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I've recently made a few changes in here to try and stop spammers posting ads for all sorts of crap in the forum.
This means that any new user, (or any user who has only made a small amount of posts) will possibly get their messages "moderated" if they trigger certain keywords, or try to post links.
What does "moderated" mean? It means that the message(s) they post are only available to be seen by the moderators of this forum, not by anyone else. A moderated post will stay hidden from the general public and other members until a moderator chooses to approve it. Once the post is approved, it will become visible.
Why? Despite many of my efforts to keep out automated spambots from polluting the forum, there still seem to be a few die hard spammers around who will personally generate themselves an account in here explicitly to post several messages with ads for cheap mobiles, ipods, xboxes, whatever in them. There are certain words that most of them use that are not generally present in normal posts from real users in here, so I have used the past messages they have posted in here to configure a "blacklist". Additionally, a spammer will always post a link to another location (or there would be no point in posting the spam). As such, I have added links to the blacklist.
How will this effect you? If you are a regular contributor here and have posted many messages in the forum, you will be allowed to post whatever you want and will never be automatically moderated. However, if you are new, or have only made the occasional post, then these rules will come into effect. If you make a post that has no words in it that are on the blacklist and no links to anywhere, then it will pass. If you make a post that does have a link or a blacklisted word, then you will see a message about your post being moderated just after you post it. No one will see your post until a moderator has time to read it and approve it.
I know this may seem like a bit of extra hassle, but it is a small price to pay for being rid of spam in the forum. This system has been in place for a week now and has already caught over 10 spam posts. It has also caught a few legitimate posts from new/low post count users who have posted links (which I have approved later).
Just letting you know, so that you are aware.
This means that any new user, (or any user who has only made a small amount of posts) will possibly get their messages "moderated" if they trigger certain keywords, or try to post links.
What does "moderated" mean? It means that the message(s) they post are only available to be seen by the moderators of this forum, not by anyone else. A moderated post will stay hidden from the general public and other members until a moderator chooses to approve it. Once the post is approved, it will become visible.
Why? Despite many of my efforts to keep out automated spambots from polluting the forum, there still seem to be a few die hard spammers around who will personally generate themselves an account in here explicitly to post several messages with ads for cheap mobiles, ipods, xboxes, whatever in them. There are certain words that most of them use that are not generally present in normal posts from real users in here, so I have used the past messages they have posted in here to configure a "blacklist". Additionally, a spammer will always post a link to another location (or there would be no point in posting the spam). As such, I have added links to the blacklist.
How will this effect you? If you are a regular contributor here and have posted many messages in the forum, you will be allowed to post whatever you want and will never be automatically moderated. However, if you are new, or have only made the occasional post, then these rules will come into effect. If you make a post that has no words in it that are on the blacklist and no links to anywhere, then it will pass. If you make a post that does have a link or a blacklisted word, then you will see a message about your post being moderated just after you post it. No one will see your post until a moderator has time to read it and approve it.
I know this may seem like a bit of extra hassle, but it is a small price to pay for being rid of spam in the forum. This system has been in place for a week now and has already caught over 10 spam posts. It has also caught a few legitimate posts from new/low post count users who have posted links (which I have approved later).
Just letting you know, so that you are aware.
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