Crap on the forum

[darbyjudy]

Why can't this crap on the form be elimated. Its on the class A forum about pills. this has got to be gone or I am.

[RJ82much]

Darby,

Again, to enjoy our forum, we are going to have to put up with this garbage. Again, to have our admin approve each new membership request solves nothing. There is no way to guarantee that today's new member doesn't start spamming tomorrow.

The final solution is to have every message approved before posting. That'll weed out the junk, but your admin will grow very weary of the daily routine & probably shut down the forum himself.

If you haven't noticed, today's pill-pusher has already been shutdown at the site where he posted each pill page. Last week, I managed to contact another web site that had been hacked in similar fashion by an apparent member. That site owner cleaned the pages out of his computer directories. This pill pusher is most likely the same in both instances, except it's impossible to find him personally. He surfs the internet looking to hack into weak systems to secretly plant the pages, then joins probably thousands of forums. For a day, he's got free advertising that can't be stopped.

We'll miss you Darby, you had a lot to contribute, but I think you've demanded conditions that will be impossible to meet. However, that's between you & gsadmin.

[earljan34]

darby,

I visit many sites and all have had this problem at one time or another the important thing is not to click on there site, Its just like foul language you ignore it. Hope you reconsider we don't want to loose you.

Earl

[gsadmin]

darby, please read my post in the Class A forum at the top. It explains this dilemma.

I am taking action as fast as I can, but it is a battle that is hard to fight. These are people with no "address" its not like they are running reputable businesses that they need fear of reprisal from consumers or law enforcement.

I have chosen to keep the forum open. It makes it easier to moderate and for new people to join.

Think about it this way, someone finds our little forum and decides that they have an issue or a comment they would like to make but they are not yet a member. So, they go and fill out the form and then it tells them they need to wait to be approved. So, two days goes by and myself or someone else finally approves them (this is not my full-time job, by far). By this time, the user will probably never return to post what was before a spur of the moment comment they wanted to make. This is why I don't want to close the board.

The flip side is that we all have to deal with this crap from time to time. We are taking action. RJ has helped by tracking down a couple of sammers and sending some abuse emails. I continually delete bogus user accounts. Just today I added a whole slew of drug names to the "name filter" that replaces "bad" words with other words. So, now if any spammer puts a post with, for instance, "V-iagra" (without the dash) in it, the actual post will say "Go Away Spammer!". Hopefully no one has a legitimate need to use "V-iagra" on the board :)

So, Darby, unless someone wants to pitch in and provide about 100x the $ that my advertising on this site provides, its the best its probably going to get. If that is not good enough, well then I will be sad to see you leave the group.

[darbyjudy]

I guess I have to agree with all that you have said. It just seems funny that I read the Good Sams Forum several times a day and I have never seen this. Maybe it is because they do check each message. I don't know but it really burns me to see this type of stuff. Maybe I am just too picky but forgive me for I will probably be here as long as I own a GulfStream product.

[RJ82much]

Darby,

First, glad you plan on continuing with us.

Second, you must have purchased a Good Sams membership to post on their "member forum". Either I did something wrong, or you can't even view their forums without a paid membership.

I don't think any spammer will buy a membership, only to have that ID revoked in less than 24 hours. Plus, the credit card that must be used leaves a traceable path back to the culprit. If you notice, our spammers in our free forum take out multiple IDs every day. They "expire" as soon as GSadmin sees that they are bad guys.

I guess this brings up a 3rd solution to controlling our spam... a requirement that we provide GSadmin with a valid credit card number. He would have to charge something on the card to determine it's validity (& cover the additional time & expense). Comments from everyone? By the way, I seriously doubt that GSadmin has any interest in this solution, other than if someone else offered to run that part of the business. I, for one, am NOT offering.

Darby (and others), please don't take offense at my comments. They are not intended to be argumentative. I just understand that the scourge of the internet are not the fault of the operators of free forums. I don't want to see this forum fall by the wayside because we demand more than can be reasonably delivered.

Thanks for the soapbox.

[gsadmin]

The Good Sam forum has probably 1000x the traffic and probably 500x the ad revenue that my little site does. If I had that kind of revenue, I would be able to quit my regular job and this board would be clean as a whistle.

The tradeoff here is that there is a place specific for people with Gulf Stream motorhomes. I hope that benefit outweighs having to look past these kind of posts and not click on them.

TBF

[earljan34]

[quote]The tradeoff here is that there is a place specific for people with Gulf Stream motorhomes. I hope that benefit outweighs having to look past these kind of posts and not click on them.

NOT TO CLICK ON THEM IS THE KEY :!: :!: :!: :!: :!:

Well said gsadm & rj

Earl

[Timothy]

Good Sam, Camping World, Trailer Life, Motor Home, RV.Net are all the same forum run by the Affinity group. As stated by GSadmin there are 1000s of posts daily and the forums are heavily moderated. I like the freedom here on GS owners forum and everybody is welcome to post. I think that if Gulf Stream stepped in to make comments they would be welcome here too. You hear lots of horror stories on RV.net but they are all one sided as the manufacturer cannot post a reply. I'm not saying I don't have empathy for people that have problems, and many have major problems but I sometimes wonder if you get the whole story.
Thanks for a great forum GSadmin, I will just continue to ignore the spam.

[RJ82much]

Darby & others disheartened by the bad-guys,

How are we doing at cleaning out the rubbish? I'm generally able to make it vanish before maybe 2 or 3 members open it. sometimes a little longer if the spammers nail it while I'm sleeping or on my way to or from work.

I'm fishing for a report card! Ha Ha Ha. Well, I'm turning in now - hopefully so are "they".

[Maggie]

For what it is worth, I think you are doing a great job. I was
one of the first to complain and you got right on it. Thanks.

[GStream40]

Darby & others disheartened by the bad-guys,

How are we doing at cleaning out the rubbish? I'm generally able to make it vanish before maybe 2 or 3 members open it. sometimes a little longer if the spammers nail it while I'm sleeping or on my way to or from work.

I'm fishing for a report card! Ha Ha Ha. Well, I'm turning in now - hopefully so are "they".

Bob,
You are doing a fine job. To stop the spam completely before anyone could see it would take a constant 24 hour monitoring which is not possible. Most forums such as this one have many volunteer moderators that keep an eye for spam and things not conforming to the guidelines of the forum. You and the Admin are doing a good job and I am surprised that you both are able to keep up as good as it is done.

Keep up the good work,
Ron

[WE B RVN]

gsadmin & rj82much

I think rj82much is bucking for a pay raise. Just kidding.

You two are putting lots of time into this forum to keep it clean. As someone who has done volunteer work, I understand that often the work is under appreciated.

For me, I tend not to focus on the crap posts. Life is hard. It's not worth it to me to spend more time grumbling about it, then the time it takes to click off of it. Often its easy to identify and I just do not click on it .

Thanks for all your hard work and time.

rj82much I give you an A+++

Kevin

[gsadmin]

I think he DOES deserve a raise. Lets make it 40%...woohoo! I think I will take one too! hehehe

Seriously though, it is nice to get a helping hand on this and its nice to see people appreciate what RJ is doing.

[coolchas11]

Good job. Thanks guys. Charlie

[Roy Buzzard]

I think you guys are doing a great job!!! Thank You!!

[djqualls]

I'm fishing for a report card! Ha Ha Ha. Well, I'm turning in now - hopefully so are "they".

A+!! Thanks for your Time.

[earljan34]

DITTO ON THE GREAT JOB KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK

Earl

[darbyjudy]

I think you are doing an excellent job, Please keep up the good work. I just hope it is not cutting into your camping time.

[RJ82much]

Interferance with camping should not be a problem at all. I have a wireless laptop, however it's seems to be rare that I get a connection at state parks, which are our usual haunts. We generally don't camp at commercial RV resort/campsites.

The wife so hates computers, & finds no value in them, that I probably won't pack up the laptop in the toad & drive around the country side looking for a signal.

I do need to explore what the devil an air-card is. It might be useful to get a connection for short email & moderator duties.

I know 1) GSadmin is always there should I fall behind, 2) You all will be forgiving if a little crap hits the fan for short periods of time.

Anyway, to all of you, thank you for the fine words of encouragement. It's nice to know our efforts are noticed & appreciated. Trust me, it has been fun.