Hello
First I have been very happy with the Forumotion experience. I have started my first forum with little practical experience and so far things have gone very well.
I have set up my forum to be visible only to registered members. It is nothing scandalous, but I think the group has a more personal experience when there are no lurkers. Using the permissions of the forum I have set it so that only members can view and post. I've even set up a group which includes the registered members so the forum requires both membership to the forum and membership to the group. I've also set up new accounts to require admin approval, so I felt I had things under control. I have checked the settings myself and when not logged in, all I can see is the main login page and nothing else.
However, twice now in the past week I have noticed on the Who's online page a Guest viewing the forum. I can tell the Guest is in the Forum because it clearly shows the name of the forum they are in rather than saying "Viewing the Forum Index" which is what it says when the Guest is at the login page.
I have banned the IPs and they went away, but I really don't feel like chasing away rats every day just to deliver a private forum experience.
So can someone tell me what is going on here? Is it really this easy for someone to enter a private forum through a back door? Is there any way to prevent this?
Maybe this is a Forumotion person just checking up on things?
Please advise.
First I have been very happy with the Forumotion experience. I have started my first forum with little practical experience and so far things have gone very well.
I have set up my forum to be visible only to registered members. It is nothing scandalous, but I think the group has a more personal experience when there are no lurkers. Using the permissions of the forum I have set it so that only members can view and post. I've even set up a group which includes the registered members so the forum requires both membership to the forum and membership to the group. I've also set up new accounts to require admin approval, so I felt I had things under control. I have checked the settings myself and when not logged in, all I can see is the main login page and nothing else.
However, twice now in the past week I have noticed on the Who's online page a Guest viewing the forum. I can tell the Guest is in the Forum because it clearly shows the name of the forum they are in rather than saying "Viewing the Forum Index" which is what it says when the Guest is at the login page.
I have banned the IPs and they went away, but I really don't feel like chasing away rats every day just to deliver a private forum experience.
So can someone tell me what is going on here? Is it really this easy for someone to enter a private forum through a back door? Is there any way to prevent this?
Maybe this is a Forumotion person just checking up on things?
Please advise.