The software that HaitiXchange has been running on is outdated and easily accessible by spammers from Europe and Asia. Although the upgrade has already been purchased, migrating to it will be a daunting task given the amount of content that already exists, and the customization that has been made. Since it is very important for me to provide the best and most uninterrupted experience possible, I have been waiting to be able to hire the right technical consultants in order to make the upgrade. (You may remember the site being unavailable for a almost two days a couple of months ago when the last upgrade was attempted.
The latest round of spam you see is due to the recent approval of latest batch of accounts (among hundreds which are for legitimate HaitiXchange members, many of are potential spammers.) The new software has a lot of anti-spam features, which will greatly help combat the problem.
Until the upgrade, I ask all of you for help in reporting any spam that you see. Just click on the "Report" at the top of the post.
Sekon Salye, I've tried approving people based on their names or their email addresses, it is time consuming, and it absolutely doesn't work. Inevitably I would get an email from someone asking why they had not yet been approved. Invariably it turned out to be someone I thought was a spammer, and that I had deleted. Also, the volume of people who register every day, make it impractical.
Sekon Salye, I've tried approving people based on their names or their email addresses, it is time consuming, and it absolutely doesn't work. Inevitably I would get an email from someone asking why they had not yet been approved. Invariably it turned out to be someone I thought was a spammer, and that I had deleted. Also, the volume of people who register every day, make it impractical.
Mwen konprann ou Coolp! Sèlman veye pou vakabon yo pa boule sit la jan yo te fè'l deja-a!
Sekon Salye, I've tried approving people based on their names or their email addresses, it is time consuming, and it absolutely doesn't work. Inevitably I would get an email from someone asking why they had not yet been approved. Invariably it turned out to be someone I thought was a spammer, and that I had deleted. Also, the volume of people who register every day, make it impractical.
How about no automatic approval until the Email from the interested party.
Try that for a month or two.
We usually go months before any new contributing members.
How about no automatic approval until the Email from the interested party.
Try that for a month or two.
We usually go months before any new contributing members.
JC, that doesn't work because all these spammers have legitimate email addresses that they use specifically for opening forum accounts. They guys are very sophisticated and register thousands of accounts across all types of websites daily. Their goal is to place their client web addresses in as many locations as possible in an effort gain higher rankings in Google and other search engines. Of course the down side is that they ruin the experiences of many legitimate forum members who have to wade through crappy spam posts in order to find the content they really want. Also, a lot of the links are malicious and lead do spyware and viruses.
Right now, approval is not automatic and we don't have new contributing members because sometimes it can be weeks until I approve a batch. Initially I was rejecting anyone trying to open accounts from India, China, or Russia, but that wasn't practical, and I didn't want to reject legitimate potential members coming from these areas.
I have some ideas I will try out, but I won't post them here in order not to give anyone the upper hand. I'd be more than happy to discuss these with anyone using private messages.
So That's the reason last friday, I saw a lot of strange threads appeared.
Exactly! I had just approved several hundred accounts in one batch. So we'll see spam here and there for several weeks to come until they are all identified and accounts deleted. I'm hoping to have upgraded the site in time for the next big batch approval.
So That's the reason last friday, I saw a lot of strange threads appeared.
Exactly! I had just approved several hundred accounts in one batch. So we'll see spam here and there for several weeks to come until they are all identified and accounts deleted. I'm hoping to have upgraded the site in time for the next big batch approval.
Can you restrict who adds a link onto the board? Say if your new and haven't posted #'s than you cannot post a link?
Can you restrict who adds a link onto the board? Say if your new and haven't posted #'s than you cannot post a link?
Yes, the new version of the software can do that, so when we finally upgrade, we will most likely restrict the posting of links for a week or so, until the posters intentions are known. Right now, I can restrict links, but it would be for everybody. Bad solution!
can you track the addresses? maybe that would help you detect repeated offenders.
These guys often use "disposable" addresses. Addresses that they simply use one time for a specific purpose (there are a lot of services that provide that these days.) Sometimes the addresses are obvious, usually they aren't. The really professional spammers almost never use the same address twice.
