Site quality

Mods, please don't let this awesome forum of gathered knowledge wither away from spambots signing up, permaban them and IP if possible. Perhaps someone else should be promoted to a moderator?

There are a couple good steady everyday posters here that have been around for a long time.

there must be someone here who is an IT GURU.....or perhaps moderator can seek help from friends (IT PROF)and block this sick spammers.

Heaps of forums I have signed up to require a confirmation email be sent to the new member and have them replied to it via a link ensuring the account is a valid one...

This site is the only one I ever remember joining that doesn't requre that...

Cisco, is this a possibility for us??

So agree. It will make the site loose credibility and become open slather for this garbage. Someone needs to get on to it.

mychael

Spot on there Mychael, more so now that everyone has received "Micra.com.au" stickers and cruising the streets advertising such a site!

Someone please get on it asap..

And another thing (of topic, but still)i have noticed..some pictures in random threads have been changed for some reason and now maybe the pictures that originaly where there are lost forever?

did someone message cisco?

Yeah,

I just sent a message asking for a review of the current moderators to include a few of the more recent frequent visitors to the site so that the pages can be cleaned up more easily/frequently.

Also asked if there is anyway that new members are required to respond in someway to a confirmation email when they sign up so as to make sure these new members are genuine.

As for the pics micratech, I've noticed that too. I don't believe it is to do with the spam issue though. I think it is from when the site has crashed in the past and needed to be restored. Maybe not all files were backed up properly before the crash? Unless the people who posted the files edit their posts and re-upload the pics, I don't think anything can really be done about it.

:(

one of the best ways i've found is to just have a simple question/answer system set up at sign up

these spam dudes probably can't be bothered with something like

'fill in the blanks the _ _ _ _ meanie'

it would take a serious user about 3 seconds to figure that out

or something similar anyway

I emailed him the other day but as of yet haven't had a response. IPs will always change so there's little point in just keeping on disabling IPs and Usernames - the only solid way of getting rid of most of it is to use a captcha or similar (i.e. similar idea to the question smidge suggested). Email confirmations are a start but considering the complexities of bots these days being able to crack certain captchas and whatnot, it's only enough to stop the most basic bot from getting on here.

For the last time, they're not people that are out there personally posting this stuff. They're bots/programs/annoyances/whatever.

Next step is to PM some old mods to get on here and clean up the stuff that's been posted so far. I'm thinking makes and aaron are the most likely candidates for some help.

Edit: Alright PM'd makes and sent a message to aaron - hoepfully it can be sorted soon :)

Edit2: I wouldn't count on any massive changes to the site being possbile any time soon - if Cisco's going away (may have already) then I dunno how much chance there even is of getting some people promoted to be mods! Makes me sad.

---dens

Hi, i will delete these messages when i get home today (can't at work due to the inappropriate nature of the content, crikey !).

Unfortunately as a moderator the only thing we can do is delete postings... we don't have the ability to block users, add moderators or make any other changes to the site.

I believe the forum was custom-made by Cisco several years ago. It was obviously a more innocent time back then.... as safeguards previously weren't required against these BotNet/Spam attacks.

Cisco was always keen for this site to be 'family friendly' so it's a real shame all this rubbish is turning up.

I am afraid a long-term fix will require intervention by Cisco... When he becomes aware of it i suspect he may pass this site on to a new administrator ?.

I usually only check this site occassionally these days but i will try an keep a closer eye on it until Cisco has a chance to respond.

Thanks heaps makes!!!

Thank you very much, Makes :)

---dens

thanks for helping out makes :)

In the meantime, I have some server space and url i'm happy to chuck up a forum and splash page to try and reinvent the wheel as such until this gets cleaned up or new amdinistrators or whatever is needed if anyone is keen

The same thing was done by smidge last time the site went down completely for a few days last year - Eventually when it was back online it was abandoned. I don't think we need to resort to that at this stage but it should be kept in mind.. I could chuck some forums on the K11Wiki site and it would take no time at all - however I reckon we should stick with this for now otherwise people are likely to just lose interest here and go over to the UK forums or something.

I'm probably (definitely) talking out of my arse so feel free to ignore :P I don't mean to knock down your idea (it is a good idea) but with any luck the majority of posts will be dealt with by this evening and hopefully we can get in contact with Cisco and sort out some new mods and/or admins at the same time.

Perhaps Sean or someone else from Canberra has Cisco's phone number to SMS him on or something - I get the feeling he doesn't check the email account that he has linked to the site anymore (since ratetheplate is dead and I think that's what the email addy was last time I sent him a PM).

---dens

Hi guys,

I also very rarely check this site, but it would be a shame to see it go to a shambles. I was about email Cisco, but saw it had already been done and don't want to clutter up his inbox with the same message.

Please be patient as he has very recently moved to Japan and I doubt he has much or any time at the very present to redesign any aspect of the site. There may be a possibility of giving someone moderating permissions but that is entirely based up to him.

For now, I'll do what I can to clean up the threads, but I can't stop them from happening. Also bear in mind that I'm not always on here due to work and uni commitments. I've also deleted the other thread in regards to this, if you have any questions, comments or requests then please put them in this thread.

I appreciate your patience, and if you see a message that needs deleting urgently, send me a private message and I'll do what I can.

-Edit-

I've just noticed that some of these threads pop up quicker than I can delete them. I've done what I can for now, but if you have children at home who use your computer please ensure that you are fully logged out and clear the cache so as they can't accidentally stumble upon the site. If your children have a separate username on your computer, please disable this website using your antivirus/net nanny software on their profile until we sort this out.

Again, thanks for the patience

Thanks guys,

Sean

Thanks Sean.

They seem to pop up around every 30 mins unfortunately.

can you delete teh account thats popping them up?

No harm done Dens, i want to keep this site going as much as anyone! Just got our stickers after all :P

how hard is it to ban that cock that keeps posting. Had enough of the shit they keep putting up almost ready to stop filtering through it and just leave the site

i'll wrote him an email again, hopefully he responds :-/
really anoying with that tousands posts popping up. i think moderators can't delete users thats the problem. they just can delete posts.

ok well if i get the chance' i will attempt to rip this entire site to my harddrive, then i can set up a torrent for everyone to grab it if they want. Then someone can start a new site for us with better protection and stronger mod options.

lets see what cisco responses. i offered him that i'll do fixes here.
i could programm new features and some safety stuff, so we can chat about our micra's, all day long without any hazzles :)
opening a new site, will fix the problems indeed, but i don't think that this will be the best option.

definitely right, closing the site would be like admitting defeat to a swift. And that'll never happen as far as im concerned...

However, im guessing we are not locally hosted so im def gonna rip the site incase something like a mass cleanup happens and we lose piccy's from ages ago.

Uhh, so does this mean you're going to go through 4703 threads manually, saving the pages as you go, or what? If we were going to set up a new site, the best way to do it would be to work on integrating a new site into this one, rather than ditching it all and going to a new domain (which will make all our stickers redundant!).

The closest example to this that I can think of is what the AtomicMPC forums did about a year ago - they had their own custom-written forum (written in ASP rather than PHP, so it was even worse :P) and went to an IPB based forum instead. Some may say that it opens up the site to attacks in a greater way, simply because for any vulnerabilities that come out, people are much more likely to target the sites that use the more popular forum software packages.

However, the kind of bots we're having problems with on here are the kinds that you see spamming up blog post comments and the like - looking for any forms that they can spam on websites to put their links across on.



Agreed.

If we were to move to a new system, we would want it to integrate into the existing site, closing off this one and leaving it as a static archive for people to browse through in the future if need-be. The new one created would then start from scratch. I think that this current system is worth fighting for, and until it gets nuked entirely, we should stick with it and if Cisco can help improve it to reduce bots, then it would be even better.

Personally at this point I'm more concerned that this current forum isn't being backed up - we'd really be stuffed then and if memory serves, the database has already died in one way or another in the past, so one would hope that measures were taken to ensure it wouldn't happen again, but that's likely something that only Cisco knows.

Also Pierce, I'm not sure how long you've been on here (as you may have been on under another account for all I know) but personally I quite like the current system and while it's not got the features of some of the forums that most of us would be used to, it's grown on me and it's unique to the site - Cisco has put a lot of effort in to writing it from the ground-up and I'm sure he'd like to stay with it for as long as possible.

Edit: Well if you're concerned about the images, going here will be a start - I've probably pulled hundreds just from going through there picking out ones I like but feel free to grab all of them :P

---dens

deNs, ripping the site will be easy as with a prog like httracker or any other site ripping tool, and the images ftp link is awesome thanks cause that will save lots of time on the rip tool, i always assumed we didnt host our images but i guess we do.

I hope cisco feels like fixing this, either way though im not going to a uk site...

Yeh the msg's are the type of crap that you get on twitter and facebook... so annoying!

Figured you might do that.. wasn't sure how you were going to approach it though.

Just hope while doing it you don't accidentally put the site over its limit (as it's happened in the past.. last time it happened it was a few days before we were back online).

---dens

Guys, sorry I don't check the site much.

Leaving for Tokyo in 6 days, in Newcastle/Sydney at present.

Sorry I think also my email in the forums/messaging system is out of date and I never get anything. But Mik tracked me down, so I'm going to get back to him ASAP.

Thanks for all the loyalty to the site and caring about getting these issues sorted. I'll definitely make sure we sort it out, obviously it would be a stupid waste to let it go to the pack.

Even though I'm going to Tokyo, I will have more spare time for a while to attend to a few things, even if its just enough to do some kind of handover and get a few key things tidied up.

many thx

I've just updated my email address, so I can now be messaged through the forums system etc..

Sorry Dens and anyone else who emailed me, I wouldn't have got it, but I got Mik's..

Thx

Hey cisco, welcome back :P

I agree with Dens, I like the site format, way easier to read than something like PhpBB, I'm a paid club member of SAU and a skyline enthusiast, but I check this site 10 times more than either SAU forum!

Anything I can do help out cisco, let me know.

(Btw, i can't update my profile email, its no longer active, should be matt (a) mashd.net), if you can fix that too that would be great lol).

Cheers,
Matt

i've been around awhile and just want to say that I am glad there is still a bunch of micra fans wanting to maintain such a valuable resource. Barvo and thanks.

Hey cisco, glad you got the email :)

I love this site, i've been around here for years. Back then when everybody had his micra, and didn't want to sell it :D

I don't like those other forums either, they're too fancy, too much stuff which nobody actually needs and so on.

Cheers,
mik

Great description Mik! XD
I specialy enjoyed the "Back then when everybody had his micra, and didn`t want to sell it" part..priceless! ;)

Lots of legends and other magic moments have rised from this site and the community we all are proud to be a part of. Remember back in the day when I first looked at the purple flamed white micra with turboconverted CG13DE engine, and got inspired by Cisco`s mods and how too`s to the white micra. Still brings a smile to my face thinking back to the very beginning! :)

Another thing I apreciate is the way it brings so many different countryes together, and I enjoy very mutch to see the event reports and pictures from meets and cruises over there in Australia. Cisco`s Japan trip and blog also was a all time hit that would be hard to beat....well, I could go on and on..lol! XD

Hope all the micra madness will continue for still a few more years!
Big up to all you guyes ans girls out there keeping the spirit alive and always seem to come up with something new and exiting.. ;)

Cheers
Micratech

Hey Aaron,great to hear from you, glad you can get the site thing sorted out. It's a top site and I'm glad to still be a part of the Micra phenomenon.

Cheers,
Mychael

Ok now it's happening like every 5 minutes. The user really should've been deleted :( Ahh.

---dens

its the same person doing it... umm, ban maybe?

getting annoying now.

Should've been banned straight away - A little surprised that Cisco didn't when he dropped by but I guess he is pretty busy at the moment.

---dens

It's getting excessive now - every couple of minutes or less. It's gonna take quite some time to clean up these posts now.

---dens

i feel sorry for the poor mod who has to keep deleting the damn things :o

Now its really anoying. three to four pages of just spam :(

how annoying...

Anyways, just read the car wash guide and it is sic, explained some things i wasn't sure of. keep ya car clean boys!

Ok guys. Once again many thanks for raising your concerns.

Welcome Mik as a site admin. You can see his status has updated in the site bar. He will have access to a new sub section of the site where some key areas can be maintained and updated. Likewise, Mik can now delete posts and (drum roll) ban users!

I have just coded a super quick and dirty ban users features.
It's pretty basic and bare bones, but only admins can see it and if they click it, it works and also deletes all entire messages posted by the banned idiot all instantly with one click. So we are making some progress and Mik and the other mods can use this now too.

So that's step one.

The site was coded many years ago, originally in ASP and I converted it at some stage to PHP. When I look at the code now, I cringe, its so outdated and makes me laugh. It could do with a very big cleanup and modernisation. I will get some more bursts of time like this and want to tweak up a few more things. I need to put some small form of ads back on the site, but somewhere not obtrusive, as they pay for the hosting and make the site viable to just sit there.

I am kicking myself that the online public image gallery we used to have died. We lost hundreds of the best micra pictures from all over the world that were all hand selected and manually organised by myself which just took me hours and days to do. Then it died (no backup) and the lot was lost (several years ago). So yes, I would like to setup a backup process. The hosting company backs it up nightly or at least weekly, so they can dump a backup if required.

I'll get to these things over coming weeks, step by step.

I am also going to email Mik back and get a feel for how much coding he is prepared to do and any visions he may have for missing features (such as image gallery) and tidying a few things up.

I could code a web site about 10x better than this thesedays, but it all comes down to time and priorities for me. If I still had a micra, I'd be still coding this site a lot more often :)

Thx again. Cheers.

Thats great news, and a big thank you for trusting the Adminship to me :)

And shure, i'm willing and able to help coding and hope we'll figure something out, which everybody will love.

With that said, let's hope the good times are coming :)

cheers & thx :)

It's just great that this site is still alive after all this time and still has members passionate enough to want to keep it going.
Good work Cisco and congrats Mik on your new promotion.

Mychael

Great work guys! I am new here but I will definitely be staying :).

You too mipcar :)

That's awesome cisco! Caused by the Time Zones we are now able to check the Site mostly 24/7

cheers

Sweet you guyes, congrats! :)
Keeping the spirit alive is what it is all about..

EDIT/
Just realized..im now a admin too!
Thank you for the promotion Aaron. I will do my best to serv the community right.. ;)

:)

Also: I'll get back to Mik and see what we can work out about getting some passionate programming back into the site :)

yay :) good to see teh love is still around! let the good times roll!