Should the forum get slow.....

[electra225]

The forum is currently being bombarded by spammers again (or maybe still). There were over 1400 users online during the previous five minutes here a couple minutes ago. We had a record of 3412 online during a five minute period on Monday last. There are individuals, perhaps being paid to do it, who are set on shutting down websites and locking up servers. I have no idea what their endgame would be, other than their ability to do it. Bill and I have been battling these individuals since Christmas time. Some of the large forums are really having issues with slowing down their forums. Ours is small enough that this hasn't been an issue. Yet. Our day is coming. IF you try to access the forum and it's not working right, or if you are on the forum and everything is working really slowly, that is the reason. We just ask for your patience and we'll work thru it best we can......

[TC Chris]

One of my colleagues at work was having slow-computer issues this a.m. I did just fine on Zoom at the same time.

Chris Campbell

[electra225]

There were 3684 users online in a five-minute period last evening on the forum, about 8 pm our time. This is almost 100 times the normal traffic we see on our small forum. I have, as of this morning, cancelled/deleted/otherwise disposed of thousands of potential "new members" who have registered here on the forum, all spambots. Most have ten-letter usernames, the max allowed by the forum software settings. I have been keeping a running paper log of usernames I have removed. There are 14 pages, written in pencil on both sides. Many have returned multiple times. "Roversmarm" was the most prolific. "Minecrafters" has provided the most "spambot members". Anyone who registers and doesn't post a location is considered a spambot and is removed. We have had a few who have posted without posting a location. Some of these individuals were given the opportunity to post their locations and continue with the forum. Many of the email addresses provided by spambot members are fake. They won't work if I try to send a return email. Bill has been taking care of the early spambots, I get the late ones due to the three-hour difference in time between our locations. The procedures we are using varies, depending on the individual.

[hermitcrab]

I don't understand , what is the point of bombarding a site such as this ? especially a hobbyist site....someone has to be paying them , or they have no real life and still live in their parents basement ...

[William]

Or both! I have this knob on right now, Aaroneruri, that wants approval to post some nonsense for us to buy. He/it, has even gone as far as providing all of the proper information that is stated under rules. They are relentless this year.

Bill

[RADWebsites]

I have updated the registration Captcha to Google's RecaptchaV3 in attempt to slow the registration of spam bots. We'll see how it goes.

[RADWebsites]

I have installed the "CleanTalk" extension which automatically checks registering users against a blacklist of known bots and automatically bans them if they're a bot. This is a secondary measure after RecaptchaV3

[William]

Thanks, Mark, I sure hope it works!

Bill

[electra225]

Thank you, Mark! We appreciate all you do trying to keep us up and running. Safely. I sure don't understand all I need to know, but you have been kind and patient and I appreciate that.