General Chat (Non-Music-Related)

This place might seem less jokey if these hair-snake oil salesmen were booted off the site. They keep posting this crap in the Musical Chat section, even! When will this be dealt with?

The spammers' profiles have been deleted, but somehow they are still able to post in the forums, I've reported the 3 that just appeared, using hte link that's at teh top of the forum pages.

I report them too. Do we have the same online security here as craigslist? Good thing I never gave my credit card number.

It is a "modern World" with Modern trash ... and it is all constantly changing and challenging. I have always felt that BM does an adequate job under the circumstances. It would be impossible to keep up with all the shite that flows into an open site I feel and keep it utterly free of spam.

My favorite site was attacked by one or more hackers/ spambots, over the last week. I try to stay on top of what the newest members appear to be up to, but I'm not a moderator. On Wednesday, I noticed that our newest was selling prescription drugs on his profile, by stating in his signature, "buy xanax legally online", which was a blue link to said "legal xanax" site. He also linked to it by a globe under his profile picture. I could also see that this member registered, but spent no time on the site. That's a red flag, as well.
So, I warned everyone that this member needed to be eliminated, immediately. I told them about these hair product freaks on this site. Did they head my warnings?

I noticed on Saturday that new members were joining in record numbers, from all over the world, but especially Russia. We only had two Russian members before. Now that quadrupled. Their usernames were b.s., an English name mashed together, but still not any recognizable English surnames. I warned the authorities again. I was mocked. This is to be expected from these smartasses. I'm guilty of it, as well (I'm sure that Bandmix members can attest to that). Finally, one of the mods acknowledged my complaint, stating that they were more spambots, selling pharmaceuticals. He said "adios!", but they stayed. I private messaged him, "I hope you're ready for this onslaught of weirdos coming your way".

I got up yesterday, the site was lousy with porn (gifs of sex acts), links for e.d. meds, threads in Russian and Spanish about God knows what, and no sign of any admins or mods. I was sure that the Ruskies had wrested control of the entire site from it's protectors. I emailed the administrator and private messaged some of the mods. The mods didn't seem worried. They said it had happened before, but not this bad. About an hour later, all 100 new members were ousted (we only had 1,122 at the time of the attack), all of the offensive stuff deleted.
The admin quoted my post from Wednesday, replying-"next time, email me sooner". You're welcome!!

I think the mods let it get to that point because they enjoy that kind of deviant stuff.

Maybe it was the North Koreans?

I'm terrified they'll release more gossip about me.

Talbot

As a moderator on a computer tech support site since 2001 I can assure you it's not easy to keep up with, even if you do try to stay on top of it, and we do. The site owner had to do a software and security update a while back and that helped a lot but we still have IP Addresses show up constantly from mostly places in China, some sign up and do nothing for a month but sit there logged on, some post spam immediately. User names are usually easy to spot...

Right now we have 1233 members online but only a couple are fairly obvious...RI87, Ch18...but I'm seeing a new trend. EllenEXHDx, CoralR61km, Earle6921ai and so forth. Haven't checked profiles yet, but I'm sure I'll see things like

Occupation: High school...

and things like this in the bio section:

Hello from United States. I'm glad to be here.
My first name is Ali.
I live in a city called Monroe in east United States.
I was also born in Monroe 21 years ago. Married in October year 2008.
I'm working at the backery.

That's a fairly decent one...OK so you're 21 and married 6 years ago...at 15??? I guess I've seen stranger things...most obviously do not use English as a first language, this one says occupation high school too by the way.

Don't have time to go through all 1200, but I'm sure plenty are just sitting there, we don't have 1200 new posts today.

Keeping up with it is a tedious task for 7 moderators, and I'm not there a lot, got kinda burned out on fixing computers a few years ago but I still check in now and then and help out. Since the software upgrade it's gotten a lot better, but still a problem.

SCH.... I see your point and apologize if any offense was taken to my rather "uninformed" post. I am certainly not the most technical when it comes to computers and websites and am no moderator material. I am impressed however by your proficiency and observation skills combined with critical thinking. In my opinion you would make a most excellent Tactical Commander ... never mind modeerator. The very word moderator does not sit very well with me, I understand however someone must do the job and My appreciation goes out to whoever they may be.

Once again my apologies if any offense was implied.

No Sir, no offense taken. I chucked at your post and rolled up my sleeves for my big story. I wasn't associating my post with yours.
p.s., thanks for the compliments.

Ya gotta love it. Censorship in any form, the new fundamental American value. Don't like it... Shut up.

Nothing new about it I'm afraid. Not since Lincoln had Clement Vallindigham arrested for treason while shutting down newspapers that opposed his policies.

Talbot

Very GOOD point Talbot. Thanks for bringing up a point of history that has been overlooked.

That was very, interesting. KUDOS.

Post whatever you want. Come in thru the back door, with your superior "computer hacking skillz", take everything you can (whatever isn't nailed down). I don't care. Do what you want, and suffer the consequences. It's their site. They can do what they want with you. Block you or promote you to emperor. It seems you need to start your own site. Anyone with a beef can go there and bitch about"The Man" keeping them down. Freedom of speech is what it is, it's a protection guaranteed to us by the Constitution, from Government censorship. Not what the Dixie Chix say it is, a protection from anyone who disagrees with your bullshit. Good day, sir.

"............................. arrested for treason while shutting down newspapers that opposed his policies"

It's a damned good thing that we have an honorable person, a defender of the republic, a champion of liberty and freedom, and a defender of free personal choice as president who would never do any such a thing.