unchainedheart(1951) | is there activities in the trade chat section?because it’s saying last post 2 hrs but i could never go in this section.Thanks
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ron(11802) | Yes, there is an active thread about “Live: Right Here, Right Now” Vinyl [The long story] I know there are issues for some being able to access all the forums. It’s a mystery as to why this is. The hope is that by updating the forum software, these issues will go away, or at least be able to be figured out. The site runs on pretty old software, and for many reasons (free time, fear of breaking it, etc…) I haven’t taken the time to do anything with the site. About a month ago, the ability to approve and deny new user registrations stopped working. It had become slower and slower over the preceding weeks, and finally stopped working. Not only is that function important for real people that want to sign up, but it’s also used to deny the approximately 150 spammers that register each day. I ended up working with two different hosting providers, and software support to get things working again. Now I’m dealing with the spammer backlog, which rose to several thousand over those weeks. I’m able to get thru a couple of hundred a day. Unfortunately they need to be dealt with one-by-one. Once that’s back under control, I plan to see about getting things updated. The problem with updating is that I know things will break if I just update it all at once. So I’m going to have to do this in smaller steps. There are 3 major things at play. The server code, the web site foundation code, and the forum software. They all work together, and they all need to be updated in stages together. The only other thing I’m aware of besides some people not being able to see all forums, is that possibly E-Mail notifications for PM’s may no longer work. While I haven’t experienced that myself, I’d be interested in hearing if others have. Thanks for listening, and sorry for not getting things updated sooner.
Ron
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Dave(2309) | Thanks for doing what you do to keep the site up and running, Ron. We realize this is not your day job!
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unchainedheart(1951) | No worries anyway i was just curious about it but everything else works fine for me,thanks Ron
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ron(11802) | I know this isn’t the right place to do it, but since I know everyone has been on the edge of their seats waiting for an update, here it is. I was able to push through the thousands of spam registrations, and did add a couple of new users to the site. I think there was about 1 new real registration for about every 1,000 spammers. (ugh) Today I installed a “new” Google Captcha for the new user registration page, so I’ll know in a day or two if that has solved the ongoing spammer issues. (the actual code for this Captcha is quite old, because the site software itself is quite old, and I had to install an old version to get it to run with our old software. Hopefully it works for us.) About a week ago, I contacted a local web design house that has done updates for older sites like ours in the past, and just in casual conversation they think the best route to go is to re-build from the ground up, as it is probably easier than trying to update all the old stuff. I do have a copy of the whole site running on a different server (for testing) that is completely updated. However, it doesn’t look much like this site, and is missing several key features (no messages lost). So assuming I have the spammers under control, I can start spending time on the look-and-feel and features for the updated site. None of this will happen overnight, so don’t hold your breath. Once I feel like I’m close, I’ll probably ask for volunteers to test things – but that’s way off. Thanks for listening, have a great holiday season!
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ron(11802) | ron: Today I installed a “new” Google Captcha for the new user registration page, so I’ll know in a day or two if that has solved the ongoing spammer issues.(the actual code for this Captcha is quite old, because the site software itself is quite old, and I had to install an old version to get it to run with our old software. Hopefully it works for us.)
After about an hour, I can tell that this hasn’t worked. (sigh)
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KISSMAD(532) | Why not just turn the registration option off!
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King Edward(1950) | Thank you so much for working on all of this. Much appreciated!!!!!!!!
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mrmojohalen(6471) | KISSMAD: Why not just turn the registration option off!
The Newbie Forum has averaged 1 post a year for the past 5 years. 
When you turn on your stereo, does it return the favor?
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ron(11802) | mrmojohalen: The Newbie Forum has averaged 1 post a year for the past 5 years.
That could be my fault. When a new user is approved, I’m not quite sure they are able to post, or if I need to do something further. I guess I should add it to the list of things to look into.
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jorge(454) | Co-running a forum myself I know how much work is entailed with it. Thanks for all your efforts and the hard work you put into this board. Much appreciated!
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mrmojohalen(6471) | ron: That could be my fault.When a new user is approved, I’m not quite sure they are able to post, or if I need to do something further.I guess I should add it to the list of things to look into.
Ron – Either way, don’t worry about registering new users. I agree with KISSMAD – just turn off the registration until everything else is taken care. We have faith in you. 
When you turn on your stereo, does it return the favor?
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ron(11802) | KISSMAD: Why not just turn the registration option off!
After a spammer lull during the holidays, they were back with a vengence today. I’ve now disabled new user registrations. We’ll see if that slows them down, or if they are using an exploit to try and gain access.
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KISSMAD(532) | ron: After a spammer lull during the holidays, they were back with a vengence today.I’ve now disabled new user registrations.We’ll see if that slows them down, or if they are using an exploit to try and gain access.
Have the spammers stopped signing up?
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ron(11802) | KISSMAD: Have the spammers stopped signing up?
Yes, removing the registration page stopped them cold. Of course, no-one else will be able to sign up either though.
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