How is it that.....

Ioannes

These spammers are constantly coming here and nobody has done anything about it? It is annoying.

TITL

We only have one active Moderator on the site. If being a priest isn't a full time job, then being a dad is lol. He's also writing books I believe and active on other sites.

What I'm saying is, it's a large task for a single individual (who's already busy).

We can do our part though, and report the Spam posters ourselves. It sends email notifications to the other Admins and they usually come on within a reasonable time frame and get rid of them.

What I would suggest, and not all would agree, is that posters with over 1000 posts should be given semi-moderator rights to only get rid of spammers (not edit posts, like Fr. Peter). That way more trusted people are in charge, and the site is safer and we all live happily ever after.

Just a thought.

Ioannes

TITL thats a very good idea

jydeacon

I have to disagree with you TITL, # of posts only refers to how many posts you have done. Not quality. I have talked to quite a few of the admins on this site about this and its about trusting the person who is a moderator. You can't just give the moderator rights to anyone over 1000 posts, I can post I agree 1000 times very easily and could only be a child and attain this moderator position and abuse it.

Ioannes

With all due respect, I do not think that is what TITL is saying. His post, I thought, said very clearly to give certain people the rights to take these threads off, or the people off the site. Not complete mod status.

TITL

It's not really moderator rights, it's just getting rid of the spammers. The people who have over 1000 posts were on this site for a while, and there aren't many of them. I can list 7 on the top of my head, including you. Obviously there would be some sort of "choice" to this. If one doesn't want such a position, they could deny it. As I said before, all they're doing is getting rid of spammers, not moderating the posts. What's there to abuse? The Admins can see all activity that goes on on this site. If one were delete an account not belonging to spammer, the Admins would be able to track it and punishment would be established. I don't see that happening though.

Of course it takes a trusted person with such responsibility, and I think everyone over 1000 has earned it. That's just my opinion. Maged might think otherwise.

I'll ask him.

ilovesaintmark

I kind of like the spammers now.  I used to hate it.

I like responding to the guy with the Chinese writing.

Isn't nice to have a serious debate and then see an add for Nike Shoes.  It reminds me of Sunday School
classes, when the teacher is giving a lesson and the kids are talking about their $200 sneakers.  At least
this way, the forum emulates real life [how's that for sarcasm].

ilovesaintmark

Personally, I am for nominating Geomike and Minagir as account supervisors to avoid spammers, scammers, and sledge hammers.  As long as they promise not to hack into my account...or block my account...or edit my weird comments.

peterfarrington

If we can't stop spammers joining automatically it might be better if all requests to join were presently reviewed by a moderator and manually approved. Whenever I look at who is online there seem to be at least 5 bots in the process of creating an account.

peterfarrington

I would also suggest that we clear out the member list. We have grown 30,000 over the last few months and 99.9% of these are all spam accounts which can start posting at any time.

I'd much rather know who is actually a member here. Why not remove all accounts that have no posts. It is not difficult to ask people to set up a new account. This would eliminate almost all spammers at once since we tend to remove their posts quite quickly.

A message on the front of the board could explain why some accounts might not work anymore.

I am sure that gaining 10,000 spammer accounts every month must slow the board down more and more.

Father Peter

[Just to add. A quick look at Who is Online and there are 10 users logged in. 7 of them are spam accounts being modified to show advertising or check that they respond to instructions. I do agree we need to do something or we are going to be overwhelmed by bots. It has taken me 30 minutes this morning to clear out rubbish posts, I'd rather we prevented them joining in the first place.]

Ioannes

Im just floating this out here but I say we turn Tasbeha into a despotism. We have ONE ruler that says who stays and who goes and we cyber hang anyone who dares cross him, or even better we can send them to a cyber gulag.

ilovesaintmark

I agree.  Add another layer to the sign up process.

geomike

In the sign up process you can make them fill out a short survey instead of the captcha. 10 questions and you can only see one question at a time. And each time the button is in a different coordinate on the screen so it is going to be a lot harder than merely calling the SetCursorPos() function.

TITL

Congrats to Father Peter for becoming an Admin :)

geomike

u just found now? He's been for a while.

peterfarrington

Actually, I have been a Moderator for quite a while, which allows me to remove threads and posts etc, but I have not been an Admin, which allows me to remove accounts.

Now I am an Admin my name is in Red in the list of those who are Online.

Father Peter

geomike

Oh, i never knew, that's cool, now you Ban people. MUAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. LOl

mabsoota

u look great in red  ;)
mabrook!
(congratulations)

ebnyasoo3

Congrats Fr. Peter.

You should have been an admin long time ago, why did it just happen now?

Ebnyasoo3

ilovesaintmark

My first request to the new Admin, when do I get my stars like everyone else?

I will be happy with just one.  I don't need 50 like Mabsoota [just a joke my British friend].