New "Sales" Messages

[DMcGovern]

Anyone else receiving new spam sales messages? It seems to have started with the new version of the message boards. This is a great Forum for benefits people! I hope you can filter out these unwanted messages. Thanks!

[Dave Baker]

Yikes. Are these coming to you via your Personal Messenger? Or are they emails?

Dave

[Mike Preston]

They are not through the Personal Messenger. They are just randomly posted messages, usually to existing threads, but sometimes they start their own. I just obliterate them as soon as I see them so unless you use your super-duper-admistrator tools to look at deleted messages you won't see them through normal means.

[DMcGovern]

Mike is correct. Sorry you have to deal with this, Dave!

[Dave Baker]

Given the law of behavioral thermodynamics that says life moves to the state of highest irony, the upgrade to the message board software (from ancient version 2 to version 3) was done on a PDQ basis due to potential security issues that needed to be patched. I received an email from the vendor.

I am so sorry for not providing advance notice to you of the change.

While the security issue has been patched, it appears that spammers turned their attention long ago from the more rarely used version 2 to the currently widely used version 3. Hence we've seen an increase in the number of spam messages posted by "users" who register for that sole purpose. The game is to put into the message links to the spammers' sites. The links are designed to take people to the spam sites but also to get Google points for the spam sites due to the incoming links. Happily their game is not to post porn or malware on the message boards. (Prevention of malware is the vendor's security primary focus, and has been 100% effective due to the monitoring and support of thousands of sites that use this message board software). So these spam posts are basically just a nuisance to our users.

The new version of the software is tied into a network run by the vendor that catches most of the spammers before their registration can be completed. It's a database that gets checked automatically during the registration process.

Moderators have the ability to delete these posts, using a "Delete" link that appears towards the lower-right corner of each post. Also, all registered users have the ability to click on a "Report" link in that same vicinity, which sends an email to the moderator and to me.

Also, moderators have a one-click ability to nuke the spam user's registration (preventing future posts) and to delete all messages posted (on all of our message boards) by the spammer. Moderators, hover your mouse over the name of the spammer (in the top left corner of each post). You should get a pop-up menu with a little icon that has a yellow flag and a "plus" sign. When you hover over it, you should get a tooltip that says "Flag as Spammer." One click on that icon makes a pretty mushroom cloud.

Thanks for your patience with the new version! It has some awfully nice features, although everything takes getting used to, and everybody hates change (me, too). I'll try to spend more time describing some of the new features. (Unfortunately the vendor has not published a nice v2 to v3 comparison chart.) Moderator Denise Appleby has done some wonderful work already in this regard.

[Bird]

Talk about irony...I was able to flag a spammer on the very next post, in this thread. Geez.

[GBurns]

It is a nuisance that almost every Forum has to tolerate especially when there is a new version or conversion. Eventually the system "learns" and it eventually goes away. It is only temporary.