Concerns and Suggestions about Saving Advice

[creditcardfree]

A quick update...Nate thinks he's found the issue with the blank page in the forums -- the bad news is he thinks it's due to the spam protocols we put in place to reduce spam in the forums. In other words, if we take them down and the blank page disappears, we get flooded with spam. We're looking for a work-around so the blank pages don't show and we don't get over-run with spam.

Ugh. That is not good news. Good luck finding the work around.

[disneysteve]

I so appreciate the efforts of volunteers who are doing that now. Would love to see spam disappear even more frequently. As I submit this post, there are two and a half pages of spam.

The vast majority of spam seems to get posted overnight in the US, probably because it is originating in another country where it is daytime then.

Personally, I log on in the morning when I get to work (like now) and delete all that came in over night, so by 8am EST, I've usually cleaned up what I can.

The spam has definitely gotten much worse. It has only been in recent weeks that my morning check has revealed 2-3 pages of spam. Also, it used to come from one person so I would just tag all of their posts and delete them. Now, it is often multiple user ids posting the same message. Today, for example, the spam came from 8 different users (who are probably all the same person).

Perhaps it is time to put a waiting period on new posters before they can start threads. Other sites do this and I believe it cuts down on spam. If someone registers but can't start a thread for 7 days, they're less likely to bother coming back to spam the site.

[Joan.of.the.Arch]

Hello, again. Disneysteve, a moderator, is unable to get onto the forums and is asking for your help, Jeffery. He left a message about it in his blog and also in my blog entry that was linked at the top of this thread.

Thank you.

[jeffrey]

Hello, again. Disneysteve, a moderator, is unable to get onto the forums and is asking for your help, Jeffery. He left a message about it in his blog and also in my blog entry that was linked at the top of this thread.

Thank you.

Yep -- fixed it. Thanks

[disneysteve]

Yep -- fixed it. Thanks

Jeffrey, it looks like what might have happened is my entire Decluttering thread got deleted and I got banned in the process. That thread has been going on all year and was 18 pages long. Is there any way to resurrect it?

[HouseHopeful]

thoughts

I would love to see a statement as to the purpose of the site now that ownership has changed and maybe an introduction to the authors. The continuous posting of hours for retail stores does not appear to sync with the original theme of the site (personal finance) and I was curious as to what the purpose of those articles is.

Thanks!

[JoeP]

I've brought this up before, regarding spam, but I am curious if we could have some sort of vetting process prior to allowing members' posts to become visible.

This could take the form of a short essay that gets reviewed by one of the admins. The essay could be something as simple as why they want to post, some of their background, their situation, what brought them here, etc.

Another option would be blocking all posts < #10 until they have been reviewed. Legit posts that pass review then become visible. The 11th post and further will not go through this process. This is like a probation period. Replies like "I agree" would not count...they have to be thoughtful questions that are not yanked from some other site.

[JoeP]

Jeffrey, it looks like what might have happened is my entire Decluttering thread got deleted and I got banned in the process. That thread has been going on all year and was 18 pages long. Is there any way to resurrect it?

A thread about decluttering got deleted... There is a joke in there somewhere!

[disneysteve]

I've been having a new problem.

Not only am I still going to a blank screen when I make a post, I'm now getting it even when I click on a link to see a thread. I'm then having to reload the page to actually get it to come up.

[Joan.of.the.Arch]

More blank pages

As of this morning, I am now getting a blank page sometimes when I click to open a thread. It is very much like the blank page after making a post, in that if I reload the page, content appears.

[FLA]

I've been having a new problem.

Not only am I still going to a blank screen when I make a post, I'm now getting it even when I click on a link to see a thread. I'm then having to reload the page to actually get it to come up.

way worse today

[disneysteve]

This morning, there were 16 pages of spam, all from the same poster. It took me a while to delete it all since I can only delete 25 at a time.

There has got to be a way to prevent this. No other site I belong to has this problem. How about a delay between posts? Other sites only let me post once every 60 seconds. It would have taken this guy 6 hours to post all of those messages if that existed here.

[corn18]

The way I do it on my Yahoo groups that I moderate is new members have to be approved and then I have to approve their messages until I change it to not requiring approval. That keeps all the spam out. I don't know if that is an option on SA.

[creditcardfree]

I'm now getting the white screen after I click on a thread to view. This is different from when I comment on a thread and submit it and get the white screen.

[creditcardfree]

I'm now getting the white screen after I click on a thread to view. This is different from when I comment on a thread and submit it and get the white screen.

And after I submitted this post above, I did not get the white screen!