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Welcome back to the new NEFF. Take a break from Twitter and Facebook. You don't go to Dicks for your fly fishing gear, you go to your local fly fishing store. Enjoy!

First look, Old Forum - New Forum

Pete

Pete

Trout Hunter
The old VB forum is still accessible, and those Russian spambots are still Joining it like crazy.
I haven't been keeping records, but we may have set a new record since yesterday.

The last time I looked the new forum had one new member, but the moderation tools, that I've found so far, don't give me enough data to screen. (IP, email, etc). If he spams us ... haven't yet found a way to ban a spammer.
 
I noticed that too. I believe I disabled the spam users. I'll re-enable that, let's see what happens. I'm working on a new front end for this new format. Too boring looking but, it does work well on a cell phone!
 
Two more spambots joined the VB forum since my last post.
The most recent was @ 3:39 PM yesterday, that could have been before you re-enabled "Spam-o-matic".

Still can't screen new members on the XenForo forum, but yesterday's "new guy" seems to have disappeared.
 
Pete said:
Two more spambots joined the VB forum since my last post.
The most recent was @ 3:39 PM yesterday, that could have been before you re-enabled "Spam-o-matic".

Still can't screen new members on the XenForo forum, but yesterday's "new guy" seems to have disappeared.
Click to expand...
You should have the same access you had on the old site. I'll look into this. Permissions are setup a little differently.
 
10/8/22
One new spambot joined the VB forum. It's IP address was in the StopForumSpam database.

Newest member of the XenFero forum is still the most recent "human" who joined the VB forum.

The only moderator tools that I can find in the XenFero forum are an empty "Approval Queue", an empty "Reports" list, and I just found a way to delete, edit or promote a thread.
 
I've been messing around with the new software.

I have a few more things to add as well. I work on it when I have a chance
 
VB forum had no new members, but one new post.
"Troutpunk" never got the memo.

The XF forum confronted me with two step verification. I enabled it but never got the email.
One of the few things I could do, without the verification code, was change the email.
I got the confirmation code, but it was hiding in my SPAM folder.
It got me in, but it would appear that the ability to change the email address, kind of defeats the purpose of two step verification.
Let's hope that spambots don't bother to create back-up email addresses, or look in spam folders.
 
Pete said:
VB forum had no new members, but one new post.
"Troutpunk" never got the memo.

The XF forum confronted me with two step verification. I enabled it but never got the email.
One of the few things I could do, without the verification code, was change the email.
I got the confirmation code, but it was hiding in my SPAM folder.
It got me in, but it would appear that the ability to change the email address, kind of defeats the purpose of two step verification.
Let's hope that spambots don't bother to create back-up email addresses, or look in spam folders.
Click to expand...
I was fooling around with some settings yesterday and was also presented with this 2 step verification non-sense. The problem is, I don't remember exactly which setting I changed! I'll figure it out.
 
VB forum:
One new member. A typical Spambot who's IP is listed in the StopForumSpam database 23 times.
"Troutpunk" was online looking at his new topic, (probably wondering why nobody replies).

XenPorta forum:
Still no useful moderation tools.
Newest member is still the most recent "human" who joined the VB forum.
DC tried to trick me into turning off my security software.
Did Mac get demoted? ... He wasn't doing anything, so he'd be perfect as a moderator in a forum without moderation tools.
Removing two-step verification was probably a good idea. If the members are too lazy to start topics, they'll never jump through those hoops just to login.
 
VB forum:
One new member. Another typical Spambot but this one's IP is only listed in the StopForumSpam database twice.

XenPorta forum:
Didn't notice anything new.
It only seems to have 3 participants (Caddis doesn't count)
Maybe the VB needs one of those "every catagory" announcements, but I'm wondering if a live link would tip off the spambot group that's currently targeting us.
 
VB forum:
Another day, another spambot.
Are we leaving registration open as a decoy?

XenPorta forum:
Somebody actually posted in a fishing topic. We now have a fourth member participating.
 
Pete said:
VB forum:
Another day, another spambot.
Are we leaving registration open as a decoy?

XenPorta forum:
Somebody actually posted in a fishing topic. We now have a fourth member participating.
Click to expand...
I've now disabled new registrations on the old forum. We should not have any more spambots over there!
 
It's been 3 days since the VB forum got a new spambot.
I still seem to have moderator status there.

This forum, I appear to have been demoted to a normal member.
No problem, there wasn't much a moderator could do.

I needed to use email verification to login today.
 
Interesting... I didn't change your permissions but I'm going to fix that. I too had to use email verification. I'm not sure what happened but this shouldn't be an issue anymore.
 
I just checked. You're still in the moderator group. When did the access stop? I've been messing around with different things on the backend today. Maybe I screwed something up.
 
This morning:
The 'top bar" with the moderator options (all 2 of them) disappeared.
If there's any other moderator access, I haven't found it.
If I click on "members" my name disappeared from the list of staff members. You're the only one left.
My ability to delete or edit a topic, is now limited to topics I started.

Conclusion: You found out how old I am, and don't want a senile old phart messing with your forum.
As far as I can tell, no spambots have joined the new forum.
Since AK left, killing spambots, and the occasional human spammer, was about all I was doing on the VB.
Even if AK came back, the "opt-in" sections seem to be gone.
 
Ahhhhh... okay, same thing happened to me. Check for that tab on the bottom left of the screen. Let me know if you don't see that.

admin.png
 
Don't see it ...
Still only one "Staff" listed.

OT - VB forum - unbanned Beetle. He can post his videos there without nauseating anyone.
 
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Fooling around a little.
I did a "mouse over" on a new member, and noticed a "gear" symbol. Clicking on it revealed some limited tools for checking IPs and messing with someone... Editing only.

Still not seeing any into a control panel like on the VB, or other "normal" forum software.

The picture you showed, displayed a button for "Admin Panel". I'm guessing that since a moderator is not an administrator, that's why I'm not seeing it. ... Possibly confirmed by the fact that my UN & PW won't get me into the admin panel through the more visible door available by messing around in "Resources".
 
Hmmmmm... You're in the Moderator and Super moderator group. I won't be available over the weekend; I'll check back on Monday. I have a family event and hockey and have stuff to do around the ranch.
 
Fooling around some more ...

There are some things, I could do on the VB that I can't do here.
There are some things I can do here that I couldn't do on the VB.

Bottom line, as long as we don't get more than a dozen new members between visits, I can screen for spambots.
But "warning" isn't sufficient for a bot.
All I can do is recommend that an administrator bad them.

If AK comes back, and you add an "opt-in" slum, I can move topics, but probably not just the offending posts.
Still figuring out topic moderation...
 
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The profile of the only member who joined after the new forum was unveiled has an additional moderation tool called "Spam". This has a ban option.

Screening new members for spambots is possible, but someone has to stay on top of it.
If we start getting a lot of new members, or if the spambots wise up, one or more additional motivated moderators may be advisable.

Other than deleting entire topics, I still haven't figured out how to deal with unacceptable content. Fortunately, our fearless leader doesn't seem to object to trolls, he keeps them for his amusement.
 
@ Dennis
Recently it looks like Russian spammers (agents?) have discovered us.

Check the IP addresses of Members 4541, 4542, and 4543 in the stopforumspam database.
I have no idea if the new software has a way to counter this.
 
More Russian spammers/agents banned today.

Some of them have thousands of complaints, so they're most likely bots, with an AI getting them past the usual anti-spambot measures.
 
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Let's see what I can do. I've updated the software and now some of the add-ons are working properly. I'll be upgrading this today or tomorrow.
 
dcabarle said:
Let's see what I can do. I've updated the software and now some of the add-ons are working properly. I'll be upgrading this today or tomorrow.
Click to expand...
Still getting about 2 to 4 with black-listed Russian IP addresses a day. Some of them have such a high count if complaints, they're most likely bots.

BTW: I still have to use "quote" to post a reply. The low post count isn't entirely the members fault.
 
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