ORB the other Mod was up before the birds so was highly effective at killing off anything that came in during the early hours. Much of it seems to be from the far East so hits the forum around 2am to 5am UK time.

There could be software improvements but I think we just have to work with what we have.

There has been a noticeable increase in the last few days, I emailed the IT dept. a couple of days ago to see if they can do anything. I think last time we complained they were able to run a spam filter update.

Last thing at night I check all the new account registrations and disable any that look suspect but it's very hard to determine especially as I can't see IP addresses which would help.

Edited by Xileno on 20/01/2023 at 15:51

I think Skidpan that the main difference is the visibility of this website compared to less well-known (outside of UK car owners from each make or on specific topics) forums, especially those that don't have a journalistsic main function.

It probably doesn't have the income (at the moment) under the current climate in the motor industry to afford to revamp the site and to hire more salaried staff (including moderators) to add to Xileno's excellent volunteer work plus the presumed assistance of the site's I.T. person (who may not work for them full time) as required.

Most 'fan' type sites (owners' clubs, etc) that are country-specific outside of the US rarely get bothered with spam to a great degree because it's probably not worth the time and effort by the spammers - they are too small fry.

Internationally-known site, as this appears to be (possibly because of the similarlity in name to the US dot com version, hence why we regularly get Americans asking for US-specific advice on the forum not knowing its a British website) would attract more attention.

The other problem is that all it takes is for ONE person - a forum member or (pardon the pun) backroom staff - to get hacked or suchlike that their entire email address book (including the HJ site email contacts) could then fall into the hands of interweb nasty people, who often sell such details onto fellow criminals all over the globe.

For the ordinary person, it's much easier to stop the spam, etc by changing passwords and even email address, but for a website, once your details are out there, there's little you can do.

Websites with forums that bring in larger ad revenue can more easily afford more staff and software to reduce spam. The problem is that many of them are also much more censorious, especially because they use autocensor software which often kills useful debates and conversations as well as the bad and/or spam.

I know of a good few MSM and more independent forums and comments areas below articles where the autocensor software deletes or moderates to death (hours before a post gets 'allowed') essentially innocuous comments but allows blindingly obvious spam, again and again. Users find that even more infuriating that what occasionally happens here, which is terms of severity is far less.

Prolific again tonight.

Do they have some sort of auotmated method of posting so many new threads, wouldn't have thought possible results to be cost effective otherwise but what do i know.

If they worked that efficiently at a proper job they'd be doing alright without spamming forums.