I have set up and run a few- and yes it can turn into a full time job-- I did a little internet sleuthing and found that the web name is set to expire next year... it appears John has it on auto renew as it was just renewed in July... the easiest thing to do by far would be if someone could get in touch with John and get the backend info / admin credentials you could go in and set up any number of ways to help reduce the spam- if not / if he can not be reached then yes a new board would probably be warranted... there would be no way to transfer the domain or any old post to the new board without authorization or the admin codes however maybe that doesn't matter with the spam such as it is....

I want to create a decoy board called www.greekspam.com...who's with me?!!

http://stream1.gifsoup.com/view8/201...-with-me-o.gif

Why not use Reddit? There are already somewhat active Sorority and Greek Life pages, and it seems easy to create new subreddits for Recruitment, etc.

Well, now that football has started, we have sports spam!

Wonderful.

Don't understand the logic behind spam posts???
 

Can someone please enlighten me? Most of the spam posts are either nonsensical words or random letters/symbols. What is the point? I thought spam posts were generally to try to direct someone to another site for one of a number of reasons. I don't understand why a spammer would post things that are obviously junk posts.

I don't get it, either.

Some of the junk spammer are people who get paid $.01 per post. They don't care what they post. I know someone who used to spend hours doing this. I think there are better ways to make extra money.

All of the spam is in the Introductions thread. I don't ever read that one, anyway, and if we could just get it excluded from the main opening page I bet most people could ignore it happily.

Then the mods would just need to do occasional cleanup to keep from over-filling our server capacity.

I think removing the Introductions from the main page wil definitely improve the board!!!

Well, John is definitely alive and functional. Last night I filed a PayPal claim on the grounds that what was promised wasn't delivered. He apparently got on just long enough to deactivate my paid account because I'm back to a normal account today.

Well, now I am PISSED :mad:

It still says his last activity was aug 1st. He must be able to change your status without logging in?

I wonder if several people filed PayPal claims, that John would get on the board and see what is happening. And, maybe, see that he has a ton of messages. (I don't mean to be a(nother) pain to someone who is dealing with a tragedy. Several people have offered to take over while he, deservedly, needs a break.)

Also, what's a 995 number?

PayPal says you only have 6 months to protest. I have to see when I paid for my 5 years, but I think it was more than 6 months ago.

Do you mean area code? No 995 on the US. It is the country code for Georgia, as in used to be part of Russia, not the Peach State!

I don't want to get the spammers the satisfaction of opening 1 of their threads, but several have 91 + 995 & looks like a phone #.
Maybe Russian mail order brides!

I was surprised to see any acknowledgement from him, especially so quickly.
I did send him a long message via the claim center about what was going on and told him it wasn't about the money but we all feel abandoned and requested that he get on and assign some super mods.. I'm hoping to hear back from him or see something done.

PayPal's claim window is 6 months which for me is TODAY so that's why I filed the claim when I did.

I paid for 5 years on the Black Friday (Nov 29) special that John was running :mad: I am way past the 6 month cutoff. Doesn't seem fair.

I feel especially bad for the Super Mods as I feel as if they're caught in the middle.

I've enjoyed the board for the brief period time, that I've been on here and its unfortunate that its been taken over by spammers. For those who suggested starting fresh elsewhere, that thought crossed my mind but I will totally admit I haven't a clue on what it takes to set something like that up or keep it running on a day-to-day basis.

Regardless, I do hope there is some resolution that would allow people to get back to using the site for its intended purpose. Hopefully that comes sooner rather than later.

Re: new board. Anyone consider a proboards account?

If the spammers make 1 cent per post and they can copy and paste 5 in a minute, they are only making three dollars an hour. This can't be profitable if they're located in the United States.

And setting a limit for how many threads you can start on a daily basis would be good.

not to pile on, but this is bananas.

Seriously. All day today. It's actually annoying coming here to this board now. And randomly I've seen posts from new members (to the board), and they're asking legitimate questions, but their posts are getting pushed out of the way by the spam. And unfortunately, I think a lot of people with a lot of knowledge who could actually help, never get to see those threads. It's really disappointing.

(not mad at the super mods at all, by the way. Just re-stating what we've all been saying/thinking)

The forum can only show 20 pages of new posts and valid posts are being pushed out. :(

Disturbing to me is the spam is now showing up in the Sorority Recruitment section, which means it is going past the Intro Thread. Sigh

91 is the country code for India.

Unfortunately, most of us mods only have access to their own forums. I'd gladly clean up this spam in other forums if I had access.

They are in the Community Service and other areas now.

I really hope the site owner eventually logs on and fixes the spam issue. It's becoming nearly impossible to effectively use this site.

I'd been kicking myself for not purchasing a membership here it now I'm glad j didn't as it seems like that didn't resolve the issues any more effectively.

^^Like button^^

Now the spammers are bumping legitimate threads.

It's been real, GC.

Since the owner of the site was unable to raise the money he requested to keep it going, does anyone else think he has purposely abandoned it?

I've wondered the same thing...

Someone has to have contact information for John Hammell. Someone has to know what is going on IMO.

It seems to me that the respectful thing to do if John no longer wishes to continue is to simply acknowledge that fact and shut the place down.

As for me, I'm gone, baby, gone. Ain't got time for this. See ya, guys.

Yeah, I'm afraid that's all, folks.
Don't think I will be back soon.

I missed which real thread got bumped, can someone let me know...

Upset/Need Advice - the last message is spamtacular.

What the heck happened that Tinydancer got banned?? I am assuming that it was a mistake in trying to clean up the latest spam attack?

Yeah, it has to be.