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Post subject: Limits To Posting URLs
Posted: Sat Nov 02, 2013 8:07 am
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Rock Star
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I just tried to respond to a post by Stratele52 on guitar stores to visit in LA and San Francisco. I tried to post a list of about eight or so websites to both large and small stores. When I clicked the "Submit" button, I received this error message:

Your message contains too many URLs. The maximum number of URLs allowed is 2.

WTF? I have made many posts in the past with multiple URLs with no problems. This is apparently something new. What purpose does it serve? What problem is it solving? How are we supposed to answer questions that may require multiple references in one post?

This is ridiculous. I have sent two e-mails to Brad about this. Between the trolls, the spam, and now this, the forum is going to cause a lot of people to lose interest in posting here (if it hasn't already). No other forum I post to has these problems or restrictions.

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Post subject: Re: Limits To Posting URLs
Posted: Sat Nov 02, 2013 8:10 am
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It changed when the spammers started posting huge lists of URLs. I agree it may be inconvenient but people rarely need to post more than a couple of URLs at a time and it's certainly had an impact on the spam here.

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Post subject: Re: Limits To Posting URLs
Posted: Sat Nov 02, 2013 8:48 am
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So in other words, everyone gets punished for the crimes of a few. The result is that legitimate threads can no longer be created. I disagree that there is no need to post more than a couple of URLs at a time.

viewtopic.php?f=13&t=86717

viewtopic.php?f=13&t=88475

I would post more examples, but I'm not allowed to. :roll:

I guess I could do one post for every two links, but that is ridiculous and a real waste of bandwidth.

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Post subject: Re: Limits To Posting URLs
Posted: Sat Nov 02, 2013 8:58 am
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I agree that everyone suffers because of the antics of the spammers but really, what is the alternative?

There's no denying the spam got totally out of control here. I know it's a bit of a pain having to type multiple posts but unless there's some restriction on what can be posted the forum's going to disappear under the weight of spam posts.

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Post subject: Re: Limits To Posting URLs
Posted: Sat Nov 02, 2013 9:05 am
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I agree it's the wrong solution.
If Fender doesn't want to dedicate human resources into patrolling the forum better, or responding to post flagging in a timely matter, they could pick a better solution.
Like "no links allowed in a first post nor on the first day".


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Post subject: Re: Limits To Posting URLs
Posted: Sat Nov 02, 2013 9:13 am
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arth1 wrote:
Like "no links allowed in a first post nor on the first day".


But that's easily circumvented by making two posts. Or by signing up then making an innocuous post and waiting a day. There was a thread titled "How do I close my Fender account" recently from a new user, posts like that are often spambots testing the water to see what the forum settings allow.

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Post subject: Re: Limits To Posting URLs
Posted: Sat Nov 02, 2013 9:19 am
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Part of the difficulty for Brad and the IT team must be that phpBB is open source forum software. While that makes it free to use, it also makes the source code available for unscrupulous individuals to figure out exploits.

While it is possible to customise the PHP code, that takes a lot of time, effort and expense and the forum doesn't generate revenue for FMIC so it probably can't be justified. There is a screen in the admin pages of phpBB to restrict URL posting on a number of posts basis but having taken a brief look at it, it seems utterly impenetrable for the administrators, difficult to set up, counterintuitive and overly complicated. So yes, it is technically possible to place restricitons on new users only but the effort and expense may well be prohibitive.

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Post subject: Re: Limits To Posting URLs
Posted: Sat Nov 02, 2013 9:30 am
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I guess it's more cost effective to provide more bandwidth than it is to hire a full time forum patrol.
I can see how frustrating it must be for some one who has the ability and knowledge to provide multiple links for troubleshooting,etc. However, until a better solution is found why not just go with the flow. It's no different than all the extra security measures we have to deal with on a daily basis in our personal lives.
Yes, it's an inconvenience. But it's one that I can tolerate if it means not having to deal with all that spam that seems to have diminished as of late.
Peace.

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Post subject: Re: Limits To Posting URLs
Posted: Sat Nov 02, 2013 9:34 am
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One good option might be to create a page on pastebin.com, add all the URLs there then post a link to the pastebin URL like this ...

http://pastebin.com/iUwgByCH

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Post subject: Re: Limits To Posting URLs
Posted: Sat Nov 02, 2013 10:01 am
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GilgaFrank wrote:
arth1 wrote:
Like "no links allowed in a first post nor on the first day".


But that's easily circumvented by making two posts.


No, it isn't. The second post would not be allowed links either by those rules.

GilgaFrank wrote:
Or by signing up then making an innocuous post and waiting a day.


Yes, but most spammers do hit and runs. They don't come back to finish the job. For one thing, they don't hit a single site, but as many as they can. If the sites have special rules, they don't note it down and come back individually. Too much work, not enough profit.

And no system would be perfect. You want to stop as much spam as possible with as little impact as possible to non-spammers.
If you can hit most spammers without inconveniencing most posters, would that not be a good thing?

But more than this, I think this forum would greatly benefit from an enforced rule of no more than one medium sized static image in the signature. That irritates me a heck of a lot more than the spam. Because each spam post, I only see once.


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Post subject: Re: Limits To Posting URLs
Posted: Sat Nov 02, 2013 10:36 am
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There's an option in your profile to hide all user sigs. Other than that, I'd recommend FireFox and Adblock!

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Post subject: Re: Limits To Posting URLs
Posted: Sat Nov 02, 2013 10:39 am
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For me the bottom line is that there's less really annoying spam now and if I need to post lots of URLs then I don't mind making two or three posts. I honestly don't see the difficulty here. The benefits far outweigh any drawbacks for me.

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Post subject: Re: Limits To Posting URLs
Posted: Sat Nov 02, 2013 11:48 am
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I've always been very supportive of what Brad has been trying to do in managing this forum. But I cannot support this heavy handed approach to spam control. Maybe Brad or someone on his team should take time to talk to the people that run The Gear Page. They seem to have no spam and very few troll posts, and when they do, they are removed very rapidly. Even TDPRI does not have the problems that this forum has and they are no where near as restrictive as here. Both forums are much larger than this forum and appear to be run much more effectively.

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Post subject: Re: Limits To Posting URLs
Posted: Sat Nov 02, 2013 12:10 pm
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The sad truth is, no matter a seemingly good solution, in time the bad guy always finds a way in so good people have to suffer.


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Post subject: Re: Limits To Posting URLs
Posted: Sat Nov 02, 2013 1:34 pm
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(PART ONE) Some people complained spammers drove members off and that something must be done to "save" the forum. So they do a "Tighten Up" to slow spammers down and other people complain that what you are doing to try to improve things to placate the first group is now driving other members off.

Your point of view is understood, but I know why it was done and so far it has been a sensible quick fix effort in response to many requests to "DO SOMETHING ABOUT THE SPAM." A URL limitation is not as annoying as a bunch of spam topics on the board or waiting for a moderator to approve your post...and as long as Fender's paying the hosting bill why should I give a flying flip about Fender's bandwidth usage?


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