Forum Spam

Sorry to all the Rin and Manji board users for the spamming that’s going on. I think I’ve rectified the situation and now I’m going back and sifting through the sheer amount of spam comments. Punbb isn’t as easy to moderate comments as WordPress is so it’s taking some time and is a little bit more time consuming. Are people still interested in having the forum, do you guys find it as a useful resource? I know loads of questions have been answered (not by me James has got a lot of thanks going his way for his contribution) however I don’t visit there often enough as I’m slightly swamped with other things right now.

To be honest I’ve had nothing but trouble whenever I have a forum (has been hacked into several times), caused me to loose data another time. If you find it useful please do tell me because I’ve seriously got a mind to just bring it down, unless someone can tell me of a decent alternative that’s relatively secure, easy to update, manage and skin.

13 Comments

  1. I find the forum very useful. I think a lot of people do, though not necessarily people who read this blog.

    I wouldn’t mind moderating the forum if you don’t have time. I’m happy to help keep spammers at bay, and I already do this for another forum (www.theforest.org.uk/bb).

    If you don’t already know about phpBB, it’s pretty much the best thing out there - and it’s free. Only problem is it’s quite large. It’s designed to take a serious amount of usage…

    1 beev
    Quote | 18/4/2006
  2. Just in case, I would like to take the opportunity to point out that, I had absolutely no part to play in this spamming instance.

    Thank you.

    2 bloophead
    Quote | 18/4/2006
  3. We use phpBB at MacMerc and keep the spammers away by requiring registration to post, requiring that a captcha be entered when registering, and disallowing the use of certain email domains, like yahoo and hotmail.

    I really think that you should keep the forums around. Once the spam floods have stopped, they should be 100% usable again.

    3 James (aka MacManX)
    Quote | 18/4/2006
  4. When I was new to the ‘Rin’ theme, the forum proved to be an invaluable resource. People there were very helpful and prompt to support. Even though I donâ��t use the theme anymore, I do feel that esp. for new users it would be a good place to ask questions and get help.

    Closing it down would be a shame, but its totally down to you; but I would encourage you to leave it open � there is a lot of good resource there and it would come in handy in the help of the development of your themes in the future.

    4 Arun
    Quote | 19/4/2006
  5. Yeah, ok I was convinced right from the start by beev, so everyone else’s thoughts are well appreciated. I wrote that post after wading through all the spam and deleting everything. Pretty painfull and a complete waste of time but alas it’s ok every once in a while if it helps people. I’ve implemented a new spam filter and I’ve closed the forums to registered members only.

    I will be skining the forum as well for the new redesign and I’ll be checking the the punbb forums to see for any cool mods that we can add to the place.

    5 Khaled
    Quote | 19/4/2006
  6. Ick. Get a more secure forum software, like IPB (if you can pay). Heck, even if yo can’t IPB 1.3 isn’t bad, and the person posting this comment has the old files for it ;)

    6 Andre
    Quote | 21/4/2006
  7. Didn’t even know there was a forum..

    7 Olav
    Quote | 22/4/2006
  8. You could try SMF. It’s a lot easier to set up and manage than phpBB, and keeping it up to date and secure is easy as it has an in-built package manager to help you update it automatically (saves hacking php files).

    The only downside is that there isn’t as many pre-made styles around for it as there is for phpBB, but it’s not too tough to make your own (or doctor another one).

    8 Daz
    Quote | 24/4/2006
  9. Thanks Daz, never heard of SMF, but then again I’m not terribly into the whole forum market, but that does seem like a pretty slick implemenation. I’ve since sorted out my problems with the forum and it’s just pretty easy to change the skin, which I’m currently doing to align with the new site design. Thanks for the heads up though.

    9 Khaled
    Quote | 24/4/2006
  10. You are quite quiet at the moment. Up to anything?

    10 David
    Quote | 25/4/2006
  11. All will be revealed later on this evening I hope. It’s going to be good I promise you :). Whenever I’m not talking I’m doing something else…

    11 Khaled
    Quote | 25/4/2006
  12. You can make phpBB secure and protected from spam quite easily! Most of people who suffer from spam registrations just don’t pay enough attention to their board’s version and settings.
    I would also recommend the free service that would check the problems you have with your phpBB forum: phpBB antispam check

    12 Ivan10
    Quote | 28/4/2006
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    13 funnyfanat
    Quote | 28/1/2007

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