Spam Spam Spam Spam Spam Spam

[RoadRunner]

We upgraded FD to kill the spambot that has been attacking our forums with porno posts.

You can read all about it at http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/showthread.php?threadid=65790.

[jamesglewisf]

Hopefully, this one is behind us.

All of those different usernames were part of the spam bot. It was weird reading about it and seeing the same names.

[PsalmReader]

Most of the thread that I read was a little too "techie" for me. :) But I sure am glad that it's taken care of, YEAH! {party}

[Grimey]

A spam bot? Somebody has too much time on his hands. {confused} It looks like they hit a lot of places.

[Clowner]

Happy to hear this....And I agree, too much time on their hands{rolleyes}

Keep up the good work;)

[Grimey]

Do you think Monty Python had anything to do with this? Spam Spam Spam Spam Spam Spam Spam Spam

[Lisa]

Glad you got it all taken care of. I'll have to read the article when I have some time. Spam bot? Have no clue what that is. :)

YSIC {wavey}
Lisa

[RoadRunner]

A bot is just a program, really.

This one was a program that someone wrote that goes out looking for vbulletin forums. Then it automatically registers, confirms email, and then starts posting spam (junk posts).

[Lisa]

Can you set it so only the administrators can approve the new members? That's what we have at our place. Wonder if that'd make any difference. (thinking more about myself here, really - selfish, I know)

YSIC
Lisa

[RoadRunner]

You can, but that is really the first problem we've ever had with that kind of spam. I think the forum upgrade will fix it.

I would prefer to let a new member start posting as soon as they validate. It helps keep the enthusiasm up.

[Lisa]

True. :) Ours is a little different.

So - how do we go about getting new members who are excited to post? Any ideas?

YSIC {wavey}
Lisa

[RoadRunner]

I think it just takes awhile. One of the advantages we had back then was Blinc. She was always around posting. As we add moderators, that will help too because they have a feeling of ownership and want to post more often.

If you look at our top 5 posters, they had a combined 9,597 posts. That was half!! The next 5 only had 6,403 combined. The next 5 had only 1,809. Still, you add up the top 15 and it is 17,809. The other 150 members made up the other 2,000 posts. You basically had 10% of the members providing 90% of the posts.

Once we get a core group posting, it will turn around.

Part of the problem is that a lot of the original members have moved on. Jim kind of burned them by shutting down the board. That's understandable. It will be hard to get them back. Plus, they are probably a part of different boards that they enjoy and are comfortable with.

[RoadRunner]

Jim, Blinc and the mods had a lot of friends in other boards. They invited them over.

They also joined a lot of boards and put links to frappydoo in their sigs.

It's kind of fun to look at stats for the board:

Month #Posts
09/2000 358
10/2000 1,699
11/2000 2,987
12/2000 3,259
01/2001 4,895
02/2001 4,007
03/2001 2,088
02/2002 1
11/2002 20
12/2002 1
02/2003 528
03/2003 197

February and March of 2003 aren't doing too bad.

[jamesglewisf]

What he said.

[Alec]

I, for one, refuse to post here.

[Alec]

You won't hear another peep out of me.

[Alec]

Never, ever, again.

[Alec]

Thbthbthbthbthbthbthbthb...

[Alec]

I'm finished. Outta here.

[Alec]

What were we talking about? {toothy}

[PsalmReader's Mom]

May the Spambot rest in peace {xmark}