Topic: SMF Beta Testing.

[Ken (OP)]

When you switch from the admin board to this board or some other page is the forum sluggish to load for you?

... I'm wondering if the fact that the admin board has the SMF default theme in place is causing it to be slow to transition out of that board.

[Skhilled]

After you ban me you should still see that one use is awaiting approval but not in the awaiting approval list.

[Ken (OP)]

After you ban me you should still see that one use is awaiting approval but not in the awaiting approval list.

Done.
But will you be able to access the site because your IP is the same as the test member?

[Skhilled]

No, I can't because the ip's are the same. This is why you should NOT ban Jake or you'll ban yourself from your own site. I did that before!  :hah:

Luckily, Lesmond was around and an admin to let me back in. You could also edit the db to allow yourself back in. 

[Ken (OP)]

Not showing in the dropdown, or in the awaiting, but the 'Account is not approved' is showing in the member profile.

[Ken (OP)]

Removed the IP, host and email triggers, so you should be able to get back in.

[Skhilled]

You did not see it at the top of the screen? The awaiting approval?

Let me explain a bit further about banning. If you ban on the same IP trigger I would have been banned under the skhilled user also and I was...I tried to get in and couldn't. This should show up in the error logs. The test site is set to not allow users to register with the same email...tried it. So, banning the same email trigger would have not effect but I'd ban it anyways...just a habit.

[Ken (OP)]

It would depend on what time during the process you tried to log in... I misunderstood your post about who to ban, so your primary log-in was banned for a few minutes.  :yikes:

[Skhilled]

No, ban Ghost...then again I guess it doesn't matter. Did you check the top of the screen while I was banned?

[Ken (OP)]

No, so I'm not sure if the message was there, but it should have been because I had made no changes to Ghost at that point.

[Skhilled]

You should ban ghost because it was not approved. Then check the top of the screen.

[Ken (OP)]

With Ghost banned there is no notice at the top:
... also, no entry in the Awaiting Approval.

[Skhilled]

So either it is an issue with RC3 and/or a SMFArcade issue. Niko does have the site heavily modified with his mods and custom coding.

Thanks for helping. We might have to try this over there or at one of my sites to be sure.

It's way past my bed time. See ya tomorrow.

[Ken (OP)]

Well, some on SMF are suggesting that your spammer mod already gives you the controls that you need without taking the extra steps that you're currently doing.
I've not used that mod, so don't know if that's valid or not, but it may be worth the look.

[Skhilled]

It's a good mod but it is not the end to everything. It only detects those that are already in the db...not those that are new or have changed their IP, email. etc. Some are human and some are bots but it does not detect everything.

You can tell when they start adding SEO, lawyer, real estate links, etc. in their sig and/or have 3-4 links in their sig for the same thing/site, etc. The names will be different but the links all the same. A lot of those are not detected by those mods and you have to just check on them yourself then add them to the db yourself.

They are smart enough to change the IP, etc. Some will register and post a seemingly nice but short post without links. If the account is not blocked or detected then they will create an additional account (or more) with the same IP or email, etc. When they think they are safe they will try to spam or hack with one or more of the accounts.

I check out every account that comes to any of the sites I own, admin, or do support at. I must admit I have not been reporting them as much as I should but just been a tad too busy.

SMF arcade does use a mod that search engines cannot see any URL's posted unless your URL is explicitly put in to admin. They can spam all they want but the search engines won't see it anyways.  :hah:

However, stopping them from causing mayhem and confusion is another issue and still happens.

I'd like to run the same test we did yesterday on 2 of my sites. One does not have the stop spammer mod and the other does. I'm starting to suspect the it is either smf 2 RC3 or that mod. We can do that tomorrow or another day but I'd like to do it do be sure. It is happening for a reason and I'd like to know how and why.