Frank Hagan Posted October 1, 2010 Report Share Posted October 1, 2010 Update, Dec. 6, 2010: I have disabled the autoemail reminders now that it has cycled through all the members. As people have noted, the "21 day" time limit is a bit too restrictive, and I don't want to hack the software to lengthen it. (Now back to the original message) Keeping up with spammers and other critters is a constant "arms race". One of the problems we see is "spam registrations" where people sign up on forums to post their website selling Viagra in their profile. Then they disappear, never to log on again. Why would they do this? To gain "link backs" in Google and other search engines to make their website look more respectable. But in doing so, it makes messing-about.com and its members look LESS respectable! To protect against this we periodically prune our membership list of those that have registered, but never re-visited the forums. That is a manual, time-consuming and incredibly boring endeavor. So, we have implemented a system that emails people who haven't logged in for the past 21 days. Another email is sent out after another three week period. Then, if they still haven't logged in after 60 days, and have never participated in the forums, their user account is deleted. Users with more than one message posted in the forums are exempt from deletion, and don't have to worry about visiting every 60 days. Those of you who are lurkers, and have never posted a message (or posted only one) need to log in every 60 days to remain active. Or, better yet, join in and post a couple of messages! If you get one of these emails in error, please let me know. I regret that we need to do this. The only up side is that I now realize I wasn't being singled out for all those Viagra messages. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
napaman Posted October 3, 2010 Report Share Posted October 3, 2010 are you saying I am going to get fewer discounted offers for viagra? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frank Hagan Posted October 4, 2010 Author Report Share Posted October 4, 2010 are you saying I am going to get fewer discounted offers for viagra? Who knows? I think I'm on the "preferred customer list" because I get so many of them. My wife swears she isn't signing me up for them! :???: Its amazing how much "registration spam" we get. We have 5 to 20 sign ups per day, and I review each one and delete several per day. Most of the sign ups never come back to the forums. Some of our hosting customers end up disabling the blogs on their sites because of "comment spam" that needs to be weeded out. At some point we're going to have to start catching spammers and forcing them to watch romantic comedies on Lifetime Channel or something. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim Gibbons Posted October 4, 2010 Report Share Posted October 4, 2010 Hi Frank Thanks for the e-mail re membership. Will try to do better We are into our building season hope to be painting the Weekender in the next couple of days. Regards Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frank Hagan Posted October 6, 2010 Author Report Share Posted October 6, 2010 Great to see you back, Jim. Take some pics and share your progress with us! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CHUCK N Posted November 17, 2010 Report Share Posted November 17, 2010 I only lurk here Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frank Hagan Posted November 18, 2010 Author Report Share Posted November 18, 2010 I only lurk here Now you have a post, so you can safely ignore the warnings! Anyone with at least one post won't be deleted. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PAR Posted November 18, 2010 Report Share Posted November 18, 2010 Any way of working out some free samples, to help offset the pain in the butt factor of the spammers? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brookcreek Posted November 19, 2010 Report Share Posted November 19, 2010 Having received a couple of unsubtle reminders regarding my lack of posting, and not considering myself a "lurker" I am attempting to upgrade my status. This will count as my FIRST post, I hope. Cheers, Paul in Cobourg Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frank Hagan Posted November 20, 2010 Author Report Share Posted November 20, 2010 Any way of working out some free samples, to help offset the pain in the butt factor of the spammers? Its funny, I've never had any companies offer samples for this site. Maybe when I resume my boat building I'll set up some of those phony reviews you see on the web and convince an epoxy supplier to let me sample a few gallons! I have a low carb diet blog that does get samples (it was recently ranked one of the top 50 low carb diet blogs, #8 in its category, so it has some visibility). But the diet industry is huge, with a lot of people trying to launch products. Most of the spammers here are trying to push Viagra, on-line pharmacies, or porn sites. Two of those I don't need. Honest. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greg Luckett Posted November 24, 2010 Report Share Posted November 24, 2010 Hi Frank, How goes the effort to thin the herd? I hope we have not lost folks who just like to watch but it is nice if they let us know they are doing so once in a while. :smile: Thinking about you last posting, that last sentence about the viagra and porn. It could be interpreted in several meanings...... Just kidding Frank.... :oops: :lilangel: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charlie Jones Posted November 28, 2010 Report Share Posted November 28, 2010 Howdy folks. Been a LONG time since I posted here. Wouldn't let me get on as Charlie Jones, so had to register using the boat name. She's in North Carolina at the B and B shop docks, while Laura and I are home taking care of family business. Being out cruising is a LOT easier!!! We wound up cruising for just over a year- going back in the spring to do it again. :cool: But since I currently have a better access than the Iphone, I'll try to participate occasionally. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greg Luckett Posted November 28, 2010 Report Share Posted November 28, 2010 Darn it Charlie. I am just a bit shocked that you could not log on and hope it is just a blip. I think you were on here last June or July? Greg. Howdy folks. Been a LONG time since I posted here. Wouldn't let me get on as Charlie Jones, so had to register using the boat name. She's in North Carolina at the B and B shop docks, while Laura and I are home taking care of family business. Being out cruising is a LOT easier!!! We wound up cruising for just over a year- going back in the spring to do it again. :cool: But since I currently have a better access than the Iphone, I'll try to participate occasionally. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frank Hagan Posted November 29, 2010 Author Report Share Posted November 29, 2010 Hi Frank, How goes the effort to thin the herd? I hope we have not lost folks who just like to watch but it is nice if they let us know they are doing so once in a while. :smile: Thinking about you last posting, that last sentence about the viagra and porn. It could be interpreted in several meanings...... Just kidding Frank.... :oops: :lilangel: So far, no one's been deleted by the reminder script. Its set to only delete people who have never posted or replied to a message, and have not logged in within the past 45 days. I'm hoping to change that somehow to people who haven't logged in since they registered. I'll have to look at the code and see if I can change it. The author has quit supporting it actively, so he won't make changes in it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wayne Jeffers Posted December 4, 2010 Report Share Posted December 4, 2010 A reminder after 21 days? Short fuse, eh? It doesn't seem to recognize me if I'm logged in, as the time log at the top hasn't changed in several look-ins. Do I have to actually post every 30 or 60 days to keep the wolf at bay? Wayne Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boatworks Posted December 6, 2010 Report Share Posted December 6, 2010 Thanks for the reminders, I am a long time lurker but never felt the need to post (yet). It's on the rainy day 'to do' list. However let's at least make it one post with this one... Cheers Simon Auckland, NZL Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChrisObee Posted December 6, 2010 Report Share Posted December 6, 2010 A reminder after 21 days? Short fuse, eh? It doesn't seem to recognize me if I'm logged in, as the time log at the top hasn't changed in several look-ins. Do I have to actually post every 30 or 60 days to keep the wolf at bay? Wayne No with one post to your credit you are safe. You might try and delete temp files in your browser to fix the other issue. It is winter you know and the run up to Christmas is especially slow. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frank Hagan Posted December 6, 2010 Author Report Share Posted December 6, 2010 A reminder after 21 days? Short fuse, eh? It doesn't seem to recognize me if I'm logged in, as the time log at the top hasn't changed in several look-ins. Do I have to actually post every 30 or 60 days to keep the wolf at bay? No, I will never delete anyone that has posted a message. I have a ton of people who register and then never return; I suspect most are spam registrations hoping they can have a "link back" from the site in their profile. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frank Hagan Posted December 6, 2010 Author Report Share Posted December 6, 2010 I have decided to suspend the autoemail function now that everyone has been notified at least once. The 21 day time limit between visits is probably too short, as some of you have noted. Modifying the program will be problematic, so I am going back to the manual system I used before! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greg Luckett Posted December 6, 2010 Report Share Posted December 6, 2010 Frank, I just did a sort on Joined, then just looked at the Posting column. The folks that have not posted many (less than 10) are easy to spot, and the three I randomly picked last posted in 2005. Hopefully, doing a few a day, should whittle it down. Greg. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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