Narrow-Bandwidth Television Association

Guys,

Over the past month or so, since prior to Christmas I have had to delete around 20 'new members' due to SPAM. If their first posting makes any reference to mobile phones in any manner or porn (there have been a few) do not give them the satisfaction of viewing it.

I log-in here 2-3 times a day now to try a rid this forum of these scum, but I do (as Andrew and Dave do) occasionally need sleep or have other things to do.

Although we can block their IP addresses, if they work through anonymous proxy servers they'll just pop up with a completely different IP address next time.

If it is obvious that it's not NBTV related and/or they have a link in their signature to dubious operations, ignore it. Perhaps send them an e-mail informing them what a moron they are...but hey, that's a waste of time...they surely are aware of that already....OK, maybe not.

Steve A.

Hi Steve

Don't ever send spammers an email! They will then have your email address and more importantly know that it is still current. They can probably send more emails and cause more problems then you can! Nor should anyone ever post their email addresses anywhere public i.e. on here as it will get picked up...if you need to send your email to another member I recommend sending it via a personal mesage.

I'm not sure about the software used to run this board but I know that most can be set to not let new users post without their posts being moderated - not sure if this would cause more or less work for you though, I suppose it depends on how many new registrations you get...

Anyway keep up the good work I certainly appreciate it Steve and Andrew!

Dom

I would agree about NEVER emailing a spammer - for the reasons given by Dominic. If you are concerned/offended by a spam post, it would be better to contact the moderators (Andrew Davie, Steve Anderson and myself) alerting us to the situation.

Ooops sorry Dave, I always forget you're a moderator here!

Dom

Well, the suggestion of sending the spammer an e-mail was tongue-in-cheek, but maybe some 'net newbies might take it seriously I guess...

To reiterate those that have said this before...NEVER make any sort of contact with a spammer, DON'T visit any sites linked to in their posting or as part of their signature.

The three of us will get around to removing the crap they post and ban them, it won't happen instantly but currently under 24 hours, usually less than 12.

If you should find any posting etc. really offensive post a short note in this thread or send us a PM. We're now keeping a log of who we remove, IP addresses and the nature of the content, we will add any notes that you guys send in.

Steve A.

I have added 'gmail' accounts to the ban list. This means if you are or are intending to use a gmail account to access the forum, you will no longer be able to do so. Unfortunately, gmail accounts are an open invitation to spammers to create fake identities on the forum and flood us with spam. Accounts from hotmail are currently ok but they may be banned too, so be advised.
Cheers
A

Well Folks it's the silly season again. I've banned a few Spammers over the past couple of weeks. Andrew, Dave and I will do our best to get rid of them ASAP. Others who have dubious log-in names but have yet to post we're watching like a hawk.

Because of the three time-zones we're scattered across we should be able to get rid of them quite quickly. Whatever, if you see Spam, ignore it. It will be shortly gone.

Steve A.

Well, it's the silly season yet again, except it seems to have started early this year with the deletion of a financial commercial posting. As before, we'll do our best to keep these morons at bay (I'm doing a disservice to morons really).

Steve A.

Thanks Steve, we are all appreciative of your efforts.

Having an open door and deleting the spam accounts is sadly a losing battle.
With a niche forum like this you're probably better off moderating all new accounts. It depends what the signal to noise ratio is of course with genuine sign-ups vs spammers.

In the early days of this forum new accounts were moderated, but at some stage a while later that was changed. From about February through to November we get very few spam accounts and between the three of us we can easily deal with those few.

But in December and January I suspect when many are off-work and stuck indoors (northern hemisphere) and they have too much time on their hands...may as well go and annoy some people with some spam.

Even so, in those two months there's usually not that many and I visit at least daily they generally get dealt with promptly. The task is not that onerous but if that should change then moderating new accounts may be re-instigated.

Steve A.

We also have the advantage of moderators in very different time zones - meaning that more of the 24 hours are covered!