EZ-Flash USA Forum

Hi All,

The last few days have seen a marked increase in the spam posts that have been made.

Whilst I have been able to keep on top of things, deleting the posts, it does take up a reasonable amount of time. I'm often required to go in and ban IP's, names, and email addresses (for those spammers that create an account). All this detracts from my own free time. Much of which I'm more than willing to give here, but not all of it.

I'd like everyones opinions and feedback regarding this matter. We have some very good Guest posters, and I really don't want to take that away, so I'm putting up a Poll for people to vote on the matter.

I realise that removing a Guest's ability to post will not stop spam, and may cause people to not join the forums, however it may reduce spam to almost nil.

I am not around as much as I have been but I have not seen any spam posts: guess you are quicker than me.

I always thought it funny that people would register to flog generic drugs and proxy software and whatever other stuff they decided to flog.

There are a load of great guest posts and removing that option would likely cause a lot less usage.

In short keep guest access.

Edit: I just noticed the wiki had a bunch of invisible links added to the main page (google ranking boost or whatever), got rid of them.

I think it's better to remove guest posting.

Also, I would like to see people set their log-in to "automatic". I am tired of seeing a registered "guest" have to use another post to say "oh, that last guest post was actually made by Slade, sorry" (just using you as an example, Slade, even though I know it's not you!).

It takes no time at all to register(less than one minute) and after login the forum shows you what new posts you haven't seen yet! Registering is worth it just for that function alone! I love that function.

Anyways, just my opinion...

Just two reasons guest access should be pulled:
http://www.sosuke.com/ezflash/viewtopic.php?t=101
http://www.sosuke.com/ezflash/viewtopic.php?t=20

My 2 cents:
Let guests read any parts of the forum but not post.

Thanks cracker, but I wonder if those links work anymore. (Edit: Ok, the links work, but the spam is gone.)

I've just removed both Real Estate spam posts... The past few days have seen a minimum of 3-4 spam posts a day. I'm about to ban the sub domain, and hope that helps. The biggest issue is there could be legit people using it. And I serioulsy can't ban every subdomain, and there are more than likely more spammers out there than legit posters on this board. I'm surprised we haven't been hit more often.

At last count it was :

Remove Guests : 6
Keep Guests : 1
Add Mod : 1

I personally will not vote. Not that I don't think my vote is worth any less than anyone elses, I just want to see what other people think.

On my TFC clans forum, we are having the same problem lately. It's not only guests doing the spamming though. There is a bot application that will do the registration with a random set of characters for the name and everything and then post.

Can a keyword challenge be used on that board (or this board for that matter) -- one with a distorted dynamically generated picture with characters that need to be entered into a text box to make sure it's a real person.

Cracker,

I believe there is a mod for that. I have looked at it briefly when looking at installing mods. If I do go that path, I will more than likely have to remove the other skins. They don't all conform to the phpbb standard, and I don't think this skin does either.

That can mean hand editing the phpbb files, which is a pain and can lead to errors.

@Luney : Bummer. So stopping the Guests will only stop the easiest of the spam. The determined ones will still get through.

Who knows, the random image/number registration might reduce them too.

Lets see what the poll says.

I guess we'll just have to go to a new unofficial EZ-Flash site to hang out at...

perhaps ezflash.slade.com
or ezflash.cracker.com
or ezflash.fast6191.com

No offence sosuke!

I'm the one vote for another mod. I don't think removing guest's ability to post is the answer is all. The security thing to register helps because most bots cannot actually see the screen to type the correct characters. For the guest spam I think another mod to help delete it would suffice. It would be a shame to force someone to register to post. It's not that big of a deal but remember, not everyone that visits is as comfortable with the internet. I personally know alot of somewhat intelligent people that are absolutely terrified of putting any kind of personal info at all anywhere on the internet. Yes it is ignorance that fuels the fear but that doesn't mean it's not real for these said people. They simply do not know any better to be able to discern between a trustworthy site and one that is designed to harvest personal info for possibly fraudulent purposes. One or two spam posts a day can be dealt with easily enough. Just my 2 cents.