Spam filter

First topic message reminder :

how many time do i have to complain about this before forumotion act about it....

i know this people been block for no good reason how many members have been block on my forum for no reason who asn;t contact me? it is worrying

Here is the message sent by the contact form page Anonymous of "" - http://staffy-bull-terrier.niceboard.com.

Message subject : [Contact] Account

Message content :

Hi,

When I try and log in it says there is some suspicious activity relating to my user name and to fill in a form to continue. I fill in the form but nothing happens.

Never seen this before, please help.
User name: Gee

it's time forumotion look at the spam filter they have got i'm trying to build a forum when 100s could be banned for no reason, you have to remember there alot of computer dumb people out there when they see something like they they will just move to another forum....

i have reported this problem 4 times now people are getting block for no reason. can someone report this to the tech or owner of the forumotion please.

Hi - the ones who I know don't have malware are people who allowed me remote access to their machine so I could check. I'm a hands-on administrator As I said, troubleshooting this stuff is my day job too.

I have also seen first-hand when the captcha code is rejected even when correctly typed in.

Thanks for fowarding this data to the devs.

Aw yes, remote access to their machines so you could check. I assume you ran a full system scan for viruses sypware and malware on all there computers?

You're absolutely correct you are a "hands-on administrator".

In any event, good luck to.

nordmann wrote:Hi - the ones who I know don't have malware are people who allowed me remote access to their machine so I could check. I'm a hands-on administrator As I said, troubleshooting this stuff is my day job too.

I have also seen first-hand when the captcha code is rejected even when correctly typed in.

Thanks for fowarding this data to the devs.

Yes, that's typically the case I mentionned previously. When the captcha code isn't enough to unblock the user, that means that the username + the IP address have been blocked .

I'll let you know !

Edit : While waiting, you can provide their usernames by PM so that I would be able to unblock them

Thanks

runawayhorses wrote:No one has ever been blocked from my forum ever, because its working like it should, like it always has for the past 4 1/2 years. The only reason anyone would be blocked is because the anti-spam filter thinks they are suspicious. Computers do not discriminate emotionally.

Maybe because you have only 43 members on your forum when on my i have 4377 members i got nearly 200 plus on it per day. i have over 270,000 post..

How the heck can people get block becasue they have spyware or melware

runawayhorses wrote:Considering your earlier complaint and query concerning word ads popping up in members posts and the fact it was diagnosed as being your members had a virus, it is easy to conclude that your members being reconised as "suspicious" is a result of there viruses they have on there computers.

none of them had a virus so can you think before you talk because you clearly dont know what your are talking about thanks . trying your hardest to be mod while your forum is failling it's pretty funny to watch.

runawayhorses wrote:Aw yes, remote access to their machines so you could check. I assume you ran a full system scan for viruses sypware and malware on all there computers?

You're absolutely correct you are a "hands-on administrator".

In any event, good luck to.

I did, yes. I used a licenced OfficeScan client and MalwareBytes on all three of them. Squeaky clean, all of them. I also monitor an OfficeScan central console to which the clients I installed report so can monitor them daily. I used TeamViewer to establish remote sessions when I needed to see their screen. These are people I know so there was no hassle arranging remote control.

I'm putting out an APB for people to report back to me if they are currently blocked. I'll send you the list, Leeloo, when it's all in so I won't be repeatedly bugging you with requests.

Incidentally - two of the three found before that they got access to the forum back after waiting a few days. If, as you say, both their IP addresses and Usernames had been blacklisted and that is why the captcha code didn't work, then it seems strange that the anti-spammer algorithm would then allow them access again afterwards. It isn't the way any filtering I am familiar with has worked in the past and seems a pretty weird way of going about things - especially administering access to discussion forums where so much depends on the community ethos and which is therefore very vulnerable to trusted and valued members of that community being "sin binned". That is why I urgently need guidelines to explain to my members what they're doing wrong, if anything, and how to avoid this horrible disruption to their enjoyment of the forum. As I said, more of this and the whole thing will just die as the community's principal members get fed up being locked out.

S-t-e-v-e- wrote:none of them had a virus so can you think before you talk because you clearly dont know what your are talking about thanks . trying your hardest to be mod while your forum is failling it's pretty funny to watch.

Well, at least she's getting there. Your here complaining about members who have been blocked which you say totals to 4 people and you have 4377 users. I went to your forum and got this stats, "In total there are 93 users online :: 28 Registered, 1 Hidden and 64 Guests :: 2 Bots". You've only gotten 28 members currently on and the most you've had is 203. I'd say about 4,000 is at least inactive if not more. Your users have done something to make them be recognized as spam accounts. Forumotion wouldn't just block people for no reason, they'd be out of business. I don't think she's trying to be a mod either. I think she just got tired of hearing you complain. You should never bring someone else down as you might not be know better.

Also, I believe you stated you had 2,000 visits per day, I checked there to and the most you've ever had on your forum was 208. Not to mention you've put 99 hours at the bottom instead of 24 hours to make it look bigger.

hit per day it's differnet to how many is on at once! everybody knows that surely

clearly they are blocking people for no reason. How many members have been block that has not reported god only knows how many has been, i know 4 people who as reported this problem to me, what about people who was new and they thought it was me who did it to them... it could only be 10 other BUT it also could be in it's 100s on my forum

trying your hardest to be mod while your forum is failling it's pretty funny to watch.

S-t-e-v-e-, your comments were not really necessary. If you have a problem with anyone just ignore them or report them instead of trying to start a flame war, thanks.

S-t-e-v-e-, well, you won't listen to us, so I won't be replying back here.

Leeloo has told everyone in this thread how to fix your problem with your members getting banned on the blacklist she will do her best to remove them members from our servers as soon as she can.

There is nothing wrong with the spam filter.

Ok the only problem i can see with it is if your with AOL BT & Sky your ip address is a rolling ip and you can get an ip address that some one else has used to maybe hack a site that then gets reported to google Bing Yahoo that then gets put on the list

This is why FM let leeloo Go in and remove your members so the ban gets lifted as soon as they can.

No spam filter is 100% but it will help us in the long run..

I really can not see why this thread is still open it's only going to make a little problem become a fight and let you all get more warnings and bans...

I've had my say in this matter....


OVER AND OUT

~Ape~

i am just about ready to give up on this forum ..

How can you help someone if they don't tell you they have a problem because if i was member and saw something like straight away i would think why would the admin do this and then i would move to another forum because i would think the admin didn't want me.

You could post a message in an announcement or in the homepage message informing members and guests about this.

If i had this Same problem i would do as SLG just said make a post saying there is a small problem with one of our spam Filters that may block some names from our servers but if they Email you or post as a guest with a name of the members and you could then pass this on to Leeloo to fix for you
once this is done then you could Close that thread...

This is an easy way around i ok it may not look that good but it's the only way around the problem for now.

Ape

APE wrote:
Ok the only problem i can see with it is if your with AOL BT & Sky your ip address is a rolling ip and you can get an ip address that some one else has used to maybe hack a site that then gets reported to google Bing Yahoo that then gets put on the list


~Ape~

This makes sense to me, APE. The cases I've investigated have had dynamically assigned IPs in common, be it through their ISP or because they themselves logged in from different locations, such as internet cafes, universities, libraries etc. However if this is the case then OnlineGuardian's algorithm is incredibly basic, in fact too basic to function intelligently in this day and age. A filter should at a minimum these days have a heuristic ability to differentiate between benign and malicious traffic regardless of address of origin - identifying rotated or public access addresses is an essential part of that process and an integral part of other filters. OG is simply not doing that and therefore penalising innocent users.

However it would be nice if this was confirmed by Forumotion on its own members' behalf. At least I can then as an administrator warn my members that with Forumotion hosted forums it is a good idea not to log in from diverse locations and not a good idea either to use ISPs such as BT.

However I am afraid that even with that the cumbersome procedure for whitelisting incorrectly tagged access and the default "sin binning" are both anathemic to forum functionality. Unlike other websites a forum represents a community of interactive members and any unwarranted disruption to that inactivity attacks the viability of the site at a very fundamental level. To put it simply, OnlineGuardian is not a good tool for the job, and in fact it is proving destructive in the case of the forum of which I am founder.

i think forumotion needs to a make a block list in the admin panel and so we can remove ones we feel are not spam bots.

S-t-e-v-e- wrote:i think forumotion needs to a make a block list in the admin panel and so we can remove ones we feel are not spam bots.

Not going too far either. The anti-spam system is a general security tool, it doesn't correspond to a particular forum, but all of our forums. There is no question here of making an option accessible by founders of forums, you understand why.

It is not necessary to make a generality when we are sure only for few users of your forum. I explained how the anti-spam system works, I also forwarded your concerns to the devs.
And in the meantime, I'm totally available by PM to unblock users if necessary.

Please be patient and avoid useless comments.

Thanks a lot !

There are lots of people affected by this, a couple of months ago there were a lot of threads about this, then they got merged into an only topic, which then got locked. I am not sure how many threads are on the go at the moment, a few I suspect, as I have found three, including the locked only topic, straight away

It's impossible to know how many members are affected and don't bother, or don't know how to, let their admins know. This is my third member to complain by e-mail to me, and complain he is

I have sent a PM as requested

EDIT: Sorted via PM

Leeloo

And the same member is blocked again, along with another member and it's the weekend. That's four in total (that I know of) on my forum

I'll try that and get back to you