• Spring 2024 meetup in Calgary - tentative date Saturday, April 20/2024. Other regions are also discussing meet ups. If you want one in your area get going on organizing it! discussion
  • We are having email/registration problems again. Diagnosis is underway. New users sorry if you are having trouble getting registered. We are exploring different options to get registered. Contact the forum via another member or on facebook if you're stuck. Update -> we think it is fixed. Let us know if not.
  • Spring meet up in Ontario, April 6/2024. NEW LOCATION See Post #31 Discussion NEW LOCATION

Sticky READ: WARNING! Do not post links as a new user || How our Spam Detection Works!

Jwest7788

Joshua West
Administrator
Hello new members!

In Short: Do not post URLS to your profile or in posts until you have had at least 3 posts on the forum.

This is a cautionary notice to help you avoid getting caught up in our spam detection system. Since this forum was started we always had an issue with what is known as "spam registrations". Spam registrations are essentially spammers who sign up for an account with the only goal of helping their own website appear in search engines like google (SEO) by posting links to their sites.

In order to prevent these users from turning this forum into a dumping ground of junk links and garbage users, we had to develop some spam detection policies which can catch new users if you're not aware of the systems in place.

Essentially, there are several triggers that can catch a user up into our moderation queue, but all restrictions are removed after the user has been active for a few posts. Here is the process summarized, but mostly in full:

During Initial Registration:
Several factors can cause a user to be held for moderation. I personally review users in this queue, and moderators on the forum have the ability to review these as well.
Most common factors that cause a user to be held for moderation are:

  • IP Address has a history of creating spam accounts on other forums. (There is a publicly available database that we reference against)
  • User's IP address is in India, China, Romania, (etc.) Known high spam countries, particularly for a forum made with Canadians in mind.
  • Usernames that include any of our list of spam keywords, "Free", "Cheap", "sale", are example warning words that cause a user to be reviewed.
  • Using a throwaway email account like "@trashmail.ws"
  • The best usernames always trigger spam due to usage for spamming on other sites. Usernames like "frank" "josh" "james" etc. are common enough that they've almost certainly been used for spamming somewhere else, so will catch in the spam filter.
  • etc.
If held for moderation, the account can still be approved, but just takes a human to review the account. I check very regularly, but if you're caught up here, or didn't receive your verification email (or are having any other troubles, please email me directly: http://canadianhobbymetalworkers.com/misc/contact )

After initial registration
Once you're in, your have 90% of regular access, with two exceptions.
1) You will not be able to add your location, occupation, or *homepage* to your profile until you have made at least 1 post. This is to prevent users creating their account, and adding a Spam URL (link) to their website in the homepage section.
2) Until you have 3 posts under your belt DO NOT POST ANY URL'S into the forum. This will cause you a headache, potentially limiting your ability to post to the forum having accidentally flagged yourself as a spammer.
3) Once you have three posts in your account history, you have full access to all regular functionality, can post links, update your profile, etc.


The reason we have the three posts rule, is to make the process of getting a link on the page take some time and actual effort. This process makes automated spamming to the forum not realistic, and since it's creation has stopped nearly 100% of spam on the forum.

If a spam users squeaks by our processes, and does manage to post junk, please report the user so we can figure out what he did, and help prevent the same issue in future.


This system will inevitably catch the odd new user who has only good intentions. For those users, I do apologize. Our goal is to make this forum a resource to our members, and while we will do our best, it is important to remember that this forum is run by members, for members. We are purely volunteer run and managed. Please keep in mind that none of us have managed a forum before, and we're doing our best!

Again, should you ever need to reach out to me directly, or if you have been wrongly flagged as a spammer, you can contact me here:
http://canadianhobbymetalworkers.com/misc/contact


I am open to any insights or adjustments anyone wants to make to these systems. If you have ideas, or have experience running a xenforo forum and want to share your experience, I am open to any contributions you can make.

JW
 
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