Cleaning house

[cookieee]

Hi, every once in a while, or at least when I remember :D I like to check the birthdays to see if any of our friends here are celebrating the big day. Most days there are people listed who I have never heard of. For the heck of it, I checked one of them. They joined 10 years ago and have only 1 post which was about 2 weeks after they joined. Do you think it is possible to maybe weed out people like that and make more room for active members?

[Gumbeaux]

I asked this question a year or so ago. The vast majority of members here are spammers. Look on the members list and you'll see that the first seven pages of members (over 200!) are spammers that have zero posts. I think it is fair to say that there are tens of thousands spammers that are members on this site. A lot of them have come back and added their spam website link. A lot of vBulletin forums "prune" theses "members" from time to time and it would probably be a good idea to do some housekeeping here.

[cookieee]

I asked this question a year or so ago. The vast majority of members here are spammers. Look on the members list and you'll see that the first seven pages of members (over 200!) are spammers that have zero posts.I think it is fair to say that there are tens of thousands spammers that are members on this site. A lot of them have come back and added their spam website link. A lot of vBulletin forums "prune" theses "members" from time to time and it would probably be a good idea to do some housekeeping here.

Did CL ever give you an answer?

[syzygy]

Hi, every once in a while, or at least when I remember :D I like to check the birthdays to see if any of our friends here are celebrating the big day. Most days there are people listed who I have never heard of. For the heck of it, I checked one of them. They joined 10 years ago and have only 1 post which was about 2 weeks after they joined. Do you think it is possible to maybe weed out people like that and make more room for active members?

Make more room? What do you mean by that? AFAIK there is no limit on # of members. And it's pretty presumptuous to assume that just because someone has only a few posts that they may not be here lurking. I don't have a high post count for the number of years I've been a registered member (and I even lurked for a good while before I joined, so I've been here a long time). I'm not all that loquacious but do visit and read the boards. And yes, while I know that there are spammers who join to post once or twice and then leave, there is no way to know for sure just who is the spammer and who is maybe just a lurker just because of a zero or low post count. I've also noticed posts recently from members who haven't posted in a long while and only have a few posts to their name, so I don't think you can just arbitrarily decide to remove members because you don't know them. Not everyone is a chatterbox and this board should be open to all who want to use and not abuse.

[cookieee]

Make more room? What do you mean by that? AFAIK there is no limit on # of members. And it's pretty presumptuous to assume that just because someone has only a few posts that they may not be here lurking. I don't have a high post count for the number of years I've been a registered member (and I even lurked for a good while before I joined, so I've been here a long time). I'm not all that loquacious but do visit and read the boards. And yes, while I know that there are spammers who join to post once or twice and then leave, there is no way to know for sure just who is the spammer and who is maybe just a lurker just because of a zero or low post count. I've also noticed posts recently from members who haven't posted in a long while and only have a few posts to their name, so I don't think you can just arbitrarily decide to remove members because you don't know them. Not everyone is a chatterbox and this board should be open to all who want to use and not abuse.

Dear SYZYGY, thank you for your input, but I believe people can lurk without having to join the bb. I think if a really interested person wanted to join the bb, they should not have to choose some weird name for themselves just because 10 years ago a spammer used their same name to join and has never been back since. I just think we should have a lot better choice of names to use here. Do you really think I wanted cookie with 3 e's? :D

[Gumbeaux]

Make more room? What do you mean by that? AFAIK there is no limit on # of members. And it's pretty presumptuous to assume that just because someone has only a few posts that they may not be here lurking. I don't have a high post count for the number of years I've been a registered member (and I even lurked for a good while before I joined, so I've been here a long time). I'm not all that loquacious but do visit and read the boards. And yes, while I know that there are spammers who join to post once or twice and then leave, there is no way to know for sure just who is the spammer and who is maybe just a lurker just because of a zero or low post count. I've also noticed posts recently from members who haven't posted in a long while and only have a few posts to their name, so I don't think you can just arbitrarily decide to remove members because you don't know them. Not everyone is a chatterbox and this board should be open to all who want to use and not abuse.

I'd bet my house and everything I own that you could delete every member that doesn't have a single post after six months or a year and have ZERO collateral damage with real members.

[bemm123]

I'd bet my house and everything I own that you could delete every member that doesn't have a single post after six months or a year and have ZERO collateral damage with real members.

I agree. Even if I had legitimate interest in the board, I wouldn't expect CL to forever reserve a screen name for me despite never using it. I would fully understand the need to re-register after a certain period of time if I had never posted anything.

[cookieee]

Looks like we are not going to get an answer from CL.

I was checking out the latest batch of new members. Most look like spammers about to happen. This is probably going to be a busy weekend. :rolleyes:

[cookieee]

I really would like an answer from Cooking Light about this issue.

"I think if a really interested person wanted to join the bb, they should not have to choose some weird name for themselves just because 10 years ago a spammer used their same name to join and has never been back since. I just think we should have a lot better choice of names to use here. Do you really think I wanted cookie with 3 e's? "

[cookieee]

Still waiting to hear from CL about this problem.

Did anyone notice the list of birthdays today? :rolleyes:

[MalloryCL]

Hi Cookieee -
We don't currently have plans to delete any inactive members. Known spammers, however, have been banned. Thanks for asking.

Best,
Mallory

[cookieee]

Dear Mallory, THANK YOU for answering


You say known spammers have been banned, but does CL delete their names?

And when will CL do something about this problem? The "legit" people that join are having a heck of a time with a name. You can't even pronounce most of them.

If CL is not doing anything because they want to keep the members numbers high to impress the advertisers, I'm sure they are not fooling anyone.

Is there some way to make it easier for "real" people to join and still make it hard for spammers? I know, you can't tell one from another at the beginning.

I think there should be a stickie at the top of every forum, addressed to spammers, saying something to the effect of don't waste your time here, you will be immediately deleted.

This BB is DYING!!!! I know a lot of the members have left to go to Facebook and such, but look at how many visitors we get every day. What we have to do now is to get those visitors to stop lurking and JOIN and help save the BB that they love to visit. How do we do that?

[BucknellAlum]

It is weird that there are about 200 new member who joined in the last THREE DAYS and only 1 or 2 have any posts???

I am sad to see the (real) activity on the BB die down. I miss many of our regular posters . . not sure if it's due to spammers or FB or just busy lives.

[cookieee]

It is weird that there are about 200 new member who joined in the last THREE DAYS and only 1 or 2 have any posts???

I am sad to see the (real) activity on the BB die down. I miss many of our regular posters . . not sure if it's due to spammers or FB or just busy lives.

Yes, it is also sad that some of the new ones that do post are just building up their post so they can spam:rolleyes:

I also miss many of our regulars. I was hoping that this weeks Homecoming Game would bring a lot of them back, but I doubt it.:(

[MalloryCL]

You say known spammers have been banned, but does CL delete their names?

Hi cookieee -
No, we do not delete their names. When a user is banned, they are banned on the IP level so they are not able to create a new username and continue to spam our boards from the same IP address. If we deleted their information, we would lose that protection.

Thanks again,
Mallory

[cookieee]

I asked this question a year or so ago. The vast majority of members here are spammers. Look on the members list and you'll see that the first seven pages of members (over 200!) are spammers that have zero posts. I think it is fair to say that there are tens of thousands spammers that are members on this site. A lot of them have come back and added their spam website link. A lot of vBulletin forums "prune" theses "members" from time to time and it would probably be a good idea to do some housekeeping here.

What do we do now Gumbeaux? Looks like CL doesn't want to clean house. :(

[Gumbeaux]

They certainly need to lock the front door. Spammers are pouring in.

[cookieee]

I know, it used to be mostly on week-ends, but now it seems like it's every day.:rolleyes:

Did you also notice that an awful lot of the members that haven't posted in a long time are ones that were looking to join a supper club and only posted one or two times before moving on. Why can't they be deleted?

[cookieee]

For example, today, 5 out of the 6 birthday people I checked, had 1 or 2 posts looking for a supper club, between 5 to 10 years ago.

So many people on the birthday list yesterday that I almost missed CHERYLOPALS birthday. Hope you had a great day. ;)

[cookieee]

They certainly need to lock the front door. Spammers are pouring in.

Like naakarjan who is about to hit us with a lot of advertising for his pools.:rolleyes:

[BucknellAlum]

Thanks so much for this! This is exactly what I was looking for

Oh my gosh, are you kidding me??

Reported :rolleyes:

[cookieee]

Oh my gosh, are you kidding me??

Reported :rolleyes:
Thanks for helping to clean house;)

[cookieee]

OK I know I have too much time on my hands but here are some more statistics that I just don't understand.

As of now we have a total of 19 members viewing and 487 visitors viewing.

In the last 6 days, we have had a total of 385 new members sign up. That averages out to over 60 new members signing up every day. How come the number of members viewing is not going up every day? That is because the majority of the new members are hit and run spammers and do not come back.

What does this tell us? No matter what the total numbers say, there are just a very few of us that are trying very hard to keep this BB going. I keep saying this and no one will listen.

Lurkers, you can not keep lurking all the time and not contribute. I keep telling you, some day there may not be a BB for you to visit. Do not let spammers be the only ones joining us. We need more new people who really care about this BB and want to see it continue. Won't you please take the time and join and say hello?

[cookieee]

Uh o, no, I wasn't talking to you. Don't even bother. We don't need any phone sex here.:rolleyes:

[cincy cook]

As a new member, I would like to add something that I think may be overlooked in this conversation.

I believe some members, like me, are honestly looking for answers and information that would make our cooking and our lives a little better. We search for quality places to find those answers. We aren't just "lurking."

When we do find a website that we feel will be helpful, there is no way to get help without registering on the forum. Maybe we didn't really want to waste all your space, but that was the only way to get an answer.

Also remember that some of us, myself included, have been subscribers to Cooking Light for years who enjoy its arrival every month. I think you could reasonably expect that as a paid subscriber, you should have a right to a place on the forum, whether you feel the need to use it once in a blue moon or overwhelm the forum with what sometimes amounts to nothing more than a social forum for foodies seeking adulation through ubiquitous postings.

Come on, give us a break. Some of us don't have the time to hang out and chatterbox. We're here because we think it's a good place to find answers - when we need them.

-Cincy Cook

[cookieee]

Dear Cincy, if you are not here to spam than none of this applies to you. Please do not take any of this personal. If you have been visiting the bb, I am sure you know what I am talking about ;)

[cincy cook]

Cookieee ........ check your pm's for further comments.

[cincy cook]

Cookieee ........ check your pm's for further comments.

Well that sucks !!!

After an extensive pm (positive but with deep feelings), my pm was rejected because I haven't had enough posts. I guess I forgot that part.

My comments were primarily private and not meant for the entire forum to see, so I guess everything will go unsaid for now.

Oh, and that weekly game - I looked at several of them and wasn't quite sure what the deal was. Interested, but probably not able to put in the time. Fill me in anyway.

My best,

- aj (cincy cook)

[cookieee]

Hi, I thought that might have been the problem. That is why I couldn't send you one.:D I'm sure you wll be able to send pm's soon. ;)

Re. the game. A new one will start tomorrow. If you have time, would love to have you join us. We have a really nice bunch of people that play and we do have a lot of very good recipes. If you have any questions, please feel free to ask.

I hope everything is straightened out about the misunderstanding between us. I really just meant to help you out and get off on the right foot with everything. ;)

;) =friendly not flirty (for me):D

[cincy cook]

The end .........

-cincy cook