The pornbots have struck!
Posted by mr_chill on October 11th, 2008
The webmaster support forum has undergone a major change over the weekend and now runs on PHPbb3 rather than IPB, (Invision Power Board). Nothing against IPB at all it’s just that our newer board offers more in the way of security and I really like the 28 new theme choices. I have uploaded them all so members will find something that suits their personality I’m sure. The categories have been reordered as well in order to better handle newcomers and process questions. Remember, “The Webmasters” is a support forum first and foremost and answering questions is our top priority. The weekend started out great with my registration at several new social networking sites where I planned to promote the hell out of both websites, HillSiteDesigns and the forum, “The Webmasters”. What prompted this change was an attack of pornbots and viagrabots. I began receiving several auto registrations a minute at the forum because I had Admin authorization turned off, (rookie mistake). It reached over 320 when I finally realized our forum wasn’t just exploding with unlooked for popularity. I began checking the new “members” and found a great deal of dupe IPs but not before making a fool of myself and asking a friend for help moderating my wildly popular support forum. The worst part is yet to come, as I was purging the fake registrations I blew it and deleted the entire membership! Admittedly, I do not know exactly how many “real” members that was because there were no posts but still. Although heart breaking at first, this whole episode has served to, improve the security of our forum, allow the membership several skin choices, and show me the error of believing what I see. All in all it’s been a hell of a week! OH YEA! If your account was one that was deleted, please forgive my blunder and reregister. Remember this was all because of pornbots and my trust in mankind. Speaking of trust in mankind, NO more of that…..all user accounts must be activated by an admin. This will undoubtedly cause a short wait while forum moderators complete registrations but look at it this way, you won’t be blasted with viagra ads while using the forum! I want to thank you all for your patience and understanding during this time of crisis. I think I heard “W” say that once.