Mahz's Dev Journal

[Esoteric]

What up with this?

Also, check out the free roleplay section, there's a bunch of these. Confirmed as spam.

EDIT: Nevermind, the crew in reporting is on top of it.

[Hedgehawk]

With regards to the spam, maybe having a email confirmation before you are allowed to post might help?

Or perhaps a team of moderators have to authorise your first 3 posts on the forum like the do on KSP

[AlysCole]

With regards to the spam, maybe having a email confirmation before you are allowed to post might help?

Or perhaps a team of moderators have to authorise your first 3 posts on the forum like the do on KSP

@jakeb1993

Email confirmation's a good idea. If not email, maybe a random question taken from a list of simple questions, like "1+1=?". Heck, you could probably keep the questions true to the site's theme... such as "What is this site about?", "State a category of roleplay available in this website.", etc. I'm hesitant about the idea of asking for a sample post as confirmation. A beginner to roleplaying wouldn't have much, if any, samples, and would probably be turned away from this site for that reason.

ReCAPTCHA is pretty easily beaten by bots nowadays, so finding an alternative to pair it up with or replace it altogether might make it easier in the long-run. This article has a few great points, though it might be considered a bit old.

[Pair of Hearts]

@Mahz

"A visitor has left a new message on your profile" glitch. Clicking the new message hyperlink takes me to my boring profile, where no action occurs. It should have been a reply from @ScreenAcne in regards to my VM on his profile.

No one really cares for VM anyway, so no rush. Just thought I'd queue this up to your low priority list. //thumbs up

[Aline]

--

[POOHEAD189]

@Pair of Hearts@AlineI too get that problem

[Kimchi]

@Mahz
Suggestion: Let users select their timezone and have it displayed for other users to see. Maybe have it under the avatar of each user?

[Mahz]

Hey, I'm back. Catching up with some Guild duties.

When I'm away, I still visit the Guild and check the server stats to ensure it's not down. It just seems that switching between guild-mode and no-guild-mode is my proven method for avoiding burnout over the last decade.

One thing I need to do is award the contest winners.

[Ellri]

We'come back, @Mahz.

We do hope you can find a good solution to the Korean Bot Plague. It's quite annoying to know that upon waking up in the morning, the sidebar will be flooded by bot posts as the moderators (who do an excellent job) are asleep.

[Mahz]

@Ellri Yeah, that's my priority right now, from getting some more Mod muscle to hardening some of our weak endpoints that the spammers have been taking advantage of.

[Ellri]

Hearing that is excellent news, mahz.

[ML]

If you don't mind my asking, how are the bots gaining access to the forum? would it be a simple fix like adding a "I Am not a robot" thing, or is there more to it than that?

[Mateotis]

If you don't mind my asking, how are the bots gaining access to the forum? would it be a simple fix like adding a "I Am not a robot" thing, or is there more to it than that?

@Mercenary Lord

They register, just like we do. They have an algorithm programmed into them, basically a set of commands that is (most probably) tailored for this site so that they are able to fill out the registration form properly. Since this is not very hard to do, most sites have some anti-bot measures such as reCAPTCHA (the "I am not a robot" thing you mentioned), but as the bot makers get smarter, so do the bots, so even that's not a guarantee to remain spam-free anymore.

I'm not sure how exactly Mahz plans to deal with this, but I have faith he'll cook up something nice. :D

[Lmpkio]

@Ellri Yeah, that's my priority right now, from getting some more Mod muscle to hardening some of our weak endpoints that the spammers have been taking advantage of.

@Mahz

If you need some more mod muscle, or simply a team of specialized-mods to take care of the after hours (Around 6PM - 6AM PCT, which is when the bots usually thrive), you can count on me as a fellow supporter. Even if I'm/we're not allowed to do anything else BUT simply wipe out Bots, that will be perfectly fine. I'm usually very active around those times and one of the more "to do something against the bots" people you know? :)

(This is also coming from a guy who has hosted a very small RPing board in the past (with proboards) as well as a Mod for two)

[Mahz]

I didn't get a chance to push my changes over the weekend due to a merge conflict I couldn't fix in time. Working on it now. :)

[Mahz]

We've appointed a new moderator, @Mag Lev, to have an extra helping hand on deck.

[NuttsnBolts]

Well deserved.
Congrats @Mag Lev

[Aline]

We've appointed a new moderator, @Mag Lev, to have an extra helping hand on deck.

@Mahz

So well-deserved, he's such a great person and a friend to all.

Congrats, @Mag Lev! :>

[AlteredTundra]

@Mag Lev

Congrats man. You're a cool cat, and I know you'll do the team justice. :D

[Aline]

I don't know if it has been mentioned before but I tried unsubscribing from a thread and it won't. It tells me it's successful but it's still showing up. I've tried logging out of my account and retrying it but it's still the same.

Just an FYI.

l8tr g8trs!