Trivia: Trouble faced by HWCFC moderators

[Tin]

Hi all,

Probably you guys would have heard that we're operating a China Fan Club especially for Chinese fans. We are certainly not as organize as HWI but we are endeavouring to perfect it. However recently the HWCFC forum has encountered some very interesting trouble.

We discovered that several members, after registration, did not start their first message by saying hi in the Welcoming thread. Rather they proceeded to a random thread straight away and posted some irrelevant sentences or passages. These were blocked by Webmaster Yang almost immediately, and his investigation suggested that they were spammers. Both he and me agreed that preventive measures must be implemented immediately lest the situation would worsen.

We easily came to a conclusion on what measures should be imposed without significantly discouraging people from registering. Apparently the two of us were true Hayley fans and we thought the same: 'Ask them from what country is Hayley.'

On one hand we could be glad that we had some fame in the brave new world of Internet; spammers chose us partly because of our positions in search engines. On the other hand, moderators are annoyed by this breach of board rules. Now we may have deterred some potential members by adding that 'Question for Verification.'





Anyway, it's good to see that HWI doesn't have similar problems.

Cheers,
Tin

[roger]

Hi Tin,

Actually, we do have the same problem with spammers and it has become significantly worse in recent months. Unfortunately, the Proboards software does not allow us to ask a question which would prove that new members are genuine Hayley fans. That might solve our problem.

Thankfully, we have enough moderators who, between us, are never away from the forum for long. If any spam is posted, it is usually deleted within a few hours - sometimes within a few minutes. A few days ago, I was convinced that a newly registered member was a potential spammer (their email address was the clue) and I banned them before they posted anything!

Spammers are a menace and anything they manage to post on this forum will not appear for long. Other than that, I regret it is something we have to live with.

Good luck to you and Yang with the forum for Chinese fans. All sites and forums which help to spread the world are appreciated by Hayley and all her fans.

Roger

[Richard]

Hello Tin!

Roger has said it all, so I'll just wish you and Yang good luck with your forum too.

Best Wishes,

Richard

[Mr Yang]

Hehe with this question we never have another spammer any more.