All Please Read: Modified Permissions Due to SPAM

[Mike]

To FishLore Members,

Earlier today a spammer sent out an extremely inappropriate porn message via the PM function here. If you set up your account to receive email notifications from the forum, you got it in your email as well. The forum has an automated feature to only allow so many PM's in a given time frame, so hopefully the software prevented some of you from receiving this PM. However, many members did receive it.

Due to this low-life that tried to send out spam to everyone on the forum, I had to change some of the settings to prevent something like this from happening again. I modified some of the permission levels, especially for new members (newbies). Newbies will no longer be able to send a PM. Junior Members and above can still send a PM.

I apologize to the newbies and it's unfortunate but we can't let stuff like that go on here. For the newbies, the permission levels are based on the number of posts.

If you receive any spam that you think originated here, please don't hesitate to let me know (support@fishlore.com) so I can follow up on it. We can't let these spammers ruin it for the rest of us!

Mike

[Isabella]

Thanks for the changes Mike. While they may be inconvenient for newbies, I think it is worth to keep this setting so that Fish Lore is safer. We do not want any similar PMs to be sent out again, and possibly read by people under 18. This should never happen again. If you think about it, it's not that long before you become a Junior Member, right? How many posts does one have to have in order to become a Junior Member?

[Tumbleweed]

Originally Posted by Isabella

Thanks for the changes Mike. While they may be inconvenient for newbies, I think it is worth to keep this setting so that Fish Lore is safer. We do not want any similar PMs to be sent out again, and possibly read by people under 18. This should never happen again. If you think about it, it's not that long before you become a Junior Member, right? How many posts does one have to have in order to become a Junior Member?

25 Posts.

[Isabella]

Thanks Tumbleweed

[Gwenz]

Thanks Mike. I think this is a good idea.

Gwenz

[hopesmom]

thanks for your quick action,
Denise

[petercaine]

as a newbie myself and a parent of two i was disgusted to see such filth on a family site glad my kids were asleep got the link twice but i now know i will not be opening any more well done for your speedy coreection of the matter
thanks

[Jmarcus]

Thanks Mike

[chickadee]

Thank you Mike and Thank you to the members who contacted the moderators when you didn't know if we had seen it or not. It was the correct thing to do and just in case we hadn't seen it it would have been the only way we would have known.

Rose

[Clint]

Well I was obviously not a memeber when this took plce read the qutes and ur well done and quick attention to this matter u can bet ur betta I will keep an eye out. this is to good a site for "low lives" to attack and ruin it for myself and others who truly need the advice from the wonderful and Sooooooo knowledgeable people on this site... thx 4ur time .....Clint

[Jendayi]

Originally Posted by Mike

Due to this low-life that tried to send out spam to everyone on the forum, I had to change some of the settings to prevent something like this from happening again. I modified some of the permission levels, especially for new members (newbies). Newbies will no longer be able to send a PM. Junior Members and above can still send a PM.

I apologize to the newbies and it's unfortunate but we can't let stuff like that go on here. For the newbies, the permission levels are based on the number of posts.

I realize this thread is old, and I'm sorry for resurrecting it. But I just recently became aware of my inability to send PM's and it really baffled me - until just today I reached 100 posts and finally the ability to was there. I have to say that I think reaching 100 posts before being able to send a PM is very excessive - as well as being contrary to the information I quoted above. This encourages people to clutter up legitimate threads with off topic information because no PM option is available. I was not even able to reply to a private message sent to me from a long time member.

I run a website that uses this same forum software, and we have added a plugin that stops new users from adding links if they have under a certain number of posts (adjusted to 10 in our case) and that helped with our forum spam problem immensely. At our site we encourage people to take conversations to private message so that people who are looking for legitimate information don't have to wade thru a ton of posts of people conversing back and forth.

I'm sorry that you had a problem with some low life before my time. But I think that effectively punishing your new members because of one jerk is extreme. How many of your new members actually stick around long enough to make it to 100 posts? If it's anything like my site, probably not a high percentage of the people who register. There are other options for controlling spam than denying members a useful tool.

[Mike]

Jendayi - sorry for the late reply, but I just noticed your response... Thanks for your input, but I don't look at it as "punishing the new members" - I agree that the PM tool is a great feature but one that is easily misused in so many ways and that is why I decided to change it so that only Full Members and above can PM. There is a trust factor involved here and I stand by my original decision to block the Personal Message functionality unless you're a Full Member or above.

Running this website, I get, literally, hundreds of SPAM emails everyday that are blocked by my SPAM filters and I'm not easily surprised by what these idiots (spammers) are capable of, but the PM that was sent out by that scum bag to all of our members really set me off. I could not believe the total lack of RESPECT for other human beings that this person had to have in order to do such a thing, not to mention that I considered this a criminal act. This is a free PUBLIC forum that allows anyone to sign up. Everyone, including children, can access this forum and while I can never keep the bad guys completely out of here, I can make it harder for them.

I think blocking the PM's was a good solution since I didn't want to install yet another plugin for this software. If it means that some folks don't want to be a member here because they have to be a full member before they can PM, well I guess I'll take that over the alternative. However, I really don't think that easing the PM restriction will mean that junior members stick around longer. They'll stick around because they want to be here and not because they couldn't send a PM until they had so many posts.

This incident made me want to start up a citizens task force of vigilante hackers that could totally fry this spammer's system. Still in the design phases.

[COBettaCouple]

i hate spammers.. i like to code but i wish i had the knowledge to code some sort of 'smart super virus' to search the net and purge it of spammers by turning their own servers on them. The internet is kind of a 'wild west' where these scumbags hide out in the lawless wastes to waylay good people. then i'd go after the jerks that make those porn popups that plague the internet and often pop up on children. thank God for excellent pop-up blockers.

[chickadee]

Thank you, Mike. Those of us who went through the incident you spoke of and realized that the very youngest of our members were also affected by it fully support your decision and we have not noticed that those who have been restricted have left the forum in large numbers. It seems to me that we are growing in leaps and bounds and that most of the new members stay and become very loyal members.

Rose

[armadillo]

Mike (or someone else in the know). Could you please post each member status here too, as well as what permissions each status gives rights to? Thanks!

[alan l]

is there any reason why im being denied entrance to fish pic gallery also what is pm

[alan l]

mike i just read the gallery is down so disregard my previous message thanks mate

[Trpimp147]

i was wondering why i couldnt get on last night... i was sad but its a good things are fixed now. thanks

[armadillo]

We are such drug addicts, aren't we? I came back after driving back from work (3hr trip) and I really felt: I have deserved a quick shot of Fishlore. And it was out!!

[COBettaCouple]

Originally Posted by armadillo

We are such drug addicts, aren't we? I came back after driving back from work (3hr trip) and I really felt: I have deserved a quick shot of Fishlore. And it was out!!

yea, i just walked around in circles making fish noises.

[Morph]

how do you send a pm then or how long does one stay a newb?

[sirdarksol]

After so many posts. (50 or 100, I can't remember exactly)

[Coryd55]

It is 50 posts.