I've been advised that the server the forum sits on is being moved, and there will be an approximate half hour downtime while it is.

Date: Wednesday, November 17, 2021
Time: 7:45PM – 11:45PM EST
Expected Service Interruption: 20 - 30 minutes

With luck, it won't inconvenience too many of us.

It's come to my attention that an ex member is telling people lies about WS on other forums.

Basically telling people they are being discussed in private forums here in a not very nice way.

This is total RUBBISH!

Private on this forum is members only, and everyone has access.

Opt-In Private means you have the choice of reading or not, and can select it from your profile. Black Lagoon hasn't had a post since July. Asteroid Field is currently active. Games is active. There hasn't been a zombied post since March.

There are a few hidden areas with zero activity. One is the new platform discussion area, which is dormant since the end of August. The software and forum development areas have been dormant since 2018. I have my own area I set up for co-author discussion, but I don't have an active co-author now, so its basically an archive of my universe's info. There is a moderator zone, but there are no moderators, so that's been dormant since 2019.

If someone suggests anything about activity on this forum you don't know about concerning you, here's the first thing you ask:

Which forum area?

If they can't or won't tell you, then you know it's bogus.

If they do tell you, you tell me, and I'll make sure you have access so you can check for yourself.

In hindsight we lost a member earlier in the year who suddenly PMed me about 'private forums', and it now looks like that was a similar attempt to cut someone out from here which succeeded.

At least talk to me first about any accusations being made. Most likely, they are very easily demonstrated to be BOGUS.

While there is nothing I can do about such activity on other forums, I would prefer to know it's going on.

No-one can denigrate or attack another member here without action being taken and zombies created. And there hasn't been a zombie created since March.

So if you get a message on another forum about stuff going on here you don't know about, ask for details of where, and then talk to me. Please.

I'm tempted to make a honeypot website just to help create my own anti-spam systems... could be a fun project.

Let me know if you do.

One reason I don't use the best of the recommended anti-spammer systems is I found them too complicated to use.

So if you can come up with something effective which is also easy to use with the forum, I'd be happy to test it.

Up until now I've been just taking spammer activity as junk you have to deal with.

But I've a very bad day today, and I've lost patience.

The last spammer had the entire IP address banned. As in 188.everything.

Most of the spam is coming out of Russia, mainly SEO peddlers using us to build links for search engines. Or porn.

As far as I'm aware, Auslander is the only member from that region, and I have his IP recorded.

The rest are going to get IP banned as I see them now.

If you hear of anyone who suddenly can't get in, let me know. I'll try not to get people blocked, but it might happen by accident.

IP banning is never a good thing, but there is a point where you just slam the door. And I reached it today.

I got two in the last couple days from a "ChaCooro" and they're selling dynamic and rotary proxies. I'm not sure how to forward PMs.

There won't be anymore from that username.

Best way to send to me would be to quote it for reply, then copy the whole quote, cancel the reply, and paste that into a pm to me.