Animation Source Forums

In recent weeks this forum has seen an (as far as I am aware) unprecedented amount of advertisements. Some of them porn ads, linking to pornographic websites. And some go as far to actually post pictures on the forum itself. I know some of this is normal. But someone on here messed something up, and now we have this. Personally I don't think it's a coincidence that a lot of construction has been going on, I'd imagine these two things are related.

Quite frankly I'm tired of reporting these posts. And I'm sure many others are too. The moderators are also probably irritated about these numerous occurrences.

I speak for the member base and active moderators alike. There needs to be some sort of explanation for this. Initially an explanation didn't matter much to me, but since the powers that be are being hush-hush about this, it's getting irritating and nothing has been done about it. I have several solutions to put forward. The staff should consider:

1) Making an email registration a requirement if it is not already. (I do not remember if there was one.)

2) Lift themselves from their apathetic rut and appoint more moderators.

Let's discuss this.

(And I ask of certain staff member(s), do not cast this aside by adding some ill-placed and ill-conceived lols or smileys to your posts...it's not a good tactic. It just irritates others and accomplishes nothing. If you don't want to seriously discuss this then I sincerely ask that you refrain from posting.)

You're right, it is connected to the construction on the site. And you're also right that we're getting tired of having to go around and delete these messages. An explanation is available, and readily at that: It's on the Bug Report Topic. Steet's working fixed the problem. There is an e-mail requirement in place, spam bots can fill this requirement easily because they are allowed to make an e-mail address. Also, I assure, this spam bot assault isn't happening simply because the mods are lazy, but because well over 100 of these bots have joined within the last few days alone and they've kept coming.

Now, as far as a meatier response: as the site was being upgraded, somehow the permissions for registering on the site got messed up, which allowed the spam bots to flow in here like diarrhea. No one knew what was the problem at first. When it was reported on the bug topic, Steet tried to fix it, and whatever he did the first time didn't work. So, though we thought the problem was fixed, it really wasn't and they kept coming. When I noticed that they were still coming as bad as ever, I alerted Steet again (and so did a few others I think?) and then Steet completely removed the ability to register on the forums. As of now, no more spam bots have registered on the forums (they are completely unable to register via the site.)

This has never been "hush hush" as you put it. Though it wasn't all over the forums (I think that would be rather like spamming it myself, posting it everywhere) if you cared to look for the explanation, it was readily available. There were several reports to Steet about this bug on the very topic I've already mentioned several times. And, considering there was just a big change to the site, most people went looking there when they noticed this problem and found the answer. Not to mention, everyone who's asked about it, we've explained it right away, and we've occasionally talked about it on the shout box. We've had nothing to hide.

And yes, you're right, the mods are getting tired at having to delete and ban these bots. However, I assure that the reason they've been running amok has not been out of our laziness. Everyone who can even remotely help at getting these topics removed is. Looking for the bots' messages has become part of my daily routine in the morning, before I sleep, and whenever I have free time before classes. I've even put it above other things. And I'm know the others have been doing a great deal as well.

As stated before, the problem is now fixed, no more spambots can join, so now we're just left to deal with the fallout. If global moderators are able to delete accounts on the forums, then I imagine that will be the next phase of the plan. Until then, the process will have to be the same for me, as I'm not a global mod, and we'll keep deleting topics and banning bots until we don't have to anymore.

The bug report topic which has already explained most of this: viewtopic.php?f=5&t=28378

Okay, thanks for the informative post. That satisfies all of my concerns.

Additionally, you're right, it wasn't hush-hush and I was wrong suggest that it had been.

I do want to point out one thing though, you said that these issues aren't due to staff laziness several times. I do agree with this, but I just want to clarify that I never amounted it to laziness in this topic. I am convinced that those of you who are here are doing what you can. Again though I firmly believe that more moderators are needed.

I see. It appears that I misunderstood that part of your post. I apologize for misconstruing that.

Oh, that's not the bug I was talking about. I meant the bug that was even allowing them to register as users. No, there are plenty of spam bots still registered and thus far unbanned, and so able to post, but what I meant was that no new ones can register. No, they can still post as much as they pleased until they're banned. Forum moderators can't delete users on the forums, and they can't be deleted from the site because they've technically never accessed it (having registered on the forums) and never will, so as far as I know, we can't get rid of them just yet, only ban them as they post so that they can't post again, then get rid of the topic.

No, it's still very much a problem...just somewhat less now that we don't have to worry about 50 more streaming in each day.

Links removed.

I find this rather annoying myself, and something needs to be done ASAP They're not as nearly as bad as they were say a couple months ago, but hey, look, one decided to post in the topic.

Requesting topic to be locked, as this doesn't really apply anymore.

Right-o.

Locked.