Yoohoo Oh Mark !!!

[Carmyllie]

Flipping through the pages today, I was astounded to see so many new members have joined our ranks. Now, far be it from me to pose any topic which is controversial, however  my detective story took me to the Member's Page and lo and behold... a gazillion web addresses linked to our site.
Everything from solid wood kitchens, Dog Supplements( I wonder if they're cats?),how to get pregnant ( err hello! ), Punching bag stand, Picnic baskets ( move over Yogi Bear ) and many many more totally unrelated things to the Vision of our Forum. Well that's what I believe.

Is there any such thing as screening such links before they're posted?

I feel somewhat saddened and a teensy violated to think people can have the audicity to flood our pages without so much as a " who the heck are you?"

The last person on earth to bear any bias towards others is me, but I just feel this is not an International Trading Post and we deserve more caretaking.

What does everyone think?

[bigbob]

I agree with you on this one, as i pointed out under the heading of where is everyone, you can buy anything from Viagra to a Russian bride on this site. The saying here in England for this kind of thing  is internet rape and i for one would like to see it stopped

[Analog6]

I zealously delete spam posts but cannot delete the members, only the administrator can do that.

[Carmyllie]

I understand the logitics aren't going to be easy Odille. I just wanted to identify the concerns.

Thank you so much for maintaining your stance as a Moderator, it's very appreciated.

[Tim N]

I am just about to wield my ban hammer right now because someone is spamming the site with selling prescription medicine without prescriptions over the net !!!

(Ironic that I am about to do a post which hails in my new career ... as a pharmaceutical rep selling prescription medicine to doctors !!  )

[Carmyllie]

Oh Tim - Congratulations - you'll really enjoy meeting an array of fascinating people, and I wish you well in your new career.

Appropo to the 'visiting chemist supplies person' - can you track his user protocols as he ought to be reported?

3 new members in 24 hours and 100 in a short few weeks. Something isn't adding up.

[Analog6]

THat bloke is a pain, isn't he Tim?  I've emailed Mark but no reply as yet.

[admin]

Hello all,

Well it is a bit of a mess isn't it. I am afraid I just haven't had a minute to scratch or spend with my kids, let alone spend any time online for recreational purposes. Sorry to let you all down, but the realities and demands of life and business have precluded much at all.
The laptop met its demise through the week (now replaced) but with only some of my required software and email addresses reinstalled. My website carnet.com.au has been attacked via our OPenX server with a malicious code injection which has us suspended by Google Adwords that we cannot quite sort out and our ADSL has been down for the last three days (don't visit that one for a couple of days). When it goes wrong sometimes it seems to happens all at once.
I have just deleted 49 user registrations that were pending and dubious and will trawl through and remove most of the junk later today.
We have just signed an agreement to redevelop CarNet from the ground up with a launch target of early December, so I am afraid I won't be around much for a while. I'll increase the permissions levels for  a couple of you if that will help, so you can delete the obvious spammers as required. Suggest you each contribute a theme challenge concept and I'll se them up in advance for 6 months.

[Ross and Cher]

Welcome to the real world AD and thanks as always for whatever time you can give! (And also guilty of not being as active here as we could have been)! As a suggestion - have a vote on suspending the monthly challenge for say 6 months, and maybe re-invent as some sort of challenge that is voted for via a poll! Simpler, easier and without galleries others can set up and declare = zero admin time?? just my 2 cents...!

[bigbob]

Hello and welcome to you admin, as a newbie you might find this site a a bit confusing as it seems to lack a bit of direction at the moment but this is just a hiccup and we will get over it so be brave and get posting.

[admin]

Nice one Bob! and Ouch.
1. I have suspended/banned/deleted a huge number of inactive and suspicious names over the last 24 hours. Hopefully most of the spammers have been dealt with.
2. I have also deleted a range of Categories / topics that have had zero activity over the journey
3. I have created a "Boats" Theme challenge for September - Why? because "Slugguts" (Gordo) who has alco noticed my recent abscence from the Hockey fields of late (where I should be observing the efforts of my 13 year old each Saturday) and because it seemed like a reasonable theme to get going with again
4. Based on Odilles original but unsupported category concept 365, I have taken a queue from Ross ads morphed it into a new Gallery and linked Board called the 30 day challenge. With, or without me around you can knock yourselves out with a shot a day challenge as per Ross's suggested format - or change a s you all see fit to suit requirements
5. I am now getting an email every time a new "member" joins and will do my best to take a few minutes each day to weed out the few idiots that spoil the show for all. Some names are obviously machine generated but some cannot be interpretted without waiting to see what comes along in subsequent posts, so please just send a not to admin @... if you see any dodgy behaviour and I will remove them asap. Iam currently working from my home office 90% of the time so I can at least get onto that stuff pretty quickly

[Analog6]

Great stuff Mark.  I have some just right for boats!

The 30 day challenge is a good one, if it is successful for October may be we can do this each season ( 3 monthly).

I now know how to log in and ban users who are spamming etc (thanks Tim) and will keep on top of that.

Onwards and upwards!

EDITED: There you go, I've kicked off 'Boats' for September

[Analog6]

I have also started us a Flickr group http://www.flickr.com/groups/1523128@N23/.

It is invitation only, so I will send an invite to Ross & Cher (i know they are on there, they are in my contacts.  If people will come and join Flickr, or if you are not on there, join, Flickr mail me and I'll invite you.  I want us to post our best stuff so hopefully we can get people curious and they might come and join, so boosting our numbers.

I'll be promoting it in my talk with other groups.

[admin]

Following my vigorous pruning of "members" with 0 or 1 posts we now show just 109 members and 3 of these are on my email list and seem like dodgy non-sensical names, so off with their heads this morning.

I'll make note for people to at least post something if they join, otherwise I'll just make a habit of deleting if there is no post within 7 days.

[Analog6]

Quite a few forums do that Mark, so long as it is in the sign up instructions I can't see a problem.  I can never understand why people join and then never take part.