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Stephen Katz
Starting Member
USA
5 Posts |
 Posted - 25 September 2006 : 23:44:09
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I plan on downloading the Snitz forum sometime in the future. A few other websites I post on, use Snitz and I like the layout of the Snitz forum better than other forums. Plus the support here seems to be tremendous.
If anyone wants a laugh, even though it really isn't funny, here is a link to a Snitz forum that is horribly, HORRIBLY, infested with spam.
http://www.nomoregambling.com/forum/forum.asp?FORUM_ID=4
Look at the one "huge" post on the front page which is 100% total spam. I don't know the forum owners and for whatever reason they obviously don't care about moderating their forum. I intend to closely moderate my forum because it needs to stay completely spam free.
I've read some of the posts here regarding spam, and will go back and read all the others before asking redundant questions. I like the way the Snitz "postmaster" e-mailed me and made me copy & paste a signup link and then send, before allowing membership. I imagine hopefully that will keep out much of the "automatic" spam.
If anyone has any general comments about spam that maybe haven't been mentioned before, or maybe just some good general guidance or advice, it would be most appreciated. In any event, I look forward to some interesting discussion and learning experiences with Snitz and the forum members.
Thank you for allowing me to be a member!
Stephen Katz |
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HuwR
Forum Admin
United Kingdom
20595 Posts |
Posted - 26 September 2006 : 03:26:28
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Hi Stephen,
As you can see we don't get much Spam here either  that is mainly because we control the registration process, this is done by enabling "email validation" and "restrict registrations" in the admin options, and then further by having a good set of Administrators and moderators who remove any offending posts that do slip through the net. We are also trying out a few methods to try and reduce the number of bogus registration attempts which may make i into the next release if they prove successful.
and finally welcome to the community. |
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Stephen Katz
Starting Member
USA
5 Posts |
Posted - 26 September 2006 : 06:18:45
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Thank you for the welcome Huw.
The other Snitz forum that I am familiar with is listed below:
http://www.gamblingtherapy.org/forum/
Obviously the forum listed in my first post would be unacceptable to me. I'd rather not have any forum than a forum such as that. The main problem has to be that they do not require registration. It actually was a decent forum until approximately two or three months ago when all heck broke loose and the spammers thoroughly infested the forum which has basically ruined it.
This second forum listed requires registration and is well moderated. I have seen an occasional spam post but nothing bad. The spam quickly gets deleted. If I'm remembering right, an e-mail confirmation is not used at this second listed forum, so with using the e-mail confirmation "method" as was done with my membership here, I'm hopeful that will keep virtually all spam away.
I do not know the owners of the listed second forum either, but they are active on the forum and actually do discuss the topics as well as the forum itself. The only occasional problem they seem to have is a spammer joining and then gathering e-mails of the members and then e-mailing spam to the members. Usually it has been in the form of those "Nigerian" type letters asking to place $10 million in a bank account.
The nice thing with the Snitz forum is that it certainly appears that the Snitz designers are totally aware of various spam problems, and are actively doing their best and everything possible to keep the spam eliminated or at least to a bare minimum.
Thanks again Huw!
Steve |
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HuwR
Forum Admin
United Kingdom
20595 Posts |
Posted - 26 September 2006 : 08:42:19
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| there is a recent mod floating around which prevents members from emailing other forum members unless they have made a certain number of posts this should prevent the Nigerian type scam emails from being sent. |
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ruirib
Snitz Forums Admin
Portugal
26364 Posts |
Posted - 26 September 2006 : 08:50:34
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Hi Steve,
Here is the mod to block users from posting until they get a certain number of posts made in the forum:
http://forum.snitz.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=62640
This has been quite effective in stopping Nigerian scam emails, cause the admin gets a copy of all emails sent by members who didn't get the required number of posts, so they can be locked before they annoy any forum legitimate members. |
Snitz 3.4 Readme | Like the support? Support Snitz too |
Edited by - Podge on 26 September 2006 09:11:38 |
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Stephen Katz
Starting Member
USA
5 Posts |
Posted - 26 September 2006 : 12:27:20
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Thank you Rui. I posted that link on the other forum so that hopefully the moderators there can take advantage of it, as will I when getting my Snitz Forum up and running.
Thanks again Rui. This is all so very much appreciated!
Steve |
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ruirib
Snitz Forums Admin
Portugal
26364 Posts |
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Stephen Katz
Starting Member
USA
5 Posts |
Posted - 26 September 2006 : 22:36:28
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Thanks again for the replies. I'm sort of "thinking out loud" with this next question as I get into the mental planning of the forum before downloading it and getting started.
My goal is for the forum to be 100% spam free and troll free. There will be a number of vulnerable people coming to the forum who are looking for help, and having any spammer or troll upsetting anyone is unacceptable.
I believe what we've already discussed is good enough to basically keep out the automated spam bots. I realize that it might be difficult to keep a "motivated" individual spammer or troll off a forum, but I want to try my best on this.
I was thinking of having a newbie basically "apply" for membership before posting. Perhaps with a sample post or description of themselves of some sort.
So...Can the Snitz Forum be setup by a moderator whereby a prospective member must do all the registration, but also as well submit a "sample post" or the first "actual post" for approval before membership is allowed? I would just not like for even one troll to infiltrate the forum if possible. I realize that a "clever" troll could "fool me" with a sincere looking first post and then when on board become a nuisance, but that would be acceptable as far as I'm concerned about operating a forum. That troll would quickly be deleted and I doubt that this would happen very often. I think in this day & age of the internet, members of forums expect the occasional troll to rear its ugly head. But I think the key is to keep the troll posts to a bare minimum and I believe my "gameplan" can hopefully achieve this.
So again...Can the Snitz Forum be setup by a moderator whereby a prospective member must do all the registration, but also as well submit a "sample post" or the first "actual post" for approval before membership is allowed?
Thank you!
Steve |
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RichardKinser
Snitz Forums Admin
USA
16655 Posts |
Posted - 27 September 2006 : 00:49:26
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| You can enable moderation for your forums, so that a moderator would have to approve the message before it's actually posted. But, the way it's currently setup, it would apply to everyone. What you would need is a way to have the forum only moderate users based on some sort of criteria (like number of posts the user has, or how long they have been a member, etc...). |
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Stephen Katz
Starting Member
USA
5 Posts |
Posted - 27 September 2006 : 02:12:34
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Thank you for the post Richard. I definitely wouldn't want to moderate/review every post. The forum could eventually have hundreds of members and I wouldn't have the time or energy to do it that way. Just the first post from prospective members.
I'll have to download the Snitz Forum and explore the capabilities. I thought about this after my post question, and I guess if it is a problem and Snitz isn't capable of handling this, then I could have prospective members manually e-mail me with a first post before the registration process.
Of course the dilemma is not to make the forum too complicated or too slow to join. Some people may have an immediate problem and want to get a post right up for some help and guidance. Perhaps I'll just give the "standard" registration procedure a try and see how it goes. All this will most likely always be a work in progress to some degree, but I am looking forward to it.
Thanks again!
Steve |
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