Jeff_Ricks
30th October 2006, 10:06 AM
The amount of spam we are getting seems to be increasing. Most of it you never see -- the moderators (and sometimes myself) delete them as soon as we see them, but they keep on coming.
Over the last several weeks I've been setting up a new discussion forums package, customizing it so it looks as much like vBulletin (our current package) as possible. I still have more to do though. Maybe another weekend will allow me to finish it, at least enough for us to give it a test drive. Once we make the move the spam will be brought to a dead halt, then in the future when the spammers find some way of spamming the new software it will be much easier to control.
For you techies out there, the reason we can't switch if off is because PostMormon.org uses three software packages made by three different companies. Getting them to talk to each other means making some compromises. One of those compromises requires me to switch off spam filtering in vBulliten. When we move to the new software, two of the packages will no longer be necessary. One program will run the whole site: membership database, discussion forums, magazines, wikis, everything. And where there are problems I only have to contact one customer support service (a top-notch one at that) and the problem will be solved. There are also a number of things that need finishing on the site as well as a number of new functions implemented that we’ll all like, but I’m holding off until the switch over is behind us because it will be much, much easier to make the other changes once that’s done. In short, making the change will be well worth the trouble of switching over, both for us who maintain the site behind the scenes and for you all who use the site.
Again for you techies, and anyone else interested, the reason the site wasn’t set up ‘right’ in the first place is because the package that I want to move us over to, which runs everything on the site but the forums and membership database, didn’t have a discussion forum module when the site was launched. Several months ago they added the forum module and are now on version 1.3.1, so it’s a stable package. It’s that package that I’m customizing so we can make the change.
Please post any questions or concerns you might have. :)
Jeff
Over the last several weeks I've been setting up a new discussion forums package, customizing it so it looks as much like vBulletin (our current package) as possible. I still have more to do though. Maybe another weekend will allow me to finish it, at least enough for us to give it a test drive. Once we make the move the spam will be brought to a dead halt, then in the future when the spammers find some way of spamming the new software it will be much easier to control.
For you techies out there, the reason we can't switch if off is because PostMormon.org uses three software packages made by three different companies. Getting them to talk to each other means making some compromises. One of those compromises requires me to switch off spam filtering in vBulliten. When we move to the new software, two of the packages will no longer be necessary. One program will run the whole site: membership database, discussion forums, magazines, wikis, everything. And where there are problems I only have to contact one customer support service (a top-notch one at that) and the problem will be solved. There are also a number of things that need finishing on the site as well as a number of new functions implemented that we’ll all like, but I’m holding off until the switch over is behind us because it will be much, much easier to make the other changes once that’s done. In short, making the change will be well worth the trouble of switching over, both for us who maintain the site behind the scenes and for you all who use the site.
Again for you techies, and anyone else interested, the reason the site wasn’t set up ‘right’ in the first place is because the package that I want to move us over to, which runs everything on the site but the forums and membership database, didn’t have a discussion forum module when the site was launched. Several months ago they added the forum module and are now on version 1.3.1, so it’s a stable package. It’s that package that I’m customizing so we can make the change.
Please post any questions or concerns you might have. :)
Jeff