LTF spammed multiple times - what are the mods doing????????

[railtechnician]

@gj / Nortube 

You need to axe Gostav ASAP, where is the vetting of new members? There does not appear to be any, surely any new members should be on moderation by default until they have made a reasonable number of meaningful contributions to legitimate threads.

[Nortube]

Apologies

Now blocked and deleted. I've been away from the site since they were posted, or I'd have caught them earlier.

I've no idea how the board works (I didn't set it up) and it's been ages since I had to do any mod to posts. I'll have to have a look at the settings to see what can be done.

[railtechnician]

Mar 26, 2017 21:27:07 GMT Nortube said:

Apologies

Now blocked and deleted. I've been away from the site since they were posted, or I'd have caught them earlier.

I've no idea how the board works (I didn't set it up) and it's been ages since I had to do any mod to posts. I'll have to have a look at the settings to see what can be done.

A single spam post would not have bothered me so much but multiple spam posts obliterate the topics which is very annoying, i.e. one cannot quickly see at a glance whether there has been a legitimate update to a topic.

I presume that the board is open to members to join and to have immediate posting privileges, if that is so it really needs to be changed to enforced moderation for a period long enough to determine whether a new member is legitimate or otherwise.

[Nortube]

I didn't set the forum up, so had no idea of how the settings work. As I'm not the forum 'owner', I'm not sure what I'm allowed to do as 'Admin' regarding any settings and won't know until I try to do something

As the forum is at present, anybody can join and post. It appears that guests can post as well, although I'm not sure what the restrictions are on guests. I've looked at the settings options and there appears to be little that can be done other than new member approval. I assume that this means somebody signs up and a mod then approves them and gives them member status. I haven't seen anything that allows vetting of a members posts before they are posted, which is the only way that I can see would work as far as spam is concerned.

When I remember and get more time, I'll did into it a bit further as I'm sure thee must be some options that if missed.

[railtechnician]

Mar 29, 2017 9:14:36 GMT Nortube said:

I didn't set the forum up, so had no idea of how the settings work. As I'm not the forum 'owner', I'm not sure what I'm allowed to do as 'Admin' regarding any settings and won't know until I try to do something

As the forum is at present, anybody can join and post. It appears that guests can post as well, although I'm not sure what the restrictions are on guests. I've looked at the settings options and there appears to be little that can be done other than new member approval. I assume that this means somebody signs up and a mod then approves them and gives them member status. I haven't seen anything that allows vetting of a members posts before they are posted, which is the only way that I can see would work as far as spam is concerned.

When I remember and get more time, I'll did into it a bit further as I'm sure thee must be some options that if missed.

Allowing anyone to join and post without approval leaves the forum wide open to spam and abuse!

I don't know but I suspect that making the group members only will reveal more settings i.e. moderation settings etc. No doubt GJ needs to be consulted as he created the forum.

[dave1]

I noticed the guest log in as I have not seen that before. What has happened to GJ like you said he created but perhaps he has problems that we don't need to know about.

[Nortube]

No problems that I'm aware of, presumably just busy elsewhere.

[dave1]

Mar 31, 2017 14:28:04 GMT Nortube said:

No problems that I'm aware of, presumably just busy elsewhere.

I did not mean anything he obviously has other things to do but as the creator you would hope that he would log on now and again.

[Guest Soeaker]

I've looked in on this forum from time to time and, while I've no wish to join, it would appear from a quick skim over it that the person who set it up (Gentleman Jim?) obviously has nothing further to do with it, certainly not for the last 18 months or so. Nor do any of the others for the initial admin team with the exception of Nortube who has, by his own admission, an extremely limited knowledge of how the forum works; a tricky position indeed.

The most recent person to officially sign up was almost a year ago back in early June 2016 and was, although he never actually made any posts, more than likely admitted on an automatic basis with no restrictions set, if other forums I've encountered are anything to go by. As you can see from this, it's also possible to post as a guest without signing up at all which lays the entire forum open to the problems you've recently encountered.

This soft underbelly would appear to be a throwback from the original ethos of the forum which majored on non-interference and a deliberate lack of moderation - see some of the earliest posts by Gentleman Jim for a flavour of this objective. As a result you're hoist by your own petard and are going to have to get to grips with the settings and change how the software operates if you wish to stem this spamming activity. I'm sure there are helplines out there to guide you in this. Best of luck sorting it all out.

[railtechnician]

Apr 1, 2017 19:41:20 GMT Guest Soeaker said:

I've looked in on this forum from time to time and, while I've no wish to join, it would appear from a quick skim over it that the person who set it up (Gentleman Jim?) obviously has nothing further to do with it, certainly not for the last 18 months or so. Nor do any of the others for the initial admin team with the exception of Nortube who has, by his own admission, an extremely limited knowledge of how the forum works; a tricky position indeed.

The most recent person to officially sign up was almost a year ago back in early June 2016 and was, although he never actually made any posts, more than likely admitted on an automatic basis with no restrictions set, if other forums I've encountered are anything to go by. As you can see from this, it's also possible to post as a guest without signing up at all which lays the entire forum open to the problems you've recently encountered.

This soft underbelly would appear to be a throwback from the original ethos of the forum which majored on non-interference and a deliberate lack of moderation - see some of the earliest posts by Gentleman Jim for a flavour of this objective. As a result you're hoist by your own petard and are going to have to get to grips with the settings and change how the software operates if you wish to stem this spamming activity. I'm sure there are helplines out there to guide you in this. Best of luck sorting it all out.

Strange indeed that we have not been endlessly spammed ! Apart from the handful of us that do post most members would appear to be sharks basking on the side. One wonders why they are here at all !