Spam is driving me away

[LizEF]

Am I the only one who wants @catbert to draw a picture of a can of Spam driving @countrydirt away....? (I tried drawing it myself and failed - granted, I didn't try for long, but there are so many other things I ought to be doing that it didn't seem prudent to spend several hours on it...)

[BlkWhiteFilmPix]

[/QUOTE]
... Spam in general, and one spammer in particular, has been a constant subject of posts, complaints, reports, whining, defense of the spammer, ever since the spam began to increase and as it continues to grow.

A true starvation diet requires FPG members to freeze out spammers. This is not ignoring spam. It's intentional, active, and sustained isolation of the spammers. I understand that this will have no effect on bot spammers. It would require a concerted effort to deprive spammers of the recognition and attention that motivates them. It would mean not acknowledging the spam and the spammers: put a wall around them and deprive them of the satisfaction of provoking a response. ...

To recap, I've not suggested that we all just throw up our hands and concede FPG to the spammers. My suggestion is a unified consistent response of freezing out the human spammers. It would require long term commitments by members to the plan, not responding on the Board and not encouraging the behavior back channel.



[/QUOTE]

Thank you

[welch]

I just swung by to post about an inexpensive notebook I noticed at Staples. The found that a spammer had topped off every paper thread with "its" blather. Irritating.

[Chrissy]

... Spam in general, and one spammer in particular, has been a constant subject of posts, complaints, reports, whining, defense of the spammer, ever since the spam began to increase and as it continues to grow.

A true starvation diet requires FPG members to freeze out spammers. This is not ignoring spam. It's intentional, active, and sustained isolation of the spammers. I understand that this will have no effect on bot spammers. It would require a concerted effort to deprive spammers of the recognition and attention that motivates them. It would mean not acknowledging the spam and the spammers: put a wall around them and deprive them of the satisfaction of provoking a response. ...

To recap, I've not suggested that we all just throw up our hands and concede FPG to the spammers. My suggestion is a unified consistent response of freezing out the human spammers. It would require long term commitments by members to the plan, not responding on the Board and not encouraging the behavior back channel.

I now call this forum Spam Geeks. When I post my reviews I'm not including Spam Geeks as a place to post them until Eric has deleted them all and is actively removing them all on a daily basis.. I have posted responses to a couple of newbies but my heart is no longer here in this sad place of neglect and decay.

[christof]

This place only gets sad and neglected when no interesting content is posted anymore. Spam only has an impact on this, if members get distracted by it and stop posting content.

What in my opinion is needed, is a commitment to the forum and not against spam. This is my personal estimation of the situation, without any emotions.

[Farmboy]

As the board software is updated and the license paid someone is doing work behind the scenes.

It is well known there is minimal moderation and thus no need to announce departure until moderation increases. There is another ad based forum with enough moderation for two boards that is open to all if moderation is desired.

It is speculated that a group of accounts are “real” and used as a platform to annoy certain members (which appears to work) by a former member that announced his/her departure. Certainly the admin panel has tools available to detect this. If speculation is correct on the origin of the accounts in question it becomes a “whack a mole” game of no end and no purpose.

There is great data here about pens as well as data for several papers on social engineering.

FB

[Chrissy]

As the board software is updated and the license paid someone is doing work behind the scenes.

It is well known there is minimal moderation and thus no need to announce departure until moderation increases. There is another ad based forum with enough moderation for two boards that is open to all if moderation is desired.

It is speculated that a group of accounts are “real” and used as a platform to annoy certain members (which appears to work) by a former member that announced his/her departure. Certainly the admin panel has tools available to detect this. If speculation is correct on the origin of the accounts in question it becomes a “whack a mole” game of no end and no purpose.

There is great data here about pens as well as data for several papers on social engineering.

FB

This board software has not been updated. It's running on vBulletin version 4.2.3 and has been for as long as I can remember back. It should be running on a version beginning with 5.
If there was an "Admin panel" or even an "Admin person" they would easily be able to detect the ISP of the person responsible for the spam posts and remove those ID's. The fact that this hasn't happened surely suggests that either he doesn't care or he isn't there.

[BlkWhiteFilmPix]

... Spam in general, and one spammer in particular, has been a constant subject of posts, complaints, reports, whining, defense of the spammer, ever since the spam began to increase and as it continues to grow.

A true starvation diet requires FPG members to freeze out spammers. This is not ignoring spam. It's intentional, active, and sustained isolation of the spammers. I understand that this will have no effect on bot spammers. It would require a concerted effort to deprive spammers of the recognition and attention that motivates them. It would mean not acknowledging the spam and the spammers: put a wall around them and deprive them of the satisfaction of provoking a response. ...

To recap, I've not suggested that we all just throw up our hands and concede FPG to the spammers. My suggestion is a unified consistent response of freezing out the human spammers. It would require long term commitments by members to the plan, not responding on the Board and not encouraging the behavior back channel.

I now call this forum Spam Geeks. When I post my reviews I'm not including Spam Geeks as a place to post them until Eric has deleted them all and is actively removing them all on a daily basis.. I have posted responses to a couple of newbies but my heart is no longer here in this sad place of neglect and decay.

While I agree with Christof that we visualize think about what we want - fpgeeks is a great place - and not what we don't want, Chrissy has summarized how more than a few of us feel lately.

In the spirit of celebrating what's right with the world and visualizing what we want, let's focus on Eric finally stepping up to the plate and making this a more peaceful place.

[dneal]

As the board software is updated and the license paid someone is doing work behind the scenes.

It is well known there is minimal moderation and thus no need to announce departure until moderation increases. There is another ad based forum with enough moderation for two boards that is open to all if moderation is desired.

It is speculated that a group of accounts are “real” and used as a platform to annoy certain members (which appears to work) by a former member that announced his/her departure. Certainly the admin panel has tools available to detect this. If speculation is correct on the origin of the accounts in question it becomes a “whack a mole” game of no end and no purpose.

There is great data here about pens as well as data for several papers on social engineering.

FB

Biggest problem is the majority of the spam is through XRumer. You would have to delete or inactivate all the accounts (and many were created years ago), and then manage new registrations because XRumer defeats most “are you a human?” hurdles.

I know who it is, and it doesn’t annoy me in the least. It’s simply them reminding us of their true character. Although I feel some sympathy for the mental instability, mostly I just chuckle at how petty and pathetic it is to maliciously spam an obscure internet forum.

When you ignore a toddler’s tantrums, they intensify. They eventually run out of gas though.

[catbert]

Am I the only one who wants @catbert to draw a picture of a can of Spam driving @countrydirt away....? (I tried drawing it myself and failed - granted, I didn't try for long, but there are so many other things I ought to be doing that it didn't seem prudent to spend several hours on it...)

I wouldn't presume to depict countrydirt but here's Pig and Wolf from the Inktober thread. (Apologies to Calvin and Hobbes.)

I agree with Christof — the content of this forum is up to us.

spam(power).jpg

[Jon Szanto]

As the board software is updated and the license paid someone is doing work behind the scenes.

Incorrect assumption, partially based on erroneous data.

[LizEF]

Am I the only one who wants @catbert to draw a picture of a can of Spam driving @countrydirt away....? (I tried drawing it myself and failed - granted, I didn't try for long, but there are so many other things I ought to be doing that it didn't seem prudent to spend several hours on it...)

I wouldn't presume to depict countrydirt but here's Pig and Wolf from the Inktober thread. (Apologies to Calvin and Hobbes.)

I agree with Christof — the content of this forum is up to us.

spam(power).jpg

So fabulous! Love the wheel coming off!

[junglejim]

... Spam in general, and one spammer in particular, has been a constant subject of posts, complaints, reports, whining, defense of the spammer, ever since the spam began to increase and as it continues to grow.

A true starvation diet requires FPG members to freeze out spammers. This is not ignoring spam. It's intentional, active, and sustained isolation of the spammers. I understand that this will have no effect on bot spammers. It would require a concerted effort to deprive spammers of the recognition and attention that motivates them. It would mean not acknowledging the spam and the spammers: put a wall around them and deprive them of the satisfaction of provoking a response. ...

To recap, I've not suggested that we all just throw up our hands and concede FPG to the spammers. My suggestion is a unified consistent response of freezing out the human spammers. It would require long term commitments by members to the plan, not responding on the Board and not encouraging the behavior back channel.

I now call this forum Spam Geeks. When I post my reviews I'm not including Spam Geeks as a place to post them until Eric has deleted them all and is actively removing them all on a daily basis.. I have posted responses to a couple of newbies but my heart is no longer here in this sad place of neglect and decay.

I am so very sorry to hear this, Chrissy. As "Our" Ink Maven, I do so very much look forward to all of your very thorough ink reviews, as do many other members here.

[Chrissy]

I am so very sorry to hear this, Chrissy. As "Our" Ink Maven, I do so very much look forward to all of your very thorough ink reviews, as do many other members here.

I will still be posting my reviews on my website/blog because there at least I have control over any responses. I'm also prepared to post responses/images etc. on other members' threads on here. I'm just not going to post any threads here at this time that might be seen as targets. I'm still around but don't care about this place as much as I used to do.

[Carpio]

Hello

Incredible!
Very nearly 4 pages dedicated to 'spamming', 'spammers', and to what end, other than to feed the arsehat(s).
The be all and end all is simple. Without access to the admin panel there is nothing, zilch, zero, nowt, нуль that can be done to alleviate the 'hurt' this is causing to apparantly, so many.
Go and contact Vbulletin and that is exactly what they will tell you. If you're not the account holder they will not help in any way other than to continually tell you to contact the account holder. (I'm assuming that has already been done)
The simplest thing to do - leave this thread completely. The thread starter can remove the first post and the thread is deleted. That for starters is starving the 'troll' of his beans on toast/reeses bars.
Talking about it allows the 'troll' to maintain his (assuming it is male) textual desires - give it the snip. He will soon be firing blanks and then movealong.
However, having read this thread, it is apparant that there is an arsehat who is targeting this board because of some reason or other (which I'm not, nor wish to be, aware of) and if he hasn't left by now, the chances are he isn't going to leave the board alone anytime soon.
So, what can be done? The options which are available -

1) Leave this board/forum completely and never post again on any forum due to bad experience in the past.
2) Leave this board/forum completely and join an existing forum.
3) Leave this board/forum completely and set up another forum with total control of the moderation panel.
4) Ignore each of the 'spam/troll' threads alone completely. Don't type in them with a reply, and under no circumstance, 'DEFINITELY DON'T CLICK ON A LINK' that has been left by whoever.
The beauty of choosing that option is, you can stay here amongst good people with the vast amount of threads to read, and people who are incredibly knowledgeable and always seem willing to help. A place you can call your own.
From a newbie looking in, it is incedible what people have done over the years here. Looking at threads which are 10 years old and still having replies. You couldn't pay for that.
In a nut shell - remember you're all better than a 'spammer/troll' with no life, and why?,.... because you have each other (either that or you don't give one). Staying together so many years is testament to that.
Finally, for what it is worth; As a 92 year old lady who herself was coming to the end of her life once told my father, whilst he too was being cared for by Macmillan nurses - 'Don't let the b*****ds get you down'.

Carpio

[Sailor Kenshin]

Am I the only one who wants @catbert to draw a picture of a can of Spam driving @countrydirt away....? (I tried drawing it myself and failed - granted, I didn't try for long, but there are so many other things I ought to be doing that it didn't seem prudent to spend several hours on it...)

I wouldn't presume to depict countrydirt but here's Pig and Wolf from the Inktober thread. (Apologies to Calvin and Hobbes.)

I agree with Christof — the content of this forum is up to us.

spam(power).jpg

Love the sketch!

[Chrissy]

Hello

The simplest thing to do - leave this thread completely. The thread starter can remove the first post and the thread is deleted. That for starters is starving the 'troll' of his beans on toast/reeses bars.

From a newbie looking in, it is incedible what people have done over the years here. Looking at threads which are 10 years old and still having replies. You couldn't pay for that.

Carpio

Just to make a quick comment on these two points that you mentioned:
The thread starter can never delete the original post that starts the thread. All they can do for the first post is to edit/change all of the content. Even if everyone who posted here deleted their posts the thread would still be here unless it was deleted by the admin.

Ten year old threads aren't frequently replied to. They disappear when their last replies are ten years old unless they were made "sticky" at some time. The spammer/troll is resurrecting all of these old, almost dead, threads and when he does this members who frequently select to read "New Posts" start replying to them again.

An easier life and getting the forum back to how it used to be (BDJ) would be nice but currently that's not going to happen unless Eric does something. His options are:
Close down fpgeeks.com completely.
Sell it to someone else.
Come back and look after the place like it needs to be looked after.

He just needs to pick one.

[carlos.q]

An easier life and getting the forum back to how it used to be (BDJ) would be nice but currently that's not going to happen unless Eric does something. His options are:
Close down fpgeeks.com completely.
Sell it to someone else.
Come back and look after the place like it needs to be looked after.

He just needs to pick one.

I would add another option:

Delegate admin/moderation duties to a group of fpgeeks that he knows personally

[Chrissy]

An easier life and getting the forum back to how it used to be (BDJ) would be nice but currently that's not going to happen unless Eric does something. His options are:
Close down fpgeeks.com completely.
Sell it to someone else.
Come back and look after the place like it needs to be looked after.

He just needs to pick one.

I would add another option:

Delegate admin/moderation duties to a group of fpgeeks that he knows personally

I agree and would love to think this was an option but he knew Dan well personally, and he was already doing the job perfectly well. Look what happened to him.....

[dneal]

Another option:

Start your own forum (perhaps call it ‘Fountain Pen Nerds’ to spite FPN and FPG), and endure the many who will happily tell you all the ways that you are doing it wrong.