why are we getting hit with all this spam?

[peterdeco1]

It seems like this just started recently.

[Ioannis]

I really do not know...

How the heck they get through?

Every day I kill lots of them... Not fun anymore!

[mpgmike]

Years ago I ran a fuel economy forum. Apparently MPG = Miles Per Gallon and is used as an abbreviation for MPEG (as in movies). Some porn star who uses the same screen name as me (mpgMike) was offended that I would ruin his good name with fuel economy scam crap! (His opinion, certainly not mine.) He got all his cronies to lambaste our site with nude pictures. You think this junk is tiresome!

[Jerson]

I am seeing many spammers have taken a liking to this site.. Either the work from home has given them more time on hands or the site has a vulnerability that they've found.

First post approval before being made live is a suggestion, but it cannot remain unmanned. Can be a problem for the genuine newbies here.

[CuriousOne]

Well, sometimes situation is reversed
There's a porn star, Lacy Lennon, she did quite good song (step-a-way), and put it on youtube. It was quickly climbing to tops, but people were annoyed so much, when they googled up her name and come into some XXX videos, that not only video and it's mentions were deleted from everywhere, she was even subject of an police investigation

[richard]

seeing this missed one may lead to them hoping for the same good fortune

[lester]

Ioannis, thank you for your continued vigilance against the spammers.

I too delete spam regularly.

I hope that users are patient and tolerant of the efforts made to keep the system clear of spam. There is no easy solution. Hundreds of accounts are deleted monthly....but a few get through

[Ioannis]

Thank you Lester.

Try my best on my limited time. Hope these spammers do not stay long here!

Ioannis

[HenrikOlsson]

I was under the impression that when you sign up your first post(s) are being monitored and aproved by a moderator, yet most spam messages come from users with that specific spam message as their only post. Have they figured out a way to get their past moderation or have have I misunderstood how it works?

On a side note I find that ads on the site has grown to an almost ridiculous level. On my small 12" notebook PC I can sometimes barely SEE the message, there are adds at the top, at the bottom, embedded inline within messages, ad popups. Is it possible that these ads provide some sort of backdoor for the spammers?

Here's how it can look on my little machine:

[CuriousOne]

Yeah ads are too intrusive - all these pop-ups and full screen b/s....

[lester]

regarding pop up ads

Most browsers provide an option to turn off pop ups and allow them only for certain sites

for example in Chrome Browser

• Change your default pop-ups & redirects settings
• On your computer, open Chrome Chrome.
• At the top right, click More More and then Settings.
• Under "Privacy and security," click Site settings.
• Click Pop-ups and redirects.
• Choose the option you want as your default setting.

[lester]

I used to moderate all new users, however the time required to carry out that level of moderation was too onerous.
I am afraid that its simply not possible for me to monitor each and every post made by a new user.

[lester]

Advertising Via Google, generates a small amount of income, that goes towards the cost of providing this resource.

I am afraid that sales of the compiler are very low, the margin made on compiler sales does not justify providing this resource.

I want to keep this resource Free to access and Free of charges. I don't want to have to dedicate a large amount of time and resource running it.

Thankfully , the existing moderators keep spam at bay and notify me of issues that I need to attend to.

The current level of income from advertising, plus the support of moderators, makes a cost effective solution for me.