To the forum moderators and to eFrontier, or Mike...

[heyvern]

A spammer is now posting adult links inside existing legitimate threads.

I suppose to avoid quick deletion.

So now... you need to check ALL new posts not just the obvious new topics.

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I would also like to point out to efrontier or Mike or whoever...

There are children on this forum. I myself have recommended AS to TEACHERS.... to PARENTS... to young people as a great application for learning and producing animation.

I won't be doing this anymore. I now will have to warn anyone I suggested this program to to NOT USE THE FORUMS. Otherwise I get yelled at.

I recommended this application to a relative. A Mennonite school teacher. Do you see how well that would go over???

Oh I would hate to be that teacher when the parents start calling.

I have seen other family friendly NON PROFIT forums that don't have this problem. Sites that run off of DONATIONS.

This is a problem that needs to be addressed not ignored. The current method of deleting this crap isn't working.

-vern

[dreeko13]

well said!

[slowtiger]

Well ... instead of pretending existing things don't exist, why not teach children that there is a lot of crap in the world, especially porn spam, and that it's too much to get deleted in time, so they need to learn to ignore it?

OK, I'm german, so I'm lucky to live in a less bigot environment ... *fg*

[J. Baker]

I've seen another forum where you have to reply to other created topics 20 times before you could create your own topic. I think we need something like this.

[Víctor Paredes]

Well ... instead of pretending existing things don't exist, why not teach children that there is a lot of crap in the world, especially porn spam, and that it's too much to get deleted in time, so they need to learn to ignore it?

I've seen another forum where you have to reply to other created topics 20 times before you could create your own topic. I think we need something like this.

there are moderators which works well. i have a look on the forum several times in a day and they always erase the spam quickly (thank you guys). children with access to internet can watch porno just looking for it in the web, receiving it in their e-mails or seeing it on this little free porn, enlarge your penis, japanese girls, etc windows opening around all places.
i agree with slowtiger, you can't hide the world to anybody, you just can teach how is the world, why it is thus, and which is the world you think all should want.

i don't agree with j. baker. put limits is a way of censure, personally i came to this forum because i had a doubt which hadn't answer, so i post a new topic. my first post was a new topic. i didn't want to be a frequent member (i never imagine i would have more than 400 post one day...),i just had one doubt.
in america (americans, do you know now you are the only "americans"?, in chile or any country of the south we lost our name just because you, "united states", hadn't a name. this could be a very interesting debate) there is a tendency to disminish the rights of people because of mantain the security of america. they have a serious 1984 problem there (and it's not just bush, as all want to make us believe). i think we always must search a solution which doesn't disminish the people freedom (and i'm not talking about economical freedom).

please, let all people talk, and let the children know, understand and choose. we need intelligent people, not telletubbie people.

[Rasheed]

I agree that some measures have to be taken. I was under the impression that spambots were at work. If there are, they take advantage of holes in the security of phpBB, because to register you will need a real human to enter the code supplied on the image.

Most--if not all--spammers (and to a lesser degree internet trolls, who are actually more of a nuisance) are sociopaths, who couldn't care less about the damage they cause in a close knit forum community. There is not much you can do about these individuals, but to erase nasty messages and cancel their forum subscriptions.

I see spammers on both phpBB and vBulletin forum systems, so changing to a different forum system will probably not help much. Even the paid forum software by Invision seems to have a script kiddy that has a grudge against this forum software.

The reality is, that internet crime is like real world crime, only enhanced, because the criminal's reach is much further and the ways to hide from persecution are numerous.

[slowtiger]

Sorry, I didn't want to start a political thread. If scripted measures would help, install them. Spammers and Phishers are like old-fashioned muggers around the corner, only that their big stick has become 44.000 km long.

selgin: You're totally right, and I should know because a fellow animator from Argentina constantly put my nse into this ...

[idragosani]

The default security built into phpBB is pretty weak, even with the verification code that has to be done.

There are a bunch of mods available for phpBB to help combat the spam:

http://www.phpbb.com/phpBB/catdb.php?cat=57

It seems to be even worse on the Animation World Network forums.

[Rhoel]

A spammer is now posting adult links inside existing legitimate threads.

I suppose to avoid quick deletion.

So now... you need to check ALL new posts not just the obvious new topics.

----------------

I would also like to point out to efrontier or Mike or whoever...

There are children on this forum. I myself have recommended AS to TEACHERS.... to PARENTS... to young people as a great application for learning and producing animation.

I won't be doing this anymore. I now will have to warn anyone I suggested this program to to NOT USE THE FORUMS. Otherwise I get yelled at.

I recommended this application to a relative. A Mennonite school teacher. Do you see how well that would go over???

Oh I would hate to be that teacher when the parents start calling.

I have seen other family friendly NON PROFIT forums that don't have this problem. Sites that run off of DONATIONS.

This is a problem that needs to be addressed not ignored. The current method of deleting this crap isn't working.

-vern

To be fair, we get most of them, including the ones hidden inside existing threads. Some are killed within one minute of being posted - in the past, I've spotted the newest registered member still online - I just wait to see if they post spam then kill it. Like all of this stuff, you only see the tiny minority whch escape. I've posted comment on this subject before ... if you see hidden spam which is missed, send a PM to draw the moderators attention to it.

It is very easy to say the current method isn't working ... though it's voluntary, it does work and and the site IS relative spam free. We remove 20-30 spam-related posts daily. Check the new membership list - that will give you some idea of the level of daily spam attempts.

One way of making sure the site is free of spam is to volunteer your services to Mike or eFrontier. Then if you receive any heat from your myopic Mennonite relatives, you can justify you best efforts to screen them from harm.

We can keep the software up to date, have the visual authentication turned on, and require people to provide a valid email before they can post: But the spammers will always find new and inventive ways around the system.

But the reality of the internet is obnoxious contented spam will always be around. Your Monnonite relative has the choice. Live in the real world or shield themselves by not going online; Their myopic views should not become the basis for governing content policy on this forum.

There are much worse things in the world today - adult spam is very low in the list of things the Mennonites should be protesting about - it doesn't kill and maim innocents. But the foreign policy of their country almost certiainly does. Perhaps they need a reality check amd sort their priorities out.

Rhoel.

[heyvern]

<sigh>

Sorry for the... diatribe.

The porn links I saw INSIDE a legitimate thread were the first ones I had seen here before.

Since it was saturday afternoon... I may have overreacted.

I should volunteer. I see a ton of spam at strange hours that seem to hang around for a while.

Instead of complaining... if I had... that... magical power... I could do something about it.

---------------

Unfortunately I think many of you are correct.

There doesn't seem to be any way to prevent this type of thing "automagically". It has to be done by hand in some fashion once it gets on.

I have seen some forums where a "human" needs to respond to an application for membership... this would not be an efficient use of resources and spammers would figure out a way around it eventually.

I apologize for poking the hornets nest. I suppose at some point this forum will move to efrontier... and they may have "better" control.

My concern about... forum content wouldn't be limited to "Mennonites" but to parents and teachers in general.

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Side Bar
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From Wikipedia:
The Mennonites are a group of Christian Anabaptist denominations named after and influenced by the teachings and tradition of Menno Simons (1496-1561). As one of the historic peace churches, Mennonites are committed to nonviolence, nonresistance, and pacifism.

Current Mennonites are varied in their... uh... plainness. My family covers the whole spectrum from "left" to "right".

(Unfortunately... to my dismay... that whole "pacifism" thing has been set aside in some respect since many of my Mennonite relatives now support "the war" in a very gung-ho fashion... uh... except to pick up a gun themselves of course. Don't ask me why... they're MY family and I don't get it either.)

-vern

[bluehickey]

I have seen some forums where a "human" needs to respond to an application for membership... this would not be an efficient use of resources and spammers would figure out a way around it eventually.

Actually, this is exactly what I had to do on my forums (http://cartoonsolutions.com/phpBB/index.php). I get email notifications when someone applies to be a user. I take one look at their profile which will have words in them that are a dead give away that they are spam, and I just never grant them access. It's gotten to the point where I can know that they are spammers just by the user names that they come up with. It is a bit of work on a daily basis, but it really does keep the spam out altogether. It's a much better solution than waking up in the morning and checking the site and seeing a spam post for sex and wondering how many hours it has been up there!

[Fahim]

I talked to Mike Clifton about this, he's going to be thinking up a solution soon.

Fahim

[artfx]

The SPAM has really filled up this morning. Threw me off guard at first.

"Am I in the right place?" I thought.

[Rai López]

I talked to Mike Clifton about this, he's going to be thinking up a solution soon.

Fahim

I know, impossible satisfy all the people, I know... But sincerely, and with all due respect, I'd prefer that the time of the AS "team" be more dedicated to AS development and bug fixes right now than waste that preciated time in such a things, above all meantime other important direct software issues are been now clearly abandoned...

Anyway, I'm probably less worried about this cause, don't supposedly the forum and its contain was to be moved to the eFrontier site? And if the spam problem doesn't exist in the other eFrontier forums, why don't wait/stand a little more and resolve all the problems with an only one shot?

Well, despite everything let's see what happens... In the other hand I'm so eager to heard any new Mike Clifton idea lately that (at last) I suppose it will have my blessing too ...CIAO!

[EDS]

you could either require mod approval if not too many people join every day(this is a serious art tool forum so people would be more apt to wait around a little bit) or if the transfer is not very long you could just shut down new membership. that last one was pretty obscene, and these are automatic programs doing it

forums that require a human for membership have a generated string of characters and automatic programs have never broken that method so its still used.