Greg

Fixed! Works fine on my end, what browser and OS are you using?

I just tested on my local copy of firefox, and I was able to post a test message to the forums. Can you give me some more background - what version of FF, OS, etc, are you using?

Congrats, you've been elevated to SPAM COP status - when you identify a spammer, flag them and they'll be removed.

This is an issue with all forums (offline and online); even more so with forums focused on politics and ideology. I'm sure even a knitting forum would have it's own brand of troll... However, I don't want to be perceived as too defeatist, but in the end there is NO solution. As in life, the complete elimination crime/evil is impossible. All we can do it try to keep the annoying and sometimes destructive human behaviours (in ourselves and others) at a minimum. That could be, I'm not 100% certain (it's difficult to get the context to every incident in the forums) - but I do believe it has something to do with what I said above about certain members reporting "trolling" behaviour, and then going back in and repeatedly feeding the troll. I know, and I hate to even bring it up, as it makes it seem like we're whining about having to do that job - Charles and I don't anyone to think we don't enjoy moderating the community. We enjoy it, otherwise we would not do it. And I will may take up that offer in the near future. The next iteration of the forum will likely have a slightly modified approach to moderation. It will hopefully involve the efforts of senior members (i.e. long time members) input into flagging spam and inappropriate postings/members.

As much as possible without seriously disrupting the discussions in the forums. As Charles said, don't feed the trolls - when you do, they're basically creating a situation where it then becomes more difficult for Charles and I to deal with them. Also note, this is NOT a paid gig, we're not nor will we ever be, paid moderators; so you can't expect 100% coverage of all threads and topics. The presence of a report doesn't necessarily mean we agree with the report. And that's all we really ask, other than Don't Feed the Trolls. Good comment - I agree 100% A lot of members love to hate a particular member, whom they believe is a vicious and unrepentant troll. And consequently they often refuse to take the highroad and ignore that member's comments about them or their ideas. Charles and I see it all the time. A member reports someone or something, and then immediately jumps into the thread with reckless abandon to disabuse the evil troll of any feelings of moral superiority... Once Charles and I show up at the scene, there is little, if anything, we can do rectify the situation.

No one's perfect... but I've been doing this for a while now, and one thing I do know is that it's important not to be too reactionary in my approach. Moderating and administering a non-partisan forum can be difficult, as there is no guiding principal or set of rules of what ideas/ideologies are acceptable - hence at the end of the day it's better if no one is particularly happy with Charles and my moderation actions. If one sides too happy, then perhaps Charles and I haven't been impartial enough...

@Iznogoud In the month of Dec, the forum has 89 separate members (excluding spammers, who are often quickly removed and banned) engaging with content (posting, replying, PM'ing, etc). And the trend line is up over the past few months, so Jan 2019, it will hopefully be more then 100.

Those days are numbered....

The new forum system I'm looking at constantly saves whatever you enter into the input box - which means nothing should be lost if your browser crashes or internet blinks out. Stay tuned...

Nope, you can start a club if you want...

Ha, you think I'm die in the wool IP.Board fan?

I’m likely going to migrate to different forum software, IP.Board is a spam magnet. August, you might just get your wish for a super simple forum interface! I will post an update on the support section shortly. thanks!

This has been reported before, and after some investigation, I believe I have figured it out. The reason you're receiving this "spam" is because you're subscribed to either a thread or a forum category that the spammers are targeting in the forum. The forum software has NOT been compromised, nor are the spammers even targeting you individually, it's just that the spam is being posted in the forum(s) and the forum software is simply doing what it was design (and configured by you) to do - which is to send a digest of whatever's been posted in the forum or category. Does this make sense?

Correction: it appears that a background task (the queue) has been locked. I've removed the lock and am now running the task. If it locks up again, I'll investigate further and get back to everyone. Thanks for noting the issue.

Background indexing could have been a temporary issue, but I'm not see a huge slowdown on my end at this point.

It was an issue with a theme template! The problem has been resolved. You may need to clear your browser cache to see the fix. Cheers!

It looks like a recent upgrade messed up the quoting function. It still works, just select the text and wait a second, a black popup will appear: However, that's not idea, and I will look into why this is happening. Thanks!

I plan on upgrading PHP on the hosting account which MLW forums is located later tonight. I don't expect any downtime, but if there is, it will only be for a few moments. If you encounter any issues or errors, post a note in the support forums (if possible), send me a PM, or email me at: [email protected]. Thanks!

No problem!

Can you be more specific?

It appears the extension quit working when I recently upgraded the forum software. I will see what I can do to get this fixed, no guarantees...

The activation of SSL is complete! Sorry for the delay, but there were a few hiccups that required a few config changes before it would work 100% of the time. You will no longer get the "insecure website" warnings in your browser every time you log in now. Thanks!

I will be activated SSL in the forums today. This just means that information will be encrypted between your browser and the server. This may cause some issues, so if you encounter any issues, please post the issue in the support section of the forums. Thanks!

I agree, it happens. We often won't remove a blatant cross-post if it garners a lot of postings and attention before we have time to ask the original poster to repost - no point in killing good discussion. However, that's fairly rare, in most cases members who register only to post one unoriginal posting often don't put much effort into the actual posting, which means that the thread doesn't attract much discussion.

Not really, this rule is targeted at people who are blindly posting to multiple forums with little regard to starting discussion - they're usually promoting themselves or something else. It was a standard rule used back in the Usenet days: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crossposting This rule is rarely cited, so I'm not sure why it's being brought up no.