[inhitoemits]

I've literally come here to bitch. Read some fascinating stuff yesterday that I wanted to discuss on the forum so I logged on and it's the usual shit again. I've just lost a full hour tidying up after overseas spammers and I'm up to here with it. From today, I'm not even going to leave explantions as it's just too time consuming. Everything that contravenes the rules of this forum from now on gets deleted in bulk and the user gets a life ban. All backlinks will be deleted at the same time. That's how it's going to be.

Other mods have had a mass clear up in the past 24 hours too. We're not going to carry on with it. If I have to, I'll just delete every post from India, the Philippines and Singapore on sight because nobody from out there is adding any value and you're making the handful of respectable business people out there look just as bad as you are.

This is my absolute last word on it. If I have to, I'll gear my moderation skills to making this a strict Aussie/Brit/Ex-Pat forum.

No more warnings. No more Mr Nice Guy.

[AM1VV9r6]

Great rant Mr nice guy!
Maybe you could make changes to the rules so every member has to make at least, say 20 posts before ANY links are accepted by the system. Reckon this would discourage spammers.
Or Making it for Aussie/Brit/Ex-Pat sounds good too.

[inhitoemits]

Great rant Mr nice guy!
Maybe you could make changes to the rules so every member has to make at least, say 20 posts before ANY links are accepted by the system. Reckon this would discourage spammers.
Or Making it for Aussie/Brit/Ex-Pat sounds good too. But how would you know where someone is from exactly?

Hi Catherine,

I'm sure there's a way to change the post count before links can be added and it's a good way to go forward. There are powers higher than myself at AT who are more clued up on this sort of thing than I am. The problem, unfortunately, is that we could end up having to delete 20+ posts instead of the 5 or 6 that most spammers put up. Got to be worth a try though.

I'd hate to have to be too exclusive and I'm sure the forum owners would feel the same. Unfortunately, the overwhelming majority of overseas posters are here for the link juice. That wouldn't be a problem if there were contributions but the crap that they post only serves to drive away the good posters who have something of relevance to say.

As for location, our mod panels display IP addresses which can be loaded into several websites to reveal the location (the one I use gives me the town or city as well as the country). We're winning the war against the Indian linkbuilders and they've slowed down to a trickle. It seems as if it's Singapore and Philippine week at the moment.

I promise you they won't last...

[AM1VV9r6]

As you say, though the time wasting factor must drive you insane at times. Also from the visitors point of view it does give a negative effect when someone lands on any forum and finds spammers only wanting to advertise their business and not give anything back. Stands out a mile though.
Get your point about trying to make it a community and not only exclusive to Aussies. Still think trying to get the 20+ posts idea going would save you a lot of time in the long run if possible.

[catarleriarly]

Alternatively, we could just stone them to death at sunrise. I think it pays to be more practical in these matters sometimes.

[Frdsdx26]

Nasty Emily. Have you been drinking wine again? Lol.

I am not too keen on the 20 post count thing. Than again, I am not a martyr like oneforthemoney and the other mods who clean up the crap.

Grat job mate. Keep it up the good work.

Pete

[catarleriarly]

Nasty Emily. Have you been drinking wine again?

Yes. Strangely, it's vodka that makes me violent and I do my best to make sure I drink plenty of it.

[Misebeita]

Very old thread - but just wanted to say that as a new member, I have to post 10 times before I can do links. Now I see why.

[inhitoemits]

Very old thread - but just wanted to say that as a new member, I have to post 10 times before I can do links. Now I see why.

10 posts, IIRC, for links in posts. At the moment, you can add a link to your signature immediately and for members who are obviously here to be a part of the forum itself, we're happy for them to link away in their signatures without a further word from us.

From your own perspective, we do have a section on the forum for promoting business and websites (beats me why the backlinkers don't use it if they actually have something to offer!) if you don't have a site to link to on your signature yet.

[Misebeita]

10 posts, IIRC, for links in posts. At the moment, you can add a link to your signature immediately and for members who are obviously here to be a part of the forum itself, we're happy for them to link away in their signatures without a further word from us.

From your own perspective, we do have a section on the forum for promoting business and websites (beats me why the backlinkers don't use it if they actually have something to offer!) if you don't have a site to link to on your signature yet.

Ah - cool. My website is very basic while I work on a new one - but I will add it to my signature. Thanks.

Nicole

[Misebeita]

Done! I hope

[Xzmwskxn]

Done! I hope

King welcomes you Nicole.

And your sig link!

[Misebeita]

Thank you "King"

[Xzmwskxn]

A pleasure.

Personally, i am a milk, 2 sugars kinda guy.

But each to their own.

Best of luck with the business and welcome again.

[inhitoemits]

A pleasure.

Personally, i am a milk, 2 sugars kinda guy.

But each to their own.

Best of luck with the business and welcome again.

Anybody as wired as you has to be a double espresso, triple sugar kinda guy.

I actually like the 'Black Coffee Communications' name. Very much a home-based business influence that reaches out. Nice one!

[Leczyslaw]

I appreciate the work you do cutting spammers and keeping this forum as clean as possible. Must be tiring! I'm glad it's you not me

[inhitoemits]

There is a flip side, Karl - I love dishing it out. Some of these mongrels are too stupid for words!

We still have a few slipping through the net but we're getting around 80% of it now. The fact that fighting spam works is highlighted in the change in dynamics on this forum recently. Even over the last 48 hours, we've picked up some potentially great members and others (such as yourself, Catherine, etc) who have been here for a little while now have stayed with it despite the linkbuilders and their attempts to dilute things.

That's the type of thing that makes the effort worthwhile and despite the fact I have days where the spammers really piss me off, I get the rewards when I come here on days like today and just see heaps of people helping each other.

That's what those above me wanted and that's what our members deserve. I'm prepared to persevere! :-)

[Leczyslaw]

Good point about the flip side! It's pretty clean, and you generally just switch off to the spammers because its not too often

[CreativeAcrobate]

Yeah i agree. There is a spam everywhere nowadays. you should see my email inbox!

I kind of ignore it. But having OFTM and other mods cleaning stuff up is really handy. Gotta respect that.

[soineeLom]

Yup. Nicely cleaned up. Only thing is, we now have a forum that's being spammed by a bloke that never shuts up about spam.

Nice going, OTFM.