Spammers - A Crying Shame

[SC surfer]

Admin Mel does such a good job of trying to keep this site clear of spam.

It must be really disheartening to spend so much time and effort -- I look at the "new member" list regularly, and it is obvious when they are spammers. It is a crying shame that anyone would try to disrupt or cause damage to a site of this type.

A word of caution -- avoid any links in posts or new members until you see they can be trusted -- usually after some real posts and replies show they are okay.

For those who don't realize the extent of the problem, it's because you can only see the end result after they are banned and the offensive posts have been deleted.

So, thanks, Mel, for what you are doing. I still believe this site is a positive haven for all kinds of arts-related interests.

[Chief Lemon Squeezer]

Thanks for your kind words. I really have been spending a lot of time trimming the fat around here -- often so much time that I don't have any time left to write anything here myself!

Because of the spammer problem, I've had to change the registration procedure for new members -- I now have to manually approve each new member before they can make any posts. The manual approval step was one I didn't want to have to take but I didn't feel that there was any other choice after I had to spend part of my long-awaited trip to the Holy Land deleting 1000+ pornographic spam messages from this forum. With the new process, we're less likely to face that sort of problem again.

So, I'm sorry for the inconvenience in new user registrations -- but hoping that it will enable me to spend less time deleting crap and more time contributing to discussions in the forums!

[geobdrurb]

What is up with all the Spammers lately.. It seems like everyday we have at least one that I notice when Im on..

There entries get deleted really fast though Thanks but how come its so bad lately??

[hectorloshuk]

There is this one person posting about the TV Land Awards and they have the same link and are registering under different user names and keep coming back. In fact they have a thread right under this one. They may keep coming back, but you keep getting rid of them. Also all the other spammers that come here are banned instantly. I just wanted to say you all do a great job keeping them out. Its a lot better than a yahoo board where there are tons of spam everywhere.