View Full Version : gmail testing
In view of the recent complaints concerning the volume of spam reaching the boards I am investigating the possibility of banning registrations from certain 'free' e-mail providers.
No firm decisions have been made but we will be running some tests over the next few days to ascertain the impact certain configuration changes may have on existing forum users.
Only users with gmail addresses in their profile will be effected by the tests.
If you are currently using a gmail account you may experience issues using the forums e-mail features while testing is in progress. Only users with gmail addresses in their profile will be effected. All other forum features should continue to work as usual.
Feedback is invited.
If you are a gmail user and are adversely effected during the test period, please report your experience by replying to this thread.
If you have any strong feelings for or against banning the big free e-mail providers (aol, yahoo, hotmail, gmail), please make your opinion known by replying to this thread.
The test will run from today until Tuesday evening at the lastest.
My apologies for any inconvenience the tests may cause you.
PeteM Take2
09-04-2011, 08:36
This is a test reply from a GMail based account
This is a test reply from a GMail based account
Test reply to reply
Ron MacRae
09-04-2011, 08:50
Not sure banning free email providers is the way to go.
I use a free email provider, hotmail.co.uk, as a trash can.
Once a week or so I logon to hotmail and empty the inbox.
I sign up to most things with a hotmail account rather than my real email account so it's not available for selling on by the service provider or harvesting.
I've only used my real email address here because I sort of trust BSAC.
I also know several divers in our club only use Gmail.
Can't we have a more comprehensive verification process when opening an account? How do other boards manage it?
Ron.
Not sure banning free email providers is the way to go.
I use a free email provider, hotmail.co.uk, as a trash can.
Once a week or so I logon to hotmail and empty the inbox.
I sign up to most things with a hotmail account rather than my real email account so it's not available for selling on by the service provider or harvesting.
I've only used my real email address here because I sort of trust BSAC.
I also know several divers in our club only use Gmail.
Can't we have a more comprehensive verification process when opening an account? How do other boards manage it?
Ron.
As has been explained a few times changing the forum software to a more up to date version to give us better verification is non trivial, will take time and is being looked at at the moment.
Banning GMail etc. can be done now with no cost and can be reversed if deemed appropriate once we migrate. This morning there were seven spam posts that you did not get to see as they were auto moderated, everyone of them was from a free email account. AOL was the flavour of the day with a hint of yahoo and gmail.
Nigel Hewitt
09-04-2011, 11:49
The complexity of good forum software is terrifying so while there are lots of 'obvious' fixes there is no way to implement them so they stay implemented as updates come through.
One that runs in my head is not letting 'new' members put links or images in their posts until they have passed some sort of 'you are a real diver' test but while that might not be hard if we could employ a large staff of full time moderators I wouldn't like to try and program it to be automatic.
I always think that it's a pity we had to kill the pictures in posts but at least I can now login to the forum without worrying who might be standing behind me.
What happens to those members that are currently using G mail?:confused:
ChristianG
10-04-2011, 17:11
What happens to those members that are currently using G mail?:confused:
The initial advice included the following:
If you are currently using a gmail account you may experience issues using the forums e-mail features while testing is in progress. Only users with gmail addresses in their profile will be effected. All other forum features should continue to work as usual.
Says it all really, or so I would have thought. :p
Tuesday is not far away now. :cool:
What happens to those members that are currently using G mail?:confused:
Matt said "we will be running some tests over the next few days to ascertain the impact certain configuration changes may have on existing forum users".
garethwoodruff
10-04-2011, 23:41
I use a yahoo account as my email, always have done.
My view is this is not acceptable.
steve6690
11-04-2011, 02:22
Alienating paid-up members of BSAC based on their choice of email provider is not acceptable.
Unacceptable, short-sighted and ineffective. :mad:
Anything that will prevent legitimate users from accessing the forums is not a sensible option.
carolinewarren81
11-04-2011, 08:56
Has anyone looked into how many people are using gmail and other free online accounts?
I only use free online accounts for my personal email. So if you ban them I will no longer be able to use the forum!
I wonder how many other users will have to stop using the forum?
Can I point to those panicking about being no longer being able to use the forum to the second post in this thread and point out that the GMail ban is still in force as detailed in Matt's original post
garethwoodruff
11-04-2011, 09:38
Can I point to those panicking about being no longer being able to use the forum to the second post in this thread and point out that the GMail ban is still in force as detailed in Matt's original post
Pete,
Matts op offers nothing specific.
I'm distinctly unhappy about this.
Gareth.
Pete,
Matts op offers nothing specific.
I'm distinctly unhappy about this.
Gareth.
No it does not offer anything specific because we are still testing.
But the fact is that people with GMail accounts can plainly still post, so when people are saying "I wonder how many other users will have to stop using the forum?" the answer is pretty obviously none.
carolinewarren81
11-04-2011, 13:18
No it does not offer anything specific because we are still testing.
But the fact is that people with GMail accounts can plainly still post, so when people are saying "I wonder how many other users will have to stop using the forum?" the answer is pretty obviously none.
Hi Pete,
In the first post about this it says:
If you have any strong feelings for or against banning the big free e-mail providers (aol, yahoo, hotmail, gmail), please make your opinion known by replying to this thread.
The use of the word ban above sounds like people will no longer be able to use the forum if they use a free email account. If this is not the case could you please let us know how we will be effected? Personnally I dislike anything that would restrict the way I use the forum just because I choose to use a free email provider!
Thanks,
Caroline
Hi Pete,
In the first post about this it says:
The use of the word ban above sounds like people will no longer be able to use the forum if they use a free email account. If this is not the case could you please let us know how we will be effected? Personnally I dislike anything that would restrict the way I use the forum just because I choose to use a free email provider!
Thanks,
Caroline
The test configuration is currently in place. If we decide to take it forward then what you can do at this moment in time will be what you can do in the future. If you find that you cannot do something you could do last week then please let us know. At the moment it only effects GMail but would be expanded to included other "problem" email providers.
What may not be possible is registering a new forum account.
Currently we have a huge problem with spam that we put a massive amount of manual work into dealing with, the majority of the spam forum accounts are registered using free email accounts in particular GMail. Since the start of the test I have seen a big reduction in spam so it is an extremely effective anti spam measure
Mike Halligan
11-04-2011, 14:07
Currently we have a huge problem with spam that we put a massive amount of manual work into dealing with, the majority of the spam forum accounts are registered using free email accounts in particular GMail. Since the start of the test I have seen a big reduction in spam so it is an extremely effective anti spam measure
Aye, and there lies the rub. We are dealing with huge amounts of spam and yet draw fire from certain forum users who demand that we work ever harder and longer, especially when we are delayed in releasing their new threads or fail to spot a new post from a spammer.
What is our loss if, until supplied at members expense with software upgrades, we lock down the forum? We don't know.
What is our loss if we don't? Anger, bitterness and frustrated volunteers.
I've rarely seen such a dramatic proof of concept as this. We simply must run with this until ...... [see above]. Suggestions of jam tomorrow no longer wash, I'm afraid.
its quite simple realy that anyone using a free mail account when registering has to have it manualy activated by a mod on recipt of an email request. i know hundreds of fora which do this if users have a problem.
personaly its not alienating people as much as having hardcore porn and spam linksshotgunned around especialy with the loverly new trick of using necroposting to make it seem a legit post.
that said a blanket IP area ban for say russia would do pretyt much the same thing as banning gmail et al for new signups.
i use a free provider for my main email cause im to lazy to change ot something else. same one for 15 years now.
that said a blanket IP area ban for say russia would do pretyt much the same thing as banning gmail et al for new signups.
Not as easy as it sounds as obtaining a complete master list of Russian IP addresses is not easy (believe me I've tried). For what it's worth we already have in place blanket bans for the Russian federation and others using the IP list provided by a couple of the on-line anti spam resources, they are far from complete and I regularly have to add to it, I also monitor the posting addresses of spammers and regularly block bot farms all around the world. This is actually my main role as a moderator
Testing is complete. GMail users can register again.
I will post some results up just as soon as I have a chance to compile them.
Results
New Registrations
A simple indication of how many spammers complete registration successfully each day. Legitimate registrations account for <10 per day
New Registrations April 2011
Day....Total
_7 th....139
_8 th....137
_9 th...._96
10 th...._67
11 th...._93
12 th...._89
13 th....106
There was a drop of around 1/3 during the testing period
Moderator Actions
A simple measure of moderator workload.
Threads removed + Posts removed indicates the negative impact of the spammers
Threads approved + Posts edited indicates the negative impact of spam moderation on the user base.
Removal Actions April 2011
Day......Threads....Posts....Total
_7 th.........33.......11.......44
_8 th.........11.......10.......21
_9 th........._1......._3......._4
10 th.........16......._5.......21
11 th.........19......._0.......19
12 th.........10......._0.......10
13 th.........NA......._0.......NA
Testing period was not long enough to establish a clear trend.
A total of 65 actions were completed on the two days prior to testing.
A total of 40 actions were completed during the two days the moderators were most active within the test period.
Indication is in line with estimate of a 1/3 to 1/2 drop in moderator workload.
Approval Actions April 2011
Day......Threads....Posts Edited....Total
_7 th........._4.............._1......._5
_8 th........._1.............._1......._2
_9 th........._0.............._0......._0
10 th........._2.............._0......._2
11 th........._4..............11.......15
12 th........._2.............._0......._2
13 th.........NA.............._0.......NA
Monitoring period was not long enough to establish a clear trend.
Wouldn’t it be nice if we could become redundant ;)
Hamish
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