbed of spammer activity right now, but not much interest in Kilts. So if we find someone from China who registers, never makes a post, and is only on the forum for a few minutes, the chances are pretty good that they are a spammer.

We also rely on our members to report any spam that they find on the forum. The staff can't be on-line all the time. Spammers love to do their work early in the morning when our staff is not on-line.

We can also catch spammers if they give a bogus email address becasue we have the software set up to send out a birthday greeting to everyone on the birthday they list when they register. The software sends an error message to me of undeliverable emails.

We also search out spammers just as I am doing now. By looking through our list of members 1 by1 and trying to spot the telltale signs left by spammers. They will usually have an embedded link somewhere in their profile. Sometimes they will fill in bogus information to their user profile.

With a forum as large and as active as X Marks we attract a lot of spammers. As of today we have caught and banned 3826 spammers.
If you at the profile of someone who has been caught and banned since I took over the forum you will probably find an admin note explaining why the person was banned.

[Barb T]

Wow - who knew?? Thanks for all you do, Steve. This forum is a real treasure, and I have gotten enormous pleasure from getting to know electronically so many genuinely nice and interesting people. The forum rules and management make all the difference in keeping this a place that so many of us can feel safe, welcome, and respected. There's a genuine affection and respect on this forum that is priceless. Most of the time, none of us has any idea how much effort it takes to preserve it. Thank you.

Personally, I think spammers should just get a life. I can't figure out why they don't just go and do something interesting and useful...

[Hamish]

I echo Barb's post word for word!

Many thanks to Steve and the team.

Take care,
Ham.