[THE FORUM] Are we functioning

[walton]

I've updated the security status of the site, etc. etc. But there has been almost no activity on the site, not even spam? Is the site being used? Is it dead?

[Seisa]

Oh, there's been spam. I guess we're just getting to it before you see it. But that's all I've seen for a while.

[Phoenix]

Walton, you only have to peek at the Moderator Log to see that we zap heaps of spam on here. I have seen very little traffic from legitimate posters/members. The site is not totally dead, but ailing, I feel.

[danwiz]

I agree that there has been plenty of SPAM, as Joe pointed out, just look at the Moderator logs! That's all there is though, just spam. I just deleted another one before this post. The few legitimate posts I'm seeing are mostly very simple questions that are not truly worth my time - of the type "how do I get bold text?", which I am not going to waste my time answering.

What does it mean that you updated the security status? I see no difference in the number of SPAMS - there are two new ones right now (about 3 hours after my last spam deletion), which I am going to leave so that you can see them, Walton.

[walton]

The security change (SSL, secure socket layer, etc.) is going to be required by Google starting in July. Signing in here for a few weeks, brought up a warning that the site was not secure. After installing SSL, that warning no longer pops up. My understanding is that if you simply signed in, no problem except that that level of security would have been absent; but if you did a search, unsecure sites would not come up in the Google returns. SSL came at a small price ($), and two days of agonizing phone calls (I was given the wrong code, day 1, so that had to be changed, day 2).

I've had several weeks of performances that ate up time, so I have only signed in once or twice day. Before that, and from now on, I'll be here throughout the day.

Everyone I've talked to, and everything I've read, suggests we have to live with the spam. We can make it worse/more, but are not likely to better/less.

[Michelle]

I've had errors when trying to access the site the last few days.

[danwiz]

I've never had an error when accessing the site. That's probably just me. WIsh the spam people would have errors that would prevent them from signing in!

Walton: Have you given any thought to making every new member's f1rst 1 or 2 or 3 posts be moderated?

[Phoenix]

No problems signing in for me. Walton, I second Dan'l's request. If all new posts are shunted to a waiting queue to be moderated, then the forum will not be full of spam for other members to see. Especially as a lot of it is really filthy porn stuff.

[David Wake]

I'm here, but there haven't been any questions I can answer or anything I need to ask.