Registration to the forum suspended

[electra225]

We are experiencing an onslaught of spambots. I had to delete over 100 (!!) today alone. I have to work the next three days and can't manage to delete spambots and stay on top of things with my phone at work. I need to put an end to the spambot situation. So, regrettably, I have been forced to suspend registration to the forum for at least the next three days. I apologize for any inconvenience this may cause. I don't really have much other option. Apparently, according to the forum host, this is not the only forum experiencing spambot invasions. Most of these appear to be coming from overseas. I typically see maybe a couple a day on average. The last week or so, we didn't get any. Now today over 100. I got 26 in about two hours. Thank you all for your understanding and support.

[William]

Greg, better safe than sorry is what I say. The spammers must be sending you early Christmas presents, presents you can do without.

Bill

[Hi-Fi-Mogul]

Thank you Greg for informing us of these events.

I think Bill may be on to something; holiday spam-o-rama.

[hermitcrab]

Greg, is there a way to set up a signup queue or something for you administrators to check before allowing anyone to join? If I recall when I wanted to join ARF... they sent me a temp password to join ... it took a couple days ...

[electra225]

I probably share more with you guys than really necessary. I promised I'd be honest with you and not withhold facts that you need. We were pretty much ignored on the old forum and I don't want that with this one. If you guys have anyone you'd like to join, send me a PM. We'll get them on one way or another. Dodging spambots is going to be a way of life. We had open registration until September, then we adopted our current method of admin approval, which worked best. I don't want 1800 members. If we have 50 that are mostly active, I'll be thrilled. I really believe our forum host got drowned with spambots, but I can't prove it. I have a friend with an un-hosted forum and he hasn't had a problem. As long as the spambots don't make it onto the forum, we'll be okay, there is no danger to the forum, per se. IT just takes a lot of time, sitting on the computer all day like I did on Saturday, trying to keep them deleted so they didn't clog up the system. We'll give it a few days and see what happens. Thank you all for your support on this, your understanding, and for your participation on the forum.

[hermitcrab]

was going to ask , at the bottom of the screen it always says a bing bot is on line ... what is that?

[electra225]

Bing is the search engine from Microsoft. Bing is also the "official" search engine of both the forum software we use and also the forum host we use. So, when someone does a search on Bing, they are listed on the forum as a member. If you do a search on Google and come to this forum, you will be listed as a guest. I know, it makes no sense, but that's how it is. So, a Bing bot is a guest and a Google bot is a guest. Totally different from a spambot, although they can also be a spambot. I know, it makes no sense.

I'm not supposed to do any forum work when logged on with the Google Chrome search engine. I've done it, with no trouble. They want me to always use Edge. That is the first thing the tech boys will check when I call in. If I am logged in on Google Chrome, they make me hang up, go to the end of the line, and log back in on Microsoft Edge.

[Hydrolastic]

Hello, These are probably dumb questions. But one i have never heard a good explanation.
Why is there spambots? Who is behind them? What happens if you do nothing about them? Also if its money they are after how do they get it ? Makes no sense to me. Hydro

[electra225]

All good questions, Hydro. I'm not sure I can answer them definitively, but I'll answer them from my prospective. From my experience with them.

The most discreet description I can give for spambots is that they are like robocalls on a phone. As far as this forum is concerned, they are computer-generated "potential members" who try to register for this forum. They are not after money, all they are there for is to cause trouble and to disrupt the forum. If they get onto the forum, they post from 20 to 150 posts about gibberish, many times just words that make no sense. We have two groups of spambots attacking our forum. One group is from Canada and they promote health aids. One group is allegedly from Russia, and all they have done is to give us a high of 103 spambots on last Saturday that I had to get rid of. They are like weeds. You can eat potatoes, tomatoes and green beans from the garden, but you also have to use the roto tiller to get rid of the weeds if you want produce. I am the roto tiller that keeps the spambots out of our forum. I don't know who hosts these spambots. They should use their computer talents for good, rather than causing trouble with something someone has worked hard to develop. If spambots invade the forum itself, they potentially can shut down the forum with nasty things we don't want to have to deal with. One of my goals when I started this forum was to minimize complication and rules and that kind of thing. I may be the administrator of the forum, but I want to enjoy the forum and the fellowship with you guys. These stupid spambots only take time I could better spend on something I enjoy. These people are like the knothead that went thru the parking lot at work keying cars. Or the knothead that sugars gas tanks. Or the knothead who comes into the store with a bars of soap so he can stop up all the toilets in the store. Or the people who host all the robocalls that clog up our phones and use up the minutes we pay for. They are the boils on the backside of humanity. I believe I'll quit before I get myself into trouble, but you get the idea........

[electra225]

Registration is open again. Potential members will have to mess with one of those CAPTCHA puzzles, which I thoroughly despise. I despise spambots worse. About every other forum you want to join does something similar. I reckon that's the times we live in.

Edit.....I accidentally hit the wrong button and let 25 spambots join the forum as members!

One actually posted 28 posts with about 50 links in each post. All the posts were identical and were basically gibberish. I have done all anybody has proposed to try and stop this onslaught of spambots. I really believe the forum host has been targeted, but that information is not forthcoming to determine this for sure. If one gets thru and posts a bunch of nonsense, (or, God forbid, PORN!), please know we are on top of the situation and will delete the post and ban the "member" who posted it. That's about all we can do. Thanks for your understanding and support.

In the way of full transparency, here are some of the usernames the spambots are using. They are just random letters and are extremely hard not to transpose letters when I enter them for deletion.

--yiqexaqiyam

--izucsapalei

--owitwido

--oqazsuwunok

--papujupaga

It took me over an hour to delete the 25 I accidentally let onto the forum. They are listed 25 to the page in the "Inactive user" file in my Administrator's Panel. I accidentally hit "admit" when I was deleting a page of inactive spambot users. Old fingers and being in a hurry could be a disastrous combination. I have to write these complicated usernames onto a piece of paper, then type them in to delete them.

[electra225]

Today, we've been "fightin' 'em to a draw" as grandpa used to say. We won't get rid of them, but now they are somewhat more manageable. Next step is to ban them by email address.

[TC Chris]

In any event, thank you for taking that all on and keeping this forum functioning for all of us.

Chris Campbell

[electra225]

I wanted you guys to know what was going on in case something strange appears on the forum. Thank you for your understanding and support.

[TC Chris]

If anybody gripes, exercise your prerogative to de-list them.

Chris Campbell

[William]

Thanks Greg, and what Chris said!

Bill