Forum Moderators: skibum
hi
I'm (Name deleted), a sys admin with domaindeleted.com.
Recently, we received a submission to our search engine for your site "DOMAIN NAME DELETED", but did not get an email address
(I think it was an automated submission?) I only found your email address by looking up your domain at network solutions.
If you'd like to update your record, please manually resubmit to our spider at [Domaindeleted...]
using whichever email address works best for you.
Please let me know if I can be of any further assistance.
thnx,
(Name deleted)
(Names deleted to protect the guilty and innoncent!)
We have neither submitted there nor use auto submitting software. I dont know about you but this sort of blatant lying to get you to try out a Web site takes out a lot of enjoyment of using email and the Web, amd may be the reason that some surveys are coming out saying people spend less time on the Web now.
When you get there, of course you are presnted with a long form to fill out personal details before submitting.
Just interested to see if anybody else got this.
I learned recently not to follow any links in unsolicited email, even "opt out" links. Spammers like opt-out click throughs because they validate your address for them.
Since I stopped following opt-out links on USCE (about three months ago), my spam has fallen off considerably.
I like your website. It is a very nice travel-related site. Drive up to 2000 travelers per day to your site, by being included in our travel directory. Try it for FREE!
For more information:
Sincerely,
Brett XXXXXX
President
=========================================
WOW! Now, THAT certainly impresses me! Where do I sign up?
(No, not Tabke, but have you noticed how many Brett's there are in this business?)
Our own discussion board is often visited by visitors who post a link to a site or a comment (usually critical of other posters) followed by follow ups from different names saying how good the site is or how much they agree. A review of the logs reveals they came from the same IP and browser configuration. Im sure moderators here are well aware of this, though this board itself is almost devoid of it.
Probably one of the worst aspects of the anonymity of the web is that it brings out the worst in people, .. or the worst people.. when they dont have to front you face to face...
End of rant... sorry about this but it reduces the value of the Web as a communication and information source for all of us and threatens its credibility as a whole.
Not sure what we one can do about it.
Many of the members really wouldn't believe how much time goes into keeping this board as free of that type of stuff as possible while still trying to be congenial to everyone else. It is a HUGE job. We've been double- and triple-teamed by some real pros.
The moderators have become very concerned that we appear too aggessive in editing urls sometimes -and sometimes I'm sure we are. For those times it's been unwarranted, we'd like to apologize. We do try to strike a balance, but it's very hard since an innocent url-drop by a sincere member will be pounced upon as an opportunity to spam the board, using the "one we let get by" as a precedent.
I find this board works so smoothly that we visitors often take the hours of moderating work for granted.
Perhaps the moderator's work here answers my own question in the previous post as to how do we keep the Web free from fibbers! All in our own way...
You were not asking for thanks RC and co., but thanks anyway...
Hey, thanks! That's a great compliment.
Have you considered just letting those with a specific number of previous posts to post linked URL's? Say 25 or 50 or so?
Almost all URL dropping abuse comes from new users (usually their first post!).If someone has been proven a good community member by reaching some sort of number of posts, then maybe they can be trusted.
Seeing Brett seems to do magic things regularly with scripts and such, this could be linked to those category names "Senior Member, Member" etc...
This would solve problems with people thinking they have been unfairly treated as its one rule for all...
Never, keep up the good work.
Brian
Thought about it many, many times. Then the 2nd thought hits me that it would just be the http laying there anyay. I know I could write code to strip out http's, but then they would just post the domain name. It could become a hassle for good users.
I think the system in place now is working excellent. I did a full extraction of all urls in posts and profiles (see other post in website technology on "how do I extract urls") last week to look for any weird stuff and to prepare for some future features. Out of the 42000 messages with 1500 urls total found in posts and profiles, I bet we haven't edited 60 over the last year and a half. More than half of those have been "try me buy me" ads or clear spam, the rest were from first time posters who just didn't know.
Almost every time we edit a post we email the member. It is important to me that they understand why we did it. The moderators and admins all agree with a "leave the users alone" hands off attitude as far as we can push it. It is their contributions that make the community work. It is a huge respect issue to me. If they are willing to take time to contribute to the system, they deserve every benefit of the doubt. At times we are biten back quite hard. Last week for instance when Go announced it was shutting the doors. We had close to a dozen spam posts I deleted by first time users that were nothing but "go here" posts for other sites. What did I get for it? Attacked for being unfair.
Another time we may edit a post is when it presents a clear and present legal liability to the board (slander/libel). We even let those go many times and instead let the thread itself work it's way back to sanity. Many times when that happens, we contact both parties involved and try to resolve it email. We probably do more email with users here than most forums.
I have to thank the moderators for their vigilance on these issues. There is little that escapes them, yet still keep the community atmosphere at the congenial pitch it deserves. Most of use have been censored or edited without cause or justification at other sites around, and we are hyper sensitive to the issue of editing a post. It is a last resort effort.
Lastly, thank you to the users who support and contribute to the community on these issues. If anyone wants to talk about it further in private - email address is on profile. I'm not the fastest responder in the world because the volume I get, but I do try to respond to every thing from the board in a timely manner.
Even when I see urls that people are giving to help other people, or contemplate it myself, I wonder, "should I do this?" I hate to see spam url drops, and have noticed the clear lack of them here.
Other places, not so the same thing. And they are annoying, because they lessen the value of what is here. Just wanted to add my thanks for all the good work to Brett, RCjordan, and the other mods. Your efforts are noticed, by the lack of what we all don't want to see.
Cheers,
Han solo
