Autoshite Forum Update

[Electric Leyland]

Hello Shiters,

 

Well as you can see we're back up and running. We're not in the clear yet though, still stuff to do. Here's a status update of what's going on.

 

Issues tackled so far:

 

• Deleted all live spammers, banned IPs and removed posts. Thanks to everyone who flagged them up (Dollywobbler, Cavette, Cobblers, Studebaker Hawk, Trigger, Shep Shepherd, AeroNautical to name but a few) which made the job easier as they were still present all the way back to May this year.

• Deleted all 14,800 inactive users, as approx. 95%+ looked like dormant spammers.

• Locked down the forum, but then altered it back to 'Account Activation by admins'. This is because lurkers will now be trying to re-register as I’ve deleted their accounts.

 

Issues outstanding:

 

• A forced board purge. Iminently. Like in the next day or two. We have 5 years of posts on there. I recommend we delete the oldest 3 years worth at least I recommend topics older than that need to be resurrected now or lost forever.

• Make the registration process a load tighter.

• Try and reactivate Space Otter. I can’t work out how to do this yet.

• Add moderators, purely for deleting spambots ONLY and nothing else (thanks to everyone who has applied).

• Go to the pub

 

Thanks to everyone for being so patient, and our apologies for letting it get out of hand. The Autoshite page on Facebook has been a welcome place this week (cheers to Craig Miller for that).

 

Rich

aka EL

aka RIchard Lawson on FB for ref

[Ben_L]

EL,

 

I understand I'm new here, but I'm happy to volunteer time to the boards.

 

Regularly online for 12 hours at a time (Days and Nights) at work, so if you need any help kicking this spammers in to touch, let me know

 

Ben.

[cobblers]

Brilliant!

[cort16]

Good work to all involved in getting it back up and running it's good to have it back although my productivity at work will probably start dipping again.

[Cheggers]

Thank you, (Rover) sterling job!!

[jonny69]

Glad* to see the forum back and sorry to hear it's under such attack from spammers - thanks for the hard work put in, since I'm one of those users who just sits here and occasionally posts inconstructive drivel without ever helping or offering any

[trigger]

Thank you guys for all the time and effort in getting the forum back and running again, It's been a long week without AS to keep me amused.

[RedSparrow]

Hey, good work guys. I spend a lot of time here, albeit reading more than contributing.

Your efforts are appreciated.

[Spiny Norman]

• Deleted all 14,800 inactive users

 

Feckin' hell, no wonder it took nearly a week!

Well done Rich, and thanks for all your efforts.

[Split_Pin]

It's great to have AS back and thanks for all your hard work in sorting out what is a free service.

 

Don't forget Fred Transit who served up emergency AS to us all in paper cups from the back of his Transit. Thanks Fred

[Spiny Norman]

Don't forget Fred Transit who served up emergency AS to us all in paper cups from the back of his Transit. Thanks Fred

+1.

Turned into quite a decent wee forum in the few days it had in the limelight, thanks FT.

 

Incidentally, there still seems to be a shit-load of spammers on the member list, I presume these have all been de-activated and nothing to worry about?

[RedSparrow]

Yeah I was hoping Fred might make a return to the main forum now.

[Volksy]

Glad everything is back up and running!

 

Once again I'll offer my services to deleted Spammers, I work from home so The 'Shite is generally on my PC 24/7

[Electric Leyland]

Incidentally, there still seems to be a shit-load of spammers on the member list, I presume these have all been de-activated and nothing to worry about?

 

Mainly nothing to worry about. Since coming back online this morning we've had 51 new resistrations from spammers, none of which will gain access. That's the majority of them, and the rest are all recent ones that have been banned already. If you go back further they're mainly OK looking.

 

This will for a while cause problems for 'real' new registrations. Just have to live with that temporarily.

 

But so far nothing in the past 4 hours so it's looking fairly good. I do expect a few to pop up though over the next few days, if you see any please flag them up!

 

Cheers,

Rich

[Wilko220]

Yeah I was hoping Fred might make a return to the main forum now.

 

Yes, second that.

 

Another big thank you (to add to all the others) to everyone involved in keeping this site running. The positive side effect of it being down for a few days is that is has demonstrated beyond doubt just how much it means to a lot of people!

[Conrad D. Conelrad]

• A forced board purge. Iminently. Like in the next day or two. We have 5 years of posts on there. I recommend we delete the oldest 3 years worth at least I recommend topics older than that need to be resurrected now or lost forever.

 

Hold on, before purging let's download and archive those old posts. They might be inactive but there's still three years of esoteric car knowledge.

 

I can host them on the originaltin hosting I'm still paying for.

[Wilko220]

• A forced board purge. Iminently. Like in the next day or two. We have 5 years of posts on there. I recommend we delete the oldest 3 years worth at least I recommend topics older than that need to be resurrected now or lost forever.

 

Hold on, before purging let's download and archive those old posts. They might be inactive but there's still three years of esoteric car knowledge.

 

I can host them on the originaltin hosting I'm still paying for.

 

That definitely sounds lke an offer that's too good not to be taken up...

[Mr H Sceptre]

How do we do that???

[talbot928]

Well done and welcome back

[daveb47]

Electric Leyland, Siestaboy, Mr H Sceptre you have pm re backups etc

[Rocket88]

Sterling work chaps [and probably a lot more reliable]

[Mr H Sceptre]

Electric Leyland, Siestaboy, Mr H Sceptre you have pm re backups etc

 

 

Hi Dave - very interested in this. Will need to speak to Mr Leyland first, plus my laptop is broken so prob won't get the chance to PM you until tomorrow........

[Cavcraft]

Nice one E.L, much appreciated.

 

Can I just add a huge 'hats off' to Fred for the emergency forum? Cheers Fred!

[rml2345]

+1! It's been handy sitting in Fred's Autoshite shed with a cup of Oxo and continuing the fun.

Also thanks must to to EL and the other management for getting us back to normal.

Cheers guys!

[Shep Shepherd]

Top job, Richard!

[John F]

Big thanks to admins & Fred for keeping us all well-supplied with shite

[wuvvum]

Another thanks to The Management for their efforts in getting the board back up and running, and to Fred for giving us our AS fix in the meantime.

[FredTransit]

the 999 forum(s) are safely mothballed!

[Pillock]

Thanks to all for their hard (and unpaid!) work getting AS back up and running.....

I've never been so glad to see two tones of brown

[Conrad D. Conelrad]

I am working on archiving the old posts so the management can trim down the forum without us losing anything. Apologies for abnormal traffic.