Maurice 233 Report post Posted March 21 Hello everyone, As you have noticed, the forum was down for some time in order to solve a major spam-flooding issue. The spammers would be able to register (probably manually - i.e. through human intervention) and then flood the boards really fast. I've had no choice but to rollback the forum to a decent enough date (without a huge mass of spammy content), which is the 1st of February. We apologize for this urgent undertaking. Fortunately, because of the spam, people weren't creating that many legitimate content and therefore not that much was lost normally. I also took this opportunity to upgrade the forum software. Here's what I implemented to control such issues in the future: The registration form was modified a bit more to further prevent automated/bot registration. When a member registers now, they will be in the Members group which now has the following restrictions: There is a flooding control time of 5 minutes (they have to wait 5 minutes after posting something to post something else). They can also only post 3 times per day and the first few posts need to be approved before going up. They won't be able to upload profile photos/covers. There'll be a limit on number of private messages and reactions they can do per day. Besides posting, there will be some more restrictions (such as the inability to upload attachments). Once a member from the "Members" group reaches 10 posts and their account is older than 30 days, they will be moved to the "Advanced" group. The Advanced group will reduce the flooding control time to 3 minutes. They won't have that many restrictions and will be just like normal members (i.e. just the way the Members group was before). After they reach 50 posts and their account is older than 30 days, they will be moved to the "Renowned" group. "Renowned" members will have the flooding control time reduced to only 30 seconds. I know that it can be a bit tedious for new members and I sincerely apologize for that but there just aren't any realistic way to completely eradicate spamming once a site with community/interactive features reaches a certain amount of traffic: it'll always be subjected to more and more innovative spam attacks (or worse). New members, I really hope you'll be willing to show a little bit of patience with this process. Fortunately, once you get to the "Advanced" group, it'll be so much better in general! I really hope we can count of your understanding. Thank you, Maurice 3 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Ryo 58 Report post Posted March 27 Appreciate all your help, Maurice! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Akazora 291 Report post Posted March 28 The bot invasion has been suppressed! Thanks for all your hard work as usual, Maurice! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
VVN2004 9 Report post Posted April 2 Really thankful for all ur hard work Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Niobel 0 Report post Posted April 11 I'm glad, and happy. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
