Private Messaging, Opinions please...

[parlo]

There is a „lighter“ form of spamming in forums: nicknames, that never post but link to a commercial homepage (for medication goods, gambling, etc. …). Any chance to delete these members?

[aurora]

I like the PM function and can easily delete SPAM. I use the forum from work oftentimes and don't want to leave my work e-mail. I've used the PM function occassionaly to inquire about shipping, a horse for sale, recommendations for boarding, stallions and sure would like to have it available.

[Roguelet]

There is a „lighter“ form of spamming in forums: nicknames, that never post but link to a commercial homepage (for medication goods, gambling, etc. …). Any chance to delete these members?

Yeah, that's another reason that I'm all for making new accounts a little more cumbersome at this point. Far too many people abusing the system. I try to keep up with those but honestly they appear faster than I can deal with them. Most of those accounts never actually get activated so they never post, but they do post those nasty web sites out there for all to see...

[arganaut]

For what its worth, I think the unwanted PMs are just like the rubbish you get everyday in the street gutters in any community until the street cleaners come along and sweep it clean until next time.

The PM is a great feature for exchanging information between interested recipients. The only mistake is when we read or allow the unwanted material take us out of sync and effect our day.

I seriously feel sorry for those who need to gain people's attention in this way - communication is a vehicle for love and they are just sadly driving down the highway the wrong way.

I am sure the collective consciousness of the majority will carry enough light to ensure the PM facility and this forum continues onwards and upwards.
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[parlo]

There is a vast growing number of "spam-members" in this forum (around 30 from last 50 entries). I think, there is an easy pattern to identify them.

Any chance to eliminate them or making membership to this forum more difficult? In a German TB-forum we started to get rid of them.

[Roguelet]

There is a vast growing number of "spam-members" in this forum (around 30 from last 50 entries). I think, there is an easy pattern to identify them.

Any chance to eliminate them or making membership to this forum more difficult? In a German TB-forum we started to get rid of them.

The only way that I know of is to go through the members list one by one and check their profile, then delete each member, one by one, if they don't appear to be legit. To do this, I have to constantly switch back and forth between the member list, the profile reports, and the admin panel, and it takes FOREVER. It's very frustrating to me to see these bogus accounts and I have deleted more than you can imagine, but I simply can't keep up with it fast enough.

Does anyone have any ideas? I tried switching to Moderator activation of new accounts, but these show up as members regardless of whether the account is activated or not, and most of these bogus accounts do not acutally ever get activated, so that move didn't help at all.

I'm open to suggestions...

[Tucumcari]

I like the PM and haven't gotten any spam as of yet.
It do however object to people who get mean or abusive verbally in their PM's. If you can't say it in the forum, don't say it at all.
I think the PM is useful to actually get to know the people one might like, or might like to get to know. I would be a shame to loose it.

[geowarrior]

I agree with Tucumcari. I have never been spammed, and use the p.m. feature fairly frequently. In the time I've been on the board, I've only received a questionable(insulting) pm. once. All the rest have been from legitimate board members from whom I was happy to obtain opinions. I would hate to see the feature go.

[llbean]

There is a vast growing number of "spam-members" in this forum (around 30 from last 50 entries). I think, there is an easy pattern to identify them.

Any chance to eliminate them or making membership to this forum more difficult? In a German TB-forum we started to get rid of them.

The only way that I know of is to go through the members list one by one and check their profile, then delete each member, one by one, if they don't appear to be legit. To do this, I have to constantly switch back and forth between the member list, the profile reports, and the admin panel, and it takes FOREVER. It's very frustrating to me to see these bogus accounts and I have deleted more than you can imagine, but I simply can't keep up with it fast enough.

Does anyone have any ideas? I tried switching to Moderator activation of new accounts, but these show up as members regardless of whether the account is activated or not, and most of these bogus accounts do not actually ever get activated, so that move didn't help at all.

I'm open to suggestions...

Hi Roguelet,

These Spammers are signing up as members for ONE reason, for the Link you let members put next to their profile in the member list which is then picked up by Google as PedigreeQuery LINKING to them and which helps their sites get a higher listing (it has to do with how the Google Algorithm works).

If you want to stop them from exploiting and abusing this forum, I highly recommend having it so that your website only shows up under your posts and not next to your username in the Memberlist.

That way only members who post will get to link to sites and spammers will have no reason to sign up without activating.

The alternative is to let someone sign up but make picking out a website to link to as a privilege only offered after activation (as is the case with posting on the forum).

-llbean

[Roguelet]

If you want to stop them from exploiting and abusing this forum, I highly recommend having it so that your website only shows up under your posts and not next to your username in the Memberlist.

The alternative is to let someone sign up but make picking out a website to link to as a privilege only offered after activation (as is the case with posting on the forum).

I just looked through the admin functions and I don't see a way to set that up. There are certain features that can be disabled, but I didn't see where posting a web site was one such feature. I will see if I can get the higher ups to look into that option.

Thanks!

[BJ]

If you want to stop them from exploiting and abusing this forum, I highly recommend having it so that your website only shows up under your posts and not next to your username in the Memberlist.

The alternative is to let someone sign up but make picking out a website to link to as a privilege only offered after activation (as is the case with posting on the forum).

I just looked through the admin functions and I don't see a way to set that up. There are certain features that can be disabled, but I didn't see where posting a web site was one such feature. I will see if I can get the higher ups to look into that option.

Hi Roguelet,

Surely the techno-nerds (Miles & friends ) could program in an Anti-Spam and BLOCK PM feature. You know...a way to DECIDE (per individual person) to receive or not receive PM's from certain names. Or...the way AOL does it...you can program it to only receive FROM those you have sent mail to. Otherwise, it goes straight to the old "SPAM" folder, which you then can check or not check depending on your preference.

Many people on this forum haven't even checked the box to "receive email notices" of new posts or PM's. Many "senders" get around the failure of some of these folks to respond to their PM's by posting, "You have a PM" on the message board.

So...rather than continue to pull your hair out over this...the techno-nerds need to tweak the programming, IMO. That seems the best way to allow folks to keep their personal email addresses private, while still being "free" to receive PM's without harassment.

Just my $0.02 + inflation factored in


Thanks![/quote]