Is anyone approving new member posts?

[ORabbit]

I just joined on Thursday last week, and my posts have yet to appear. I guess this one won't appear either, so maybe this is futile. I just wondered how long it usually takes for a moderator to approve posts?

[thesaurus]

I am one of the few people ostensibly charged with approving new posts. I have been away from textkit for a while now due to various obligations, but the real problem is the insane amount of spam this forum is receiving. There are literally hundreds of spam posts and threads appearing on a daily basis, and it has become nearly impossible to keep up with the flow.

Since people's first two posts/threads pend moderator approval, we have to sort through this deluge to green light each new poster. I've messaged the forum owner Jeff about it, but I haven't received a reply. Basically, something needs to be done on the back-end to reduce the amount of spam accounts being created, because we part time moderators can't keep up with the flow. The manual approval of first posts is keeping the forum from being ruined by spam, but it's also stanching the influx of new users.

I'll do my best to sort through the "new posts" awaiting approval, as that section is more manageable than the "new threads." Ideally, it shouldn't take us long to approve your first two posts, and then you'll be set free.

Here's hoping for a more permanent solution...

[ORabbit]

Good to know. Thanks for your help!

[katzenjammer]

Sounds like you guys need an anti-spam software upgrade - no doubt $ is a problem? Is there a donation button hidden somewhere? On other boards I've been a part of the expectation is that everyone who participates regularly gives something on a monthly basis.

[NordicMan]

I am wondering whether my new membership/existence has been approved or recognised. I wished to write a post, but it seems that the last member to be approved was in the third week of October, and so mine has not appeared.

Thanks for answering the first poster of this thread. It gives me some light.

[Σεβαστός]

If someone could mark me as green I would really appreciate it... so far I have only been able to post once in one week .

[Σεβαστός]

Thanks to whomever accepted my last posts; it seems fine now .

[Jeff Tirey]

This has all really been my fault. The spam is totally out of control and it swamps the moderators abilities to approve what's real. I have spent the day working on the database to clean out the 30K or so fake accounts and I have improved the registration features to hopefully make improvements.

I'm sorry for the frustrations.

Thanks,
Jeff

[JamesEubank]

Really a hard job you are doing Mr. Admin...
I think if initiatives were made at start of the forum creation, you would not suffer too much. You should get support from Anti-spam software.....

[Jeff Tirey]

The spam can be difficult. Most of the spam prevention works, but we get a steady stream of spam from real humans - that's the challenge. Take this spam message for example that I deleted this morning:

I'd say best way are college courses. Since money is an issue books is the only alternative because
Ancient Greek is a very difficult language.

picnic spots near delhi

It looks pretty good, and yet there is a link in the bottom. My observation has been that the majority of the human spam is coming out of India, where the goal is linking building SEO. What's funny, is that this is really bad SEO - a link from a page about ancient greek to a page about picnic sports isn't worth much. 10 years ago, that kind of thing did work - but not today.

Thanks and Welcome to Textkit James!

Really a hard job you are doing Mr. Admin...
I think if initiatives were made at start of the forum creation, you would not suffer too much. You should get support from Anti-spam software.....

[Poustman]

Looking forward to my first post being approved too; thank you for the explanation of the very understandable reason for the wait!