New Policy on Signatures

[skicdave]

After a few emails about potential spammers, suspicious posting and use of signatures, I'm going to be running a scan of users and signatures in particular. Anything irrelevant or obviously being use to self promote will be removed. Some users and posting will be deleted entirely.

At first glance this seems to be an ever growing issue. If your signature is a link to your/a website, it may be considered for removal. A link back to T4T on your site (if it is relevant) would be considered ok. If you fall into this category, you can send me a private message to ensure your signature URL doesn't get trashed. Alternatively I could do what some forums do, which is disable links in signatures...

Thanks

[Rider.Steve]

. If your signature is a link to your/a website, it may be considered for removal. A link back to T4T on your site (if it is relevant) would be considered ok. If you fall into this category, you can send me a private message to ensure your signature URL doesn't get trashed. Alternatively I could do what some forums do, which is disable links in signatures...

Thanks

Dave,

I apologize, I couldn't help it - I'll change my signature back to an amusing beer quote after a couple glorious hours as a renegade "spammer".

Steve

[RR]

Dave,

I apologize, I couldn't help it - I'll change my signature back to an amusing beer quote after a couple glorious hours as a renegade "spammer".

SteveWalter Mitty rides again :D

[yuckster]

Shouldn't that link be to Hormel.com? :D

[Rider.Steve]

Shouldn't that link be to Hormel.com? :D

The Spam brand has been given some autonomy, or "Spamtonomy" as one might say.

[skicdave]

Well looks like there are a ton of spammers with signatures that need to disappear, as well as home page URL's. The easiest thing to do at this point is to get rid of the signatures and flag any potential bad boys for vetting. Too much effort to write a routine to do everything needed automatically, but I can at least write a routine to trash signatures with URL's as a start, and then remove those that are bad boys afterwards.

I have modified the registration to help fool the spammers (bots at least). Somehow I wonder is some of them are actually paid bodies that register manually, just to get their links since they manage to get by what should stop bots. People pay such firms to get links... any kind of link they can! lol. I may just have to make them spend a little time learning what T4T is about before they can register! :D

The 4,800 or so users that are not 'Toni Matt Club' members will not be allowed to include URL's in their signatures. This is the easiest way to deal with this problem.

I'll set something up as well to prevent them from adding in a home page URL, perhaps based on their post count.

"Thou Shalt Not Spam the Ravine!

:spam:

[Rider.Steve]

"Thou Shalt Not Spam the Ravine!

:spam:

Priceless!

The Westside may be blog-free, but Tux is now spam-free! :cooldog:

It's time for Dave to post the T4T Paypal account number to receive band-width contributions.

[RR]

Right on Steve.

Mouse at the ready!
... will fork over!

Mainly because even trips to the Daks in the Teardrop can put a drain on resources ;)

[BladeGirl]

It's time for Dave to post the T4T Paypal account number to receive band-width contributions.

Seriously, Dave! Make it your signature! ;) If nothing else, do it in a TMC post - we want to help.

[Seeker]

Agreed! What he said! What she said!

[skicdave]

We'll I've deleted a ton (hundreds) of naughty users and am setup now to be able to easily find any new ones. I'll be purging some more in the next few days. Hopefully nobody looses their account, but I am targetting basically anyone with signatures or home page URL's for those that are not active or who have never posted so slim chance any decent person has been trashed.

Would be easier to keep things 'clean' if I updated the forum software, so I may take members up on the 'paypal' donation suggestion. I'll see about adding something shortly. Subsequently I'll update to the latest/greatest vBulletin version.

Cheers

[RR]

Go Dave Go!

Sis boom bah!
Rickum, Rickum Ree
Kick'em in the Knee
Sis boom bo!
Rickum, Rickum Rass
Kick'em in the ...



... Other Knee!

[skicdave]

Just some clarification. Any TMC members won't be affected. You can still have URL's in your signatures. Best to link back if you can to 'help the cause'.

Other members with 0 or just a few post counts are 'in jeopardy' as they say on 'Dancing with the Stars' if the user has URL's in sigs or their home page field.

Non TMC members with more than a few post will be reviewed to see if their sigs/homepages should be considered as spam. Either they will be hoofed, or just sigs/homepages removed. URL's in signatures are disabled for non TMC members currently. I think the software will allow any current URL's, but you won't be able to edit and put in a URL. I should be able to reactivate this in the future when this spam issue is taken care of.

I'll be purging some really old users, and those that registered but have not been active at all in the last year.

Those with low post counts that have URL's in the home page field, or their signature are also 'in jeopardy' as these are typically bots and spammers looking to rank in google without providing any value on the site.

The 'Donation' button will appear in a day or so. Hopefully sufficient funds will be collected to purchase an updated license for vBulletin, as well as contribute to server/bandwidth costs. Donors will get some kind of credit/recognition icon... I'll have to figure out something.

Cheers

[Affix Snow]

Nice work! Im all for donating. Maybe we can get the PHOTOS back up? Im not saying being able to post NEW ones, but the ones that were ORIGINALLY hosted and are now lost.

[skicdave]

Nice work! Im all for donating. Maybe we can get the PHOTOS back up? Im not saying being able to post NEW ones, but the ones that were ORIGINALLY hosted and are now lost.

They're not lost actually Affix. I ran out of steam trying to get them working with some newer photo software or something... I forget now, that was too long ago :D

Maybe I can get them back when I have time this winter.

[boardman]

I'll keep an eye out for the "Donation" button. Will gladly fork over some dough to sustain my T4T habit.

[skicdave]

Thanks boardman. I had this almost implemented but didn't finish testing the paypal account. Very soon!

Now that Google Adsense has been around on the site for a bit, it is obviously not going to do much, averaging a mere dollar or so a day.

[el-bagr]

Here's to our host and administrator, keeping the T4T lights on year after year!

el-b

[The Lisa]

Keeping the lights on is right! I will gladly donate to keep this wonderful community going.

[Rider.Steve]

Thanks boardman. I had this almost implemented but didn't finish testing the paypal account. Very soon!



I'm still looking for that Paypal button. Am I missing it?

[oldman2003]

:Ddonation yes