Spambots & Updates

[Warwulf]

Hello, all!

Long time no see! A couple things I wanted to touch base on.

1) Forum Spambot
We've had a small issue of spambots here in the past couple of days. Phoenix alerted me to the problem. I've deleted the posts, banned the user(s) responsible, and banned their IPs. I've also turned on some anti-spam countermeasures that were off in the board settings. This should hopefully eliminate new spam users from registering or, in the event they already did, block them from posting. If anyone has an issue with false positives, you can either reach me via Facebook or via phone/text at +1-716-908-2556. I'll monitor the situation on the forum for a couple days just to make sure everything is all set.

2) New Administrator
I've made Phoenix an administrator. She's on this board very frequently and knows a little bit about tech stuff. I know I should probably consult with the board founder and other admins about this first. But this was born out of urgent necessity to have someone with admin privileges present in order to combat any spam problem or other potential issues instead of waiting for an admin to come around. So, I made the executive decision out of need. Sometimes it's easier and faster to beg forgiveness than ask permission. I hope everyone is okay with this.

3) Forum Updates
Over the next couple of days / weeks, I'm going to be updating the forum to the latest version. Since we are a couple dozen versions behind, this is going to be an enormous pain in the ass. Version 3.0.x is not compatible with Version 3.2 beyond core functionality. All add-ons and styles will get lost. I also have to find where I have the server access passwords stored. So, I'm not looking forward to this task. But it will bring security and functionality improvements with newer versions.

[Sapphire]

Hi Warwulf,

Thank you so much for doing all this! We are so grateful to have you! I really appreciate how you and Phoenix have been taking care of these forums (and as the website founder, I have no issue at all with her being an admin - it's a great decision!).

Thank you both. If you need anything from me, please email me at malachite157@yahoo.com and I'll do what I can to help.

Cheers,
Sapphire

[Nurann]

Thanks for taking care of it, guys! It gets so quiet around here these days I know I, for one, tend to not worry about this place until slag goes sideways. I'll message you my new primary email/phone info as well is case you need other admin support again.