Today's Lesson (about the forum)

[JPG]

Another odd thing I noted is the number of people on this forum at any one time. It appears we had over 750 users browsing the forum yesterday just after 5:00 in the afternoon. We are breaking records with viewership everyday.

Yes, the number of viewers has been unusually large (at least the last few days) but do remember that "viewers" and "members" are two different groups of people. I just which that a much larger portion of those "viewers" would join the forum as "active members". Many of these "viewers" undoubtedly have much to offer as woodworkers to this forum.

If those 'viewers' are potential spammers, I would prefer they do NOT become members!

[dusty]

Another odd thing I noted is the number of people on this forum at any one time. It appears we had over 750 users browsing the forum yesterday just after 5:00 in the afternoon. We are breaking records with viewership everyday.

Yes, the number of viewers has been unusually large (at least the last few days) but do remember that "viewers" and "members" are two different groups of people. I just which that a much larger portion of those "viewers" would join the forum as "active members". Many of these "viewers" undoubtedly have much to offer as woodworkers to this forum.

If those 'viewers' are potential spammers, I would prefer they do NOT become members!

Yes, I wholeheartedly agree but how does one know when a viewer is "going to be" up to no good. I would not like to see potential active members banned for no good reason.

[jsburger]

Yes, the number of viewers has been unusually large (at least the last few days) but do remember that "viewers" and "members" are two different groups of people. I just which that a much larger portion of those "viewers" would join the forum as "active members". Many of these "viewers" undoubtedly have much to offer as woodworkers to this forum.

If those 'viewers' are potential spammers, I would prefer they do NOT become members!

Yes, I wholeheartedly agree but how does one know when a viewer is "going to be" up to no good. I would not like to see potential active members banned for no good reason.

There is no reason to ban viewers (potential active members). They can't post spam until they become registered members. If they become registered and spam they should be banned. The problem is if they still want to spam they just create another account. Of course some of this is not real people typing on a key board. There are robots out there creating accounts all over the net. Some sites have a check box that says "I am not a robot". You have to check it to create an account. I have no idea if that actually works or not.

[jsburger]

Here is the profile from the latest member.

Screenshot_2019-08-17 Shopsmith Forums -- Sharing Information About Woodworking and Shopsmith Tools.png (41.21 KiB) Viewed 17354 times

They are obviously a spammer. It should be banned before they post.

Someone just spammed this thread as I am posting this.

[WileyCoyote]

Is the registration approval automatic or does a real person have to authorize access to the forum? Seems to me if someone looked at this request it would be denied immediately.
I don't think most of the 750 people are just viewing the forum. once had 1/3 of that prior to the last two weeks and usually much fewer.

[jsburger]

Is the registration approval automatic or does a real person have to authorize access to the forum? Seems to me if someone looked at this request it would be denied immediately.
I don't think most of the 750 people are just viewing the forum. once had 1/3 of that prior to the last two weeks and usually much fewer.

Exactly!! We have never had that many "viewers" ever. The largest number I remember was 366 many years ago. That was way higher than normal and no spam. The "Moderators" are doing a great job but this is getting out of hand. It seems like the spammers have found a vulnerable site and are taking advantage of it.

Argh!!!

[jsburger]

Here is the newest member.

Screenshot_2019-08-17 Shopsmith Forums -- Sharing Information About Woodworking and Shopsmith Tools(1).png (35.74 KiB) Viewed 17254 times

Another BOT. There has to be a way to stop this..

ADMIN!!!

[jsburger]

Has Admin made some changes to reduce the amount of SPAM? There used to be 4 BOTs listed on the home page as registered users. Now there are only two. If so I hope it helps.

"Registered users: Bing [Bot], Google [Bot], jsburger"

[dusty]

WHAT? The number of registered BOTS has gone down while the number of spammers has gone up. Where is the connection.

The BOTS that you have seen registered on the forum were market research BOTS. They were not spammers if that is the thought.

[jsburger]

WHAT? The number of registered BOTS has gone down while the number of spammers has gone up. Where is the connection.

The BOTS that you have seen registered on the forum were market research BOTS. They were not spammers if that is the thought.

The number of registered BOTs just went down TODAY. The SPAM has been BEFORE today. There has been no SPAM today. I get email notices of all the new posts to the forum as soon as the posts occur. No SPAM today. First time in a while. I totally understand the purpose of the former registered BOTs but maybe one or the other were compromised by the SPAMER's and are contributing to the problem.

All I am doing is asking a question that maybe someone smarter than me might have some insight into.

Do you know why they are gone?