Re: Recent Forum Issues and post "funny business"...

Post by **AmBraCol** » Tue Mar 18, 2014 6:47 pm

Hey guys,

We've been fighting a corrupt database (no, this is NOT political) and trying to get the forum back up again. Thanks for your patience. I posted about this this morning but it looks like it bit the dust in the continuing reconstruction (hey southerners - don't bristle at that term!)

Since about the 13th we've been having "issues" due to the corruption in the database. Give David Fagan a hand for stepping in and helping us get back up and running. If it had been yours truly running the show we'd all be back at loooooow post counts.

As it is, he's even getting some of the stickies stuck again - with the original info and posts and such.

Thanks for your patience. Hang in there, the ride may be bumpy but we're doing our best.

Post by **Ysabel Kid** » Tue Mar 18, 2014 6:52 pm

Thanks for fixing this! I sure as heck didn't have a clue how to!!!

Pete44ru · Post by **Pete44ru** » Tue Mar 18, 2014 6:54 pm

.

Methinks I'll take a powder, until things settle down again..........................

.

Griff · Post by **Griff** » Tue Mar 18, 2014 7:19 pm

When I got this:

I was fairly confident it'd get better! Thanks are probably way overdue for all you and David do to keep the forum on track and issues nearly invisible to the rest of us!

RIHMFIRE · Post by **RIHMFIRE** » Tue Mar 18, 2014 7:25 pm

thanks guys!

wvfarrier · Post by **wvfarrier** » Tue Mar 18, 2014 7:28 pm

Whew. Had me worried. Thank goodness

geobru · Post by **geobru** » Tue Mar 18, 2014 8:35 pm

Thanks for fixing my daily fix!

earlmck · Post by **earlmck** » Tue Mar 18, 2014 9:42 pm

I don't have a clue how you fix a corrupt data base, but thanks for doing it!

Post by **AmBraCol** » Tue Mar 18, 2014 9:51 pm

By the way - the update is not done yet. We're going to wait and see if things settle down first. HOPEFULLY it's under control and we can move on to dealing with the updated software and shutting down the spammers that are driving the moderators batty. You guys don't see that last part, but our moderation staff has been fighting quite a battle to keep spammers from taking over this place. Hopefully soon we'll get a breath in that battle as well.

samb · Post by **samb** » Tue Mar 18, 2014 10:00 pm

Thanks for your hard work. I missed ya'll.

Mac in Mo · Post by **Mac in Mo** » Tue Mar 18, 2014 10:03 pm

Thanks to everyone who has a hand in running this loony bin!

Kevin

Borregos · Post by **Borregos** » Wed Mar 19, 2014 5:36 am

THANK YOU PAUL

Borregos · Post by **Borregos** » Wed Mar 19, 2014 5:37 am

AND ALL THE OTHERS INVOLVED IN SORTING THIS MESS OUT

Post by **Old Savage** » Wed Mar 19, 2014 6:11 am

Paul, the IP and name banning seemed to stop working at least in part.

Post by **AmBraCol** » Wed Mar 19, 2014 8:47 am

Old Savage wrote:Paul, the IP and name banning seemed to stop working at least in part.

Yes, sir. We'll be putting some measures in to tighten up security again as this restore/upgrade/etc rolls along. Right now ALL new registrations are shut down - but there's still a bunch of mice in the works that are posting spam. We'll nuke 'em one at a time 'till they're gone.

piller · Post by **piller** » Wed Mar 19, 2014 11:06 am

I am glad it is back up and running. Anyone want to use spammers and hackers for target practice?

Griff · Post by **Griff** » Wed Mar 19, 2014 11:13 am

piller wrote:I am glad it is back up and running. Anyone want to use spammers and hackers for target practice?

+1! Which target you want?

piller · Post by **piller** » Wed Mar 19, 2014 11:20 am

That skunk one is perfect.

mark08 · Post by **mark08** » Wed Mar 19, 2014 11:40 am

THANKS to All for restoring the site. I couldn't get anything but error messages so I thought it was my problem. Called my grandson over and was told it was a site problem. Boy was I glad to hear that it was the site. Don't know anything about data bases but i enjoy reading the post most everyday. AGAIN THANKS ALL

Les Staley · Post by **Les Staley** » Wed Mar 19, 2014 12:11 pm

Thanks for all you guys hard work..same as above, had my grandson check it out for me..said it's the website, not my I pad.. Les

Rusty · Post by **Rusty** » Wed Mar 19, 2014 5:17 pm

Paul, thanks you and Dave and everyone else who works so hard to keep this place up and running.

Post by **David** » Thu Mar 20, 2014 8:38 am

Warning shot....

I don't know exactly when but between now and Monday

I'm going to shutdown, do a manual backup MYSELF (for reasons I won't expand on), and do an upgrade.
It may take me 2-3 hours so if the board goes offline again it's HOPEFULLY me and not something else.

I have NO answers to what happened between March 14th at 4:30 to 2:45 but I sure hope we never see it again.
(Frankly I don't think it was us)

David.

Pete44ru · Post by **Pete44ru** » Thu Mar 20, 2014 2:19 pm

.

Thanks for the headsup, and more, David !

.

Post by **Hobie** » Tue Mar 25, 2014 11:03 am

As Paul mentioned we have disabled registrations. Several folks who tried to register were upset that we didn't allow that. So, I contacted them all telling them that given a handle and email address I would attempt to register them myself in order to control the process. In that 2 minutes 5-6 spammers attempted to register and 1 actually posted TWICE! So, until David and Paul figure out what they are going to do next to reduce the number of spam attacks I will not do this for anyone.

J Miller · Post by **J Miller** » Tue Mar 25, 2014 11:26 am

I missed all the fun, being in the hospital again

. But I witnessed first hand a couple years ago the almost instantaneous destruction of a forum by just one spammer.
I was on the forum and saw the spammer hitting. Within less than an hour he / it had jammed up every section of the forum.
It took the administrator months to clear it up, and by then the forum was dead.
The membership mostly went elsewhere.

My own ISP, Outdoors Unlimited has been under attack as well.

I don't think it's just spammers any more, I think it's a dedicated attack on any internet pro-gun / pro 2nd Amd forum or site.

Paul and David, thanks for all your hard work, without you we'd wandering around in circles of confusion.

Joe

Post by **Hobie** » Tue Mar 25, 2014 2:15 pm

These spammers are a royal pain.

AJMD429 · Post by **AJMD429** » Tue Mar 25, 2014 5:19 pm

J Miller wrote:I don't think it's just spammers any more, I think it's a dedicated attack on any internet pro-gun / pro 2nd Amd forum or site.

I would definitely agree with that.

J Miller wrote:Paul and David, thanks for all your hard work, without you we'd wandering around in circles of confusion.

Gosh, I do that enough already, even without their help. . .

1894 · Post by **1894** » Wed Mar 26, 2014 1:47 pm

AJMD429 wrote:
J Miller wrote:I don't think it's just spammers any more, I think it's a dedicated attack on any internet pro-gun / pro 2nd Amd forum or site.
I would definitely agree with that.

J Miller wrote:Paul and David, thanks for all your hard work, without you we'd wandering around in circles of confusion.
Gosh, I do that enough already, even without their help. . .

+ 1

Re: The spammers , is there a way to add a simple question to the registration page ?
Not sure what it could be , but something pretty easy may stop a lot of the random spammers .
Another forum I used to enjoy was focused mostly on the Adirondacks . One of the admin's added the question : What 3 letter abbreviation is often used to refer to the Adirondacks ?
Mind you , the URL starts with ADK.... , but we went from 5 - 20 spammers / day to zero with that question.
While that won't stop a dedicated individual , it may free up some of the moderators time to watch for the harmful ones instead of deleting chinese shoe or hand bag spammers.

Post by **David** » Wed Mar 26, 2014 2:18 pm

1894 wrote:
AJMD429 wrote:
J Miller wrote:I don't think it's just spammers any more, I think it's a dedicated attack on any internet pro-gun / pro 2nd Amd forum or site.
I would definitely agree with that.

J Miller wrote:Paul and David, thanks for all your hard work, without you we'd wandering around in circles of confusion.
Gosh, I do that enough already, even without their help. . .
+ 1

Re: The spammers , is there a way to add a simple question to the registration page ?
Not sure what it could be , but something pretty easy may stop a lot of the random spammers .
Another forum I used to enjoy was focused mostly on the Adirondacks . One of the admin's added the question : What 3 letter abbreviation is often used to refer to the Adirondacks ?
Mind you , the URL starts with ADK.... , but we went from 5 - 20 spammers / day to zero with that question.
While that won't stop a dedicated individual , it may free up some of the moderators time to watch for the harmful ones instead of deleting chinese shoe or hand bag spammers.

Certainly would have stopped me from registering I wouldn't have had a clue, there's 5 questions now that are randomly chosen. Need to make up new ones since they do get "learned".

AJMD429 · Post by **AJMD429** » Wed Mar 26, 2014 4:44 pm

David wrote:[Certainly would have stopped me from registering I wouldn't have had a clue, there's 5 questions now that are randomly chosen. Need to make up new ones since they do get "learned".

Suggestions:

Why is the 444 Marlin a better cartridge than the 45-70...?

How do Winchesters suck compared to Marlins...?

Why are Ruger 96/22's better than Marlin 39a's...?

Only the trolls and spammers could answer those ones succinctly; real levergunners would either write a four-page essay or have a heart-attack.

Post by **AmBraCol** » Wed Mar 26, 2014 5:06 pm

1894 wrote:
AJMD429 wrote:
J Miller wrote:I don't think it's just spammers any more, I think it's a dedicated attack on any internet pro-gun / pro 2nd Amd forum or site.
I would definitely agree with that.

J Miller wrote:Paul and David, thanks for all your hard work, without you we'd wandering around in circles of confusion.
Gosh, I do that enough already, even without their help. . .
+ 1

Re: The spammers , is there a way to add a simple question to the registration page ?
Not sure what it could be , but something pretty easy may stop a lot of the random spammers .
Another forum I used to enjoy was focused mostly on the Adirondacks . One of the admin's added the question : What 3 letter abbreviation is often used to refer to the Adirondacks ?
Mind you , the URL starts with ADK.... , but we went from 5 - 20 spammers / day to zero with that question.
While that won't stop a dedicated individual , it may free up some of the moderators time to watch for the harmful ones instead of deleting chinese shoe or hand bag spammers.

We had that in place - and from mid-December to mid-March we had over 17,000 spammers register. Not all of them activated their account, but somewhere around 4,000 did so. This time frame corresponded with a very busy time in our ministry and a lack of time to check in here. The first thing I knew about it was when the ingested/digested food stuff impacted the oscillating air moving device. Anyway, we're checking into what it'll take to shut 'em down to a dull roar at least. It took quite a while to divest the roles of those 17,000+ spammers, by the way.

jackruff · Post by **jackruff** » Wed Mar 26, 2014 9:26 pm

A number of forums seem to be having problems and not just outdoor/shooting forums. One I belong to dealing with astronomy recently did an "upgrade" but had to go back to the old format after severe problems developed.

Post by **David** » Thu Mar 27, 2014 8:38 am

jackruff wrote:A number of forums seem to be having problems and not just outdoor/shooting forums. One I belong to dealing with astronomy recently did an "upgrade" but had to go back to the old format after severe problems developed.

This forum is not "mine" I'm the can you help guy

I run quite a few forums mostly all gun related, its a nightmare out there. With questions and doing diligence on blocking sites versus just deleting spam posts (but that's more work) it helps a lot. I keep hoping for a break though with this software on better answers and I don't like modifications even if "supported" some of those can come back and bite you VERY hard.

I just moderate the first post for everyone since I don't want to see Britney's t.. every and plug along. I don't moderate here I'm just toooo busy with other collector organizations forums.

41 Redhawk · Post by **41 Redhawk** » Thu Mar 27, 2014 9:06 am

David wrote:
jackruff wrote:A number of forums seem to be having problems and not just outdoor/shooting forums. One I belong to dealing with astronomy recently did an "upgrade" but had to go back to the old format after severe problems developed.
This forum is not "mine" I'm the can you help guy

I run quite a few forums mostly all gun related, its a nightmare out there. With questions and doing diligence on blocking sites versus just deleting spam posts (but that's more work) it helps a lot. I keep hoping for a break though with this software on better answers and I don't like modifications even if "supported" some of those can come back and bite you VERY hard.

I just moderate the first post for everyone since I don't want to see Britney's t.. every and plug along. I don't moderate here I'm just toooo busy with other collector organizations forums.

What about using something like captcha http://www.captcha.net/

Post by **David** » Thu Mar 27, 2014 9:26 am

Had that, don't work.

The one build in to the board also allows a (I don't know what they call it offhand) but makes it harder and harder to read, it you make it totally unreadable it stops the spam but everyone else as well.

I think actually questions are the best AND hum... Maybe a dynamic question that points to a post that has the answer... Just a thought.