forum admin take this post out....

I've having a hard time understanding how that wide-scale defensive, reactive approach is truly going to prevent or eliminate the spam issue. It forces forum members to become forum watchdogs rather than forum participants that add value to the site. This not only decreases the member's enjoyability of the site but also the quality of the site as the forums are infested with junk. The administrative overhead associated with that reactive approach also seems to offset the benefit (which is temporary, by the way). You block a few Class B networks after being alerted by a forum member, but that doesn't prevent future spammers in other IP address ranges from easily registering themselves and posting spam. Then forum moderators have to spend time deleting topics.

I know you've expressed that you intend on keeping Firewall.cx ad free for the purpose of keeping the layout clean...that purpose is quickly defeated when there's spam polluting the forum.

I trust that your creativity and knowledge has allowed you to outthink these few concerns that I present.

Here's a few others:
www.firewall.cx/modules.php?name=Forums&...ic&p=31589#31589

www.firewall.cx/modules.php?name=Forums&...ic&p=31591#31591

Killabee,

Thank you for your thoughts and input. You're right on many of your points, however we need to somehow try and prevent these spammers from filling up our forums with junk.

While the administrative overhead is great, personally, I believe its well worth it. We are now taking further action by notifying the ISP from which the poster's IP belonged to, and the ISP of the advertised website. This has had a very postive response from the ISPs and expect this wave of spammers to pass fairly quickly.

Alongside of these actions, we are planning to introduce a number of enhancements that will help us keep things under control - however until then, we have to rely on our forum moderators and much respected community, to help us keep this place clean!

Thank you.

My contribution and suggestion is that forum admin / moderators should be vigilant and to be on this site most often...

Please i am really getting worried about the increase in SPAM content on this site. I have big ideas to push the quality and uniqueness of this site here in Nigeria when my lab is up. Chris and co. i need u to do something...

Meanwhile take out this user - Burfsursoma

and i think something should be coded like em allow only English stuff. Programmers where are you?

Take out - Burfsursoma

Meanwhile take out this user - Burfsursoma

It's taken care of. Thanks talk2sp.

KiLLaBeE if the community won't watch out for each others, then what kind community is it? I came to this forum looking for help. I got a warm welcome from Chris. I really feel that sites like these should be protected from the immature posting. If it means blocking whole IP classes then so be it. I don’t see anything wrong with policing the few areas of the forum I read. It’s just like cleaning my work site before leaving for the day.

This site has limited funding but yet it has high quality material because it was built off pure passion. It frustrates me to see that spam occupies part of the Last 20 Posts because I too agree that sites with the above listed characteristics should be protected from such degrading content. But my concern is whether the strategy being used to enforce that protection is the most efficient strategy -- whether or not it's a good solution now and going forward, whether or not it potentially disrupts the enjoyability of the members only now or in the future as well, whether or not it weakens members' confidence in the professionalism of the site, whether or not it places unnecessary overheard on the moderators, whether or not it disrupts future members...

As I mentioned before, "I trust that [the team's] creativity and knowledge has allowed [the team] to outthink these few concerns that I present." LIke all other senior IT professionals whose work I have observed, or whom I have worked with, I trust that the team's strategy is one that has been implemented and has been successful because I would be saddened to see the community moral decrease if its Spam Alert posts and PMs were not producing satisfactory results...quickly.

Thanks