Hmm… I guess we could do that
Let me discuss this with the team
Sincerely,
Serge
Hmm… I guess we could do that
We could try the manual moderation option for a while to see it and how it works. Serge, how difficult is it to implement this feature? Many thanks, Torsten
Hi Torsten - let us review and see what’s involved
If it was for the forum itself, it would have been quite an easy task. The problem is that the forum is integrated in the rest of the site - so the usual registration procedure is bypassed. We’re checking now on which level this is being done, and how complicated it will be to introduce moderation for new members
Sincerely,
Serge
Good to know that it’s at least on the table for consideration, many thanks.
Another weekend of spam has begun. Are we any further forward in the spam fight?
Some members report that they are finding it very difficult being unable to post links, and I’ve noticed that links that were on the site prior to all this are now being ‘munged’ by a preceding asterisk, which renders them invalid.
Hi Beeesneees,
Actually, we are. Yesterday we closed a hole that was possibly used by the spammers for getting onto the forum. We’re watching the situation now - if the inflow of spammer registrations is confirmed to go down, we’ll turn back on the links
Sincerely,
Serge
Hello Bez
This is an attempt.
Hyperlinks are not allowed.
Unfortunately everything is hyperlinks which begins with http so we can’t send to each other either important links or photos.If you delete the http the link comes to an end.
Regards:
Kati
Hmm, hyperlinks are still allowed however:
I’ve found a loophole - you have to use upper-case characters to circumvent the filter.
You might want to fix that.
Hello Our Tort,
Many thanks and at last I understand what Bez tried to explain with asterisks.
It was really kind of you:
kati
Hi, could I ask again if we can make it so that genuine established users can post links? (“genuine established users” to be identified by length of time registered and/or number of posts made.)
Guys, I have messaged Torsten with a request for permission to re-enable the links for users. We’ll bring them back as soon as I hear from him
Sincerely,
Serge
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Hello Serge,
Every solving could be good if it involved any inconvenience for us. The goal to put and end to this intolerable situation.
Many thanks:
Kati Svaby
The ‘spammer hole fix’ solution doesn’t seem to have done much good, judging by the 5 pages of new spam posts I’ve come home too. However, as the banning of links also doesn’t seem to have made much of a difference to spammers, I echo Dozy’s request to have links allowed for established users.
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But links ARE allowed 
Here you go
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I am getting inconsistent results with adding links. Some seem to work provided I strip out the “http” part, while others don’t. E.g.
works, but
www DOT english-test DOT net/forum
gives me a “Hyperlinks are not allowed” message.
I don’t understand this. I also don’t understand why we are still getting spam posts with links. For example, the newest one at
www DOT english-test DOT net/forum/ftopic108677.html#watch_live_stream_prelims_for_ufc_148_silva_vs_sonnen_ii_on_fuel_tv_online
contains obvious links to “secure.signup-way.com” (even though they are not clickable, which is another variation in behaviour that I have aso experienced). Isn’t this exactly the sort of “post from new user containing links” that we are supposed to be now blocking?
Hi Dozy,
All you need to do is type “WWW” in capital letters, and “HTTP” in capital letter. Thus you’ll be able to embed any number of all types of links, to your heart’s content. And you don’t need to strip out the HTTP part.
I stumbled upon this discovery by chance - it was totally serendipitous. Hehe
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Thanks. I don’t think we should be relying on these “tricks” or exploitations of inconsistent behaviour. In my opinion it would be better to have a robust system that reliably blocked all posts with links from non-approved new members, and yet allowed them, in any style, from approved users (based on length of membership and/or number of posts).
You make good points, I agree that a more sophisticated system should be in place that differentiates between “seasoned” users and novices. Because it’s the novices that are most likely to spam.
Hello Our Tort,
If you stumbled upon this discovery by chance - it was totally serendipitous, and it means that you are expert in this field
I think Dozy is absolutely right . This is only a transitory solution. For exp. could you see me a method to send a link of a pic with our message?
Bye:
Kati
Hello Kati,
Sorry, I don’t know how to do that.