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TFF Central => Announcements => Topic started by: WingedZephyr on January 15, 2011, 11:18:38 PM

Title: Registration Change
Post by: WingedZephyr on January 15, 2011, 11:18:38 PM
Although some of you may not have been able to tell so far, the forum has had a flood of spam accounts being created lately. Many of them displaying advertising links, and some posting spam around the forum. The staff does its best to clean up these issues, but we feel some added precautions need to be put into place at the moment while we deal with the situation.

New members will now need to receive staff approval before they are allowed to post. Approval should not take more than 24 hours, and depending on the time of day, may take less than an hour. We hope this to be a temporary solution while we work out another way to keep the spammers at bay.

We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause, and we'll let you know if anything changes.
Title: Re: Registration Change
Post by: Vee Katame: His Wolfy on January 15, 2011, 11:35:26 PM
Oh thank God. I love this.
Title: Re: Registration Change
Post by: White Wolf Guardian on January 15, 2011, 11:59:19 PM
*Does a tap dance* YESSSS!
Title: Re: Registration Change
Post by: Ares the Ram on January 16, 2011, 01:21:02 AM
I approve this message a million times!
Title: Re: Registration Change
Post by: Monster Mash on January 16, 2011, 01:32:06 AM
Awesome, thanks guys.
Title: Re: Registration Change
Post by: icy wolf on January 17, 2011, 12:42:41 AM
thanks for the heads up if i see any spam report it still?
Title: Re: Registration Change
Post by: Shinzuu Katame: Her Tolfy on January 17, 2011, 12:57:35 AM
finally, SOME kind of action.
Title: Re: Registration Change
Post by: icy wolf on January 17, 2011, 12:59:42 AM
finally, SOME kind of action.

how bad has it been?
Title: Re: Registration Change
Post by: Shinzuu Katame: Her Tolfy on January 17, 2011, 01:01:38 AM
finally, SOME kind of action.

how bad has it been?

very
Title: Re: Registration Change
Post by: Vee Katame: His Wolfy on January 17, 2011, 01:15:38 AM
I'll emphasize that Shinzuu didn't mean that in a disrespectful way, meaning he didn't mean it in a way that said we hadn't been doing anything before.

And yes, icy wolf, you still need to report any spam that gets through.
Title: Re: Registration Change
Post by: WingedZephyr on January 17, 2011, 01:20:03 AM
It hasn't been anything we can't handle, just not something we want to see continue on for much longer if we can avoid it. There were very few actual posts made by the spammers before we caught them, most of the work has just been catching their accounts. Not only that, but we've only been fussing with it for a week or two. It's not like this has gone on for months.

Requiring approval for new members is not an ideal solution, as it can be a hassle for those trying to join, but it's the best solution at the moment.
Title: Re: Registration Change
Post by: Shinzuu Katame: Her Tolfy on January 17, 2011, 01:25:41 AM
At least we're not putting up with that bullshit from 2 years ago. Remember the douche that posted a ton of crazy pics and making a 15-page spam say "fag" over and over again? I hated that day.
Title: Re: Registration Change
Post by: WingedZephyr on January 17, 2011, 01:28:18 AM
I'd rather not start a discussion about trollings in the past.
Title: Re: Registration Change
Post by: icy wolf on January 17, 2011, 01:29:23 AM
k ill report any spam i see
Title: Re: Registration Change
Post by: Tweak on January 18, 2011, 10:05:35 PM
As a result of the rejections I have been able to conduct research and found that many of those spam accounts registering are in fact already reported in a "Stop Forum Spam" database.

As a result forum registrations are now enabled for immediate registration and all registrations are checked against this database and flagged if they match. This should hopefully cut down on the spam accounts with no interaction from the staff. Any that do slip past can be reported to the database and aid other forum administrators in battling their own spam.

Should too many accounts get through we will once again raise the registration checks but hopefully this latest addition will stop the majority.
Title: Re: Registration Change
Post by: icy wolf on January 19, 2011, 01:26:03 AM
As a result of the rejections I have been able to conduct research and found that many of those spam accounts registering are in fact already reported in a "Stop Forum Spam" database.

As a result forum registrations are now enabled for immediate registration and all registrations are checked against this database and flagged if they match. This should hopefully cut down on the spam accounts with no interaction from the staff. Any that do slip past can be reported to the database and aid other forum administrators in battling their own spam.

Should too many accounts get through we will once again raise the registration checks but hopefully this latest addition will stop the majority.


Good to know. just wondering how many account where spam  :? and can i get that link for the data base, so i can report them.
Title: Re: Registration Change
Post by: WingedZephyr on January 19, 2011, 02:12:00 AM
We deterred about 40 spam accounts in the three days the member approval system was in place. And you don't need to use the database to report them, icy... Any spam accounts that slip through, report them to staff here, and the staff will add them to the database.
Title: Re: Registration Change
Post by: on January 19, 2011, 02:12:20 AM
tweak to the rescue..once again. he should have his own tv show by now...
Title: Re: Registration Change
Post by: Alexei on January 19, 2011, 02:17:23 AM
^
Seriously though, I'd watch it.
Title: Re: Registration Change
Post by: on January 19, 2011, 02:18:06 AM
definitely, it would be a cavalcade of fun
baaaaaack on topic!
Title: Re: Registration Change
Post by: icy wolf on January 19, 2011, 06:08:55 AM
well some of the spam ive seen is very bad ( have seen it else where) . i dont want any pups to see that. so thats why iam concerned about the spam here.
Title: Re: Registration Change
Post by: WingedZephyr on January 19, 2011, 01:34:05 PM
There's not much to be worried about. We're often very good about removing spam quickly.
Title: Re: Registration Change
Post by: icy wolf on January 19, 2011, 07:53:42 PM
ok thats good  :)
Title: Re: Registration Change
Post by: Tweak on February 15, 2011, 08:14:22 AM
Since implementation of the new system we've blocked nearly 500 spammers.
Title: Re: Registration Change
Post by: Ares the Ram on February 15, 2011, 08:20:22 AM
Hooray! thanks for helping keep our forums free of spam!
Title: Re: Registration Change
Post by: icy wolf on February 15, 2011, 07:23:11 PM
wow that many spammers. good thing we have good mods here to block them.  :)
Title: Re: Registration Change
Post by: Smitty the Airship Pirate on February 15, 2011, 10:20:46 PM
Aye, you guys are doing good.
Keep up the good work!
Title: Re: Registration Change
Post by: WingedZephyr on February 15, 2011, 10:26:12 PM
More than 500 spammers now. :P
Title: Re: Registration Change
Post by: icy wolf on February 16, 2011, 03:46:52 AM
seriously :? its a good thing tweak changed the registration. 
Title: Re: Registration Change
Post by: Tweak on February 16, 2011, 09:10:58 AM
That is kind of my job, to keep everything running smoothly. Heavily under-appreciated and rarely understood but my job nonetheless.
Title: Re: Registration Change
Post by: Vee Katame: His Wolfy on February 16, 2011, 04:33:34 PM
I appreciate you! :)
Title: Re: Registration Change
Post by: icy wolf on February 16, 2011, 06:36:26 PM
That is kind of my job, to keep everything running smoothly. Heavily under-appreciated and rarely understood but my job nonetheless.


if you think people don't appreciate what you have done here, i  appreciate your work. 
Title: Re: Registration Change
Post by: iKero-chu™ on February 17, 2011, 03:12:07 PM
That is kind of my job, to keep everything running smoothly. Heavily under-appreciated and rarely understood but my job nonetheless.

I appreciate you Tweak. :3 <3
Title: Re: Registration Change
Post by: Ares the Ram on February 19, 2011, 05:52:54 AM
That is kind of my job, to keep everything running smoothly. Heavily under-appreciated and rarely understood but my job nonetheless.

I also appreciate you Tweak.
Title: Re: Registration Change
Post by: Timmy Fox on February 19, 2011, 03:10:34 PM
*pretends to be a moderator*
Please get back on top...

Nah, your the best admin I've ever seen Tweak, really!
Title: Re: Registration Change
Post by: Vee Katame: His Wolfy on February 19, 2011, 04:54:18 PM
Pretending to be one and using the color I usually use, no less. :P

Anyways, I will admit that I swayed this into sort of off-topic, so I'll bring it back.
I'm glad you did the registration change. It makes things a lot easier not having to go through everyone who signs up and ban all these spammers (though I know they still end up having to get rid of, but it's a quicker way).
Title: Re: Registration Change
Post by: icy wolf on February 19, 2011, 08:38:49 PM
well even with the registration change, you can still  come here as a "guest" and spam that way cant you?.
Title: Re: Registration Change
Post by: Vee Katame: His Wolfy on February 19, 2011, 09:12:45 PM
Nope. Guests can't post in anything. Even in the Who's Online thing if it says that a Guest is posting, they can't actually put it through.
Title: Re: Registration Change
Post by: Tweak on February 23, 2011, 04:04:08 PM
FYI - we've now blocked nearly 700 spammers!

I also find it amusing that I usually only get appreciation AFTER I've complained :P
Title: Re: Registration Change
Post by: Smitty the Airship Pirate on February 23, 2011, 04:58:33 PM
Any appreciation is better than no appreciation I suppose
now that ya mention it, keep up the good work!  XD
Title: Re: Registration Change
Post by: WingedZephyr on February 23, 2011, 09:55:44 PM
I also find it amusing that I usually only get appreciation AFTER I've complained :P

Maybe it's just because we appreciate your complaints as well. :P
Title: Re: Registration Change
Post by: Vee Katame: His Wolfy on February 24, 2011, 02:57:55 AM
I appreciate you all the time, Tweak. :) Guess I should just say it more so that you can't complain. :P
Title: Re: Registration Change
Post by: icy wolf on February 24, 2011, 05:07:37 PM
just because no on says it doesn't mean that we don't....
Title: Re: Registration Change
Post by: Tweak on March 12, 2011, 03:43:07 AM
Over 1000 now and they keep coming!
Title: Re: Registration Change
Post by: Ares the Ram on March 12, 2011, 03:44:57 AM
Thanks Tweak for helping keep our forums safe!
Title: Re: Registration Change
Post by: icy wolf on March 12, 2011, 05:17:53 AM
gee over 1000? people need to stop trolling
Title: Re: Registration Change
Post by: Tweak on March 12, 2011, 05:38:32 AM
Spammers not trolls..

And it's likely that the majority are automated anyway.
Title: Re: Registration Change
Post by: icy wolf on March 13, 2011, 02:16:02 AM
oh so those  accounts just posted a bunch of adds ?
Title: Re: Registration Change
Post by: Tweak on March 13, 2011, 02:21:09 AM
Well, no. They would but they don't even get past the registration because of this system.
Title: Re: Registration Change
Post by: icy wolf on March 13, 2011, 02:23:00 AM
oh cool, thanks for changing it :)