New server, take two

[I AM I AM I AM MOBIUS]

for some

[I AM MOBIUS]

Works for me

[Ming]

As always,
THANK YOU SOLVER
for your help.
Whatever you did, it worked

[Solver]

No big deal, just a forum upgrade! Has to be done every now and then due to security exploits being found, and I'd received an automated warning about someone trying to break in...

The stupid thing is that upgrading vBulletin sucks. It's still fundamentally the same process as when they released vB3 fifteen years ago... which is to say, not automatic. You have to go download some files, then go upload them, then run a script, then delete some files. It really should be something you can do with two clicks in 2020, but it's not.

[Ming]

Again, thanks for your efforts.
However, one question. Is there anyway to get rid of those two notifications?
I went in and cleaned most things up after your work, but their are two notifications I can't get rid of of

[Solver]

Yeah, I see them as well - they're stuck and I can't seem to immediately get rid of them. Will take another look at it later. Stupid software bugs...

[Ming]

Thanks... I tried everything, but I will assume you know this crap better than I do

[astrologix]

Thank you Solver. We are in good hands with you. I feel secure and happy

[-Jrabbit]

Thank you, Solver.

[Blake00]

There's still people getting in.. I keep getting emails about my old threads getting bumped by spam accounts. I report them yet some of them are still here posting more spam threads (are admins just deleting spam posts and not the users creating them??)

This whole thread here is A-spam itself and B-filled with spammers talking to one another lol
https://apolyton.net/forum/civilizat...mpany-in-dubai

actually forget the thread.. look this sub forum.. full of spammers.. no wonder my old civilization history thread there keeps getting bumped by them..
https://apolyton.net/forum/civilizat...ast-and-future

Meanwhile I keep having bother poor Lorizael all the time because my posts get locked out for admin approval and then locked out again if I dare try to edit them.

A forum security setup that allows new members to spam the forums while punishing long time members for daring to keep the place alive is not a good recipe for survival.

May I humbly suggest relaxing posting restrictions on older accounts with a certain post count (so they can make multi link posts and edit approved posts without needing admins) while heavily restricting new members? (eg no links allowed until say 20 posts? along with no more than 5 posts a day so they can't fast spam to 20)

Also more importantly how much security is there in the sign up process here these days? eg capatcha? How many street signs in this picture? A security question about something Civ related? Because whatever is there right now is not working and hasn't for several weeks as these spammers are having party here atm.

.

[Blake00]

oh for crying out loud.. speak of the devil.. my post above complaining about new fake accounts being allowed to spam unchecked and old members being punished for the slightest thing just got locked for admin approval..

what the hell is happening around here???

[Ming]

I don't know what to tell you. You are right about the silliness of "unapproved" posts. I have no clue why this software decides to allow some and not others.
And when I delete spam, I do delete/ban the users and all their other posts. But sometimes, vB5 doesn't allow me to do anything more than delete the single post.
I do hate this software.

Please continue to point out problems posts and threads here so I can try to clean all this crap up.
Thanks for your support

[Blake00]

man that's crazy if even you are stopped from banning an account..

That forum I linked to above (I'm too scared to link to it again as my post may get locked ) is still full of spam posts, I can see 3 threads there (around my legit one).. one of them has 15 replies where the spammers are enjoying each others company lol.

There's gotta be some settings for new members and the whole sign up process somewhere in your admin settings. I'm an co-admin on several forums however they are phpbb and mybb so I have no idea about vBulletin but these screens from phpbb bellow show some of the stuff I'm talking about that hopefully exists somewhere in your settings.

eg here I can set a new member post limit and have them auto assign to a new registered users group where i can apply more permissions and security to without messing everyone else up. I can also enable spambot countermeasures which forces users to pass those tests I mentioned.


here I can set the specific countermeasures such as limiting refreshes and retries on security questions and of course the important selection of the type of test eg a Q&A question about the game, or a capatcha, or some other interesting image tests.

[Ming]

I cleaned up some more... please feel free to point out any other "problems" and I will take a look at them. There is just so much spam to clean up and not enough hours in the day

[Blake00]

Yeah I never delete individual posts.. I just hit a lovely 'ban user and remove all their posts' button in the bb forum admin settings and it all gets done in one hit. As yeah chasing down individual posts would take forever and they'll keep coming unless the user is completely deleted/banned.

Hope you or one of the other admins here can find the options for restricting new members and making sign ups harder.. otherwise it'll just get worse now that you're being targetted.