Counterfeit Watchers Discussion Forum

In Response To: Spam part 2 (Gary_)

I have mentioned spam apparently originating form the Chroncentric server and said I'd post when I received more.

If anyone out there has any ideas on how to stop this, I'd be obliged. As it is, I have a1530@sh03.svwh.net as a blocked sender.

OK, I think I have a theory as to what's happening...

What I believe is happening is:

1. You have posted in this forum in the past with your email address.
2. You have the "If you'd like e-mail notification of responses, please check this box:" check box checked.
3. A Spambot comes along [at times] and randomly picks a message to reply to in which you've participated in the thread [hence asking for e-mail notification of additional posts within the thread].
4. Since you have the check box checked, the forum software dutifully sends you a response notifying you that some one has replied in that thread.

It would seem to me you [and in fact the rest of us] have [at least] three solutions that would either eliminate the notification of the SPAM bot replies:

1] Change your email address to something that disguises your actual email address [example]:
gmason[at]ntlworld[dot]com ...

Plus: This will send the notify emails off into bit heaven and won't bother you.

Minus: You won't get notifications of replies to your posts any more since we've dispatched them to a non-address. One of the administrators will have to go through every last one of your posts manually and change your email address to the obscured new one. A very time consuming process.

2] You could craft a filter in your email program to dump any email which has a subject containing [CWatchers] into a [CWatchers] mailbox, which you can then peruse at your leisure. You'll not see the SPAM bot generated emails in your inbox, but you can check the newly created [CWatchers] mail box from time to time to see if there are any legitimate replies to your posts.

Here is an example of such a rule I just mocked up in Apple's Mail program:

There likely is a similar facility in the mail program you use...

Pluses: You continue to get notification of replies to your posts.

Minuses: Your email notification bell will still chime when email is added to this folder, and you will have to check for legitimate replies in this folder from time to time...

3] Uncheck the "If you'd like e-mail notification of responses, please check this box:" checkbox, and check the forum for replies manually.

Plus: This will eliminate the email notifications sent to your account by CWatchers completely.

Minus:You won't get any email notifications at all from the CWatcher's forum...

It occurs to me you could set up a Yahoo or Google Mail account which you would use only for purposes of forums, both of those mail systems have some pretty incredible SPAM filters: I've never had a SPAM message get through GMail for example, in some method to filter the mail sent from CWatchers... But this would require some footwork on your part.

Lastly, we are looking to migrate our old BBS system to new software... We've been worn out by trying to delete sometimes as many as 200-400 SPAMBOT email messages a day. You could wait until we migrate over to that new software, or turn on the requirement that posters register prior to posting, or we are able to enact other methods of mitigating the SPAMBOT problem.

Remember that when Derek died, he left the boards in our laps with no passwords, no experience in the behind the scenes administration of them and they were using software which had fallen out of active support by it's author. Jeff has taken on the financial and operational burden of Chronocentric out of his pocket and generosity. Sam, Steve and myself all donate our time freely. We're not techies [at least not with on-line forum software]. So, while we are trying as best we can, we're hobbists just like you.

I hope this message is helpful and you understand some of the issues we face.

Sincerely...

-- Chuck

Chuck Maddox

Chronographs, like most finer things in life, only improve with time...

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