Registration approvals
 

Recently I had to change the way registrations are handled on this site. About 10 days ago I noticed a lot of Chinese IP addresses logged into here, and that seemed like a bad sign. So I made the registration process more stringent than normal, anticipating problems. That meant email addresses needed to be verified by new registrations, and I set it so that I have to approve all new registrations before they can post here. That means I check IP addresses to see where the registration is REALLY coming from, and boot out any that are from countries that typically spawn spammers.

Sure enough, I've blocked several each day now, whereas spamming was nearly a non-existent problem before.

I also set it so that guests (meaning anyone not registered or registered by not logged in) cannot view most of the forums. I wanted to try to make this site as unappealing as possible to those Chinese IP addresses visiting here. This will only be a temporary measure, however, since such a setting also negates the positive benefits of web crawling spiders to index the site in the search engines.

Just wanted to let people know what is going on. I will open this Feedback forum to viewing by guests so anyone interested might be able then to figure out what is going on here.

Thanks...

It hurts people like me that don't want to use personal info while on the road. I have my wireless setup to be secure at home but I cannot do anything about the hot spots I use on the road. Tomorrow I head out and won't return for several days.

I always use my laptop when I am on the road with the wireless networks at motels. Never had a problem. Of course, I don't use PayPal or anything else where I would have to use my password and money is involved. I seriously doubt anyone is going to be interested in hijacking your account here on this site. What would they gain from it?

Stay off the interstate
 

AWESOME!!! another unknown hinson fan. sarah and i have seen him 2x now. he played a few years back at skippers on halloween. then we got to meet him and get his autograph when he played at a tattoo convention in ybor. his alive and undead album is amazing. ive tried attaching a pic.

It is fortunate that I have set it up to do approvals before allowing new registrations on this site as I have had a rash of spammers from India and Russia trying to register nearly every day. But honestly, this was expected. It happens VERY often when there are personality conflicts between the owner and either members or ex-staff.

I do try to process new registrations as soon as I can, but I do apologize for this inconvenience to new members.

:shrug01: Rich,, time for another class on websites.
How would someone get India or other spammers to start crashing in ??
I,m not sure what these guys could do , other than TRY to get a virus in, but with firewalls & such , what would happen ???

When spammers register on a message board site, they will post advertising links to get their sites picked up on the search engine spiders. This can also be done via signature areas or link reference areas in the profile. The worst of them will flood a site with porn spam. Some will be more surreptitious about it by private messaging or emailing members through the site.

As to how others forward that info to the spammers, I really don't know as it is not something I have ever done myself. I have my suspicions of methods that would work, but not willing to have them grab my own IP address by investigating. And even if I did, I would not want to publicize such methods to give people who might be inclined to engage in that sort of thing a leg up on doing so. But it has happened time and time again when someone gets incensed at a site like this that suddenly the spamming will increase dramatically. Enough so that it cannot be just a coincidence.

If I remember right wasn't there a new person with links to horse farms in their signature.

Yes. Some spamming can be very benign and almost look legit. Often the preceding post will even be referred to in the spam reply.

Fortunately any registration and all of the posts made under it can all be deleted pretty easily and quickly. Vbulletin has been around a long time and they have a lot of tools available administratively to limit spamming as much as possible.

One my most heavily travelled site, I will get between 40 and 60 new registrations every day. I manually process every one of them as well and always weed at a few spammers in that process. It's just one of those things you wind up having to put up with running any site that allows input from users.