Re: REPORTING SPAM

Caro Laithwaite VN — Fri, 06 Apr 2012 08:43:26 GMT

Yayy we can swear Big A used my 2nd name Bastar.d (well l am adopted so permitted to describe myself thus) snipers sounds good Sal

Re: REPORTING SPAM

Sal the 1st — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 20:12:43 GMT

ooh my eyes Mr Arlo - the B word but know what you mean- what you need are some snipers to pick em off.

Re: REPORTING SPAM

Arlo Guthrie — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 19:05:45 GMT

On this subject, here is the latest about spammers:

First of all, you have to understand why they are doing it.

The reason is not particularly to get you to click a link to their site. It's because vetnurse.co.uk has a high google page rank. If they link from here to another website, it helps the other website go up the google charts. So the spammers enter the site and add a link, either from their profile, or in a forum post, and then go away. There is absolutely no point replying to their post, or threatening to report them, because they are not listening. They have posted and are gone forever!

But it IS worth telling me, because if i haven't already seen the spam, I will delete it.

The worst scenario happens when the spammers deploy a piece of software to sign up and post spammy links automatically. This happened once, and it was a real pig to sort out. But we now have that thing on registration where you have to type in words displayed as an image. This can't be done by software, so stops automated software.

Now ordinarily, I have our system set to allow automatic, immediate registration, and I do regular spot checks. This together with the explanation on registration that this site is for nurses and members of the veterinary profession only, seems to be effective most of the time.

However, about a month ago, I we started getting one or two spammers per day. So I set the system such that ALL registrations needed my approval.

After a while, they stopped bothering, so I opened registration again.

And guess what, they're back!

Bastards.

I am keeping an eye on things, but will probably set the system back to manual registration approval. I don't like doing that because it means an inevitable delay to process the registrations, and that can be a bore, especially for people who want to advertise jobs asap.

Re: REPORTING SPAM

Arlo Guthrie — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 18:36:51 GMT

I'm here!

Re: REPORTING SPAM

Caro Laithwaite VN — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 18:21:15 GMT

PM Arlo

Re: REPORTING SPAM

Katie Mansfield — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 16:51:43 GMT

Thanks guys - done it

K x

Re: REPORTING SPAM

Mark Hedberg — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 12:39:38 GMT

Click "more options" and select "report abuse".

Re: REPORTING SPAM

Sal the 1st — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 10:30:11 GMT

PM Arlo