Why I can't start a new topic ?

[Cristopher]

I was in Marple about 2 years ago. I fall in love in this place '> Beautiful , lovely... People very kind , they have smile on thieir faces. I was thinking that whey don't have any problems '> I would like to came here with my girlfriend and work and live here. If enybody would like to help me I would be very happy '> please contact me - dennis20@o2.pl

[admin]

Thank you Cristopher, you’ve given me the opportunity to have a rant that has been building up a head of steam for some time now.

You can't start a new topic because your registration hasn't been manually approved yet. Until fairly recently anyone could post to this forum anonymously, or could register using the automated process - providing they used a valid email address. The forum was thriving and its popularity had been growing steadily over quite a number of years.

Unfortunately in recent months the forum has become a victim of its own success and has been subjected to increasing abuse by ‘spammers’ intent on placing adverts for pornography, viagra and the like. As a result we have had to restrict posting to registered members only. Soon after we were also forced to resort to manual intervention in the registration process to ensure that they were not able to sign up automatically when they (infrequently) used a valid email address.

These actions have successfully stopped the smut and rubbish in its tracks (so far anyway) but an unfortunate side effect has been that legitimate postings have also reduced enormously and even long-term registered users are no longer posting as frequently as they used to. This is a very disappointing outcome and may ultimately result in the forum’s complete demise. This would be a great shame considering the effort that has gone into creating and maintaining it and the support that it has received over the years from real users.

Since we restricted posting to registered users the ‘spammers’ have been attempting to register in order to post their messages. This was to be expected of course, although we thought it would dry up after the MUPPETS realised that they were not going to get past our screening very often and at best would be able to post one or two messages before their registration was revoked. We even harboured the misguided belief that after a while they might go away and leave us alone, so that we would be able to reinstate anonymous postings and automated registration.

Unfortunately we have been proved very wrong in this assumption. Since we put in place these measures we have been subjected to a sustained bombardment of illegitimate registration attempts, sometimes dozens each day. In fact it is now ‘normal’ for us to receive far more registration attempts from these NUMPTIES than we receive posts in the forum from registered users.

This is extremely demoralising. To give you an idea of what we have to put up with, here’s a screenshot of the registration attempts presently awaiting ‘processing’. I’m afraid many of them are not very subtle but I’ve only edited the very worst to give you a better feel for what we’re dealing with here.



The majority of the email addresses being used originate from Eastern Europe or Russia. I can only assume that they are somehow able to earn money by posting this trash, which they regularly try to leave in the main web site guest book too. We have had to introduce similar controls to enable us to review posting there too before they are made ‘public’.

So, Cristopher, you've passed the first hurdle of actually using a valid email address and by responding to the automated activation email but the fact that you don’t seem to know whether its C?h?ristopher or Dennis AND your email provider is Polish makes me extremely suspicious that your attempt to sign up is only slightly more subtle than those listed above.

If your interest in Marple is genuine I very much apologise and invite you to convince me of that by private email. Until then you will not be able to start a new topic or post anywhere.

To all our GENUINE REGISTERED USERS, I would just like to say that I realise you have been largely unaware of what has been going on and I’ve been contemplating how to explain all this to you a great deal recently. Perhaps this is not the best way, I don’t know, but at least I’ve gained some (temporary?) relief from my frustrations by letting off steam at Cristopher’s expense.

What I really need now is to have my belief that this is a resource valued by the local community reinforced. There are nearly always people viewing the board whenever I check in but the worry now is that they might all be ‘spammers’. If you believe this forum is useful and don’t want to see it go under due to sustained abuse that is not counteracted by proper use – then please just USE IT a little more!

Suggestions on a posting please  '>

[Pink Panther]

I enjoy reading the forum topics, and its a shame that all the spammers ruin it for the people who genuinely like to post, whether it was by their real name or an alias!!

I think that is something that I miss, a story to make me laugh, and having the suspicion of who wrote it but not being quite sure!!

Also people who have had valid points when posting, but dont want to use thier official posting name has been spoilt by timewasters  '>

[admin]

Well the good news is that Cristopher has convinced me that he is not a spammer, so I apologise for having become so suspicious and cynical! He is from Poland but tells me that he has visited Marple and has worked in the Dolce Vita in the past.

I agree with you Rachael, loosing those things do devalue what we have here and I hope we can figure out a way to get back to that one day. As you can see from the type of people who've been trying to sign up, it's not going to be possible in the short term.

[Barbara]

I agree with Rachael - we have had a lot of fun and a lot of information via the forum since its inception.  I think I speak for all of us, when I say we really appreciate all your hard work in running the website.  Thank you.