Admin Announcement - Spam Attacks, Bots and Slow Speeds - Good News!

[Street Smart]

Greetings valued Talkers!

As you may know, I don't often post on the site. Recently and also not so recently, the Admin team and some of you have been a great help in reporting issues with the site that have been experienced by all. We have been going through a lot of challenges with spammers, bot attacks and some hosting related issues which have resulted in site slowdowns and have caused a headache for the Admins and most importantly you. I’d like to apologize for this; but just so you know the Admin and Moderator teams have been often working around the clock to has been manually removing the offending accounts, and has also been making small changes and tweaks to try to get our current setup to work for us.

Since the issue is recurring - and also based on your feedback, we have realized that it’s much too time consuming and a difficult job to keep this up manually. Thanks very much to Ithe Admins, especially IceCalibur and of course to you our members for sticking with us through it. I really do appreciate it and I wanted to let you know that those “keeping the lights on” here including me, have a plan in the works to clean up and update the site to improve your user experience drastically. Relief is in sight!

What we plan on doing will mitigate the issues that we have been experiencing and just might even entice some of the members that may have moved on due to frustration or just stopped posting on the site back to becoming active contributors. The problem as identified appears to be the our old forum software which plays a big role in the issue from what our techs and Admins have mentioned. The plan is, to upgrade to Xenforo software which is very similar to the vBulletin in user functionality so it won’t be a huge change for members in terms of how to post on and use the site. The difference with the new software is that it’s much more secure, and has some built in tools that will help the Admins and also automatically block the kind of activity that has been causing our issues.

This change is in the works and I’m actively making it happen, but at this moment we don’t have an exact date set. We are currently vetting techs that are capable of doing the transfer without losing any posts, grow diaries, or pictures along with the change. We are also going to try to keep all features in place such as the like systema and also the member badges. We will keep you updated as things progress and we approach a finalized date for the upgrade. Let us know if you have any questions, and if there is anything that you would like in particular that we may be able to accommodate with the new software we will take it into consideration. Cheers and keep your thumbs green!

David

[GEORGE]

Greetings valued Talkers!

As you may know, I don't often post on the site. Recently and also not so recently, the Admin team and some of you have been a great help in reporting issues with the site that have been experienced by all. We have been going through a lot of challenges with spammers, bot attacks and some hosting related issues which have resulted in site slowdowns and have caused a headache for the Admins and most importantly you. I’d like to apologize for this; but just so you know the Admin and Moderator teams have been often working around the clock to has been manually removing the offending accounts, and has also been making small changes and tweaks to try to get our current setup to work for us.

Since the issue is recurring - and also based on your feedback, we have realized that it’s much too time consuming and a difficult job to keep this up manually. Thanks very much to Ithe Admins, especially IceCalibur and of course to you our members for sticking with us through it. I really do appreciate it and I wanted to let you know that those “keeping the lights on” here including me, have a plan in the works to clean up and update the site to improve your user experience drastically. Relief is in sight!

What we plan on doing will mitigate the issues that we have been experiencing and just might even entice some of the members that may have moved on due to frustration or just stopped posting on the site back to becoming active contributors. The problem as identified appears to be the our old forum software which plays a big role in the issue from what our techs and Admins have mentioned. The plan is, to upgrade to Xenforo software which is very similar to the vBulletin in user functionality so it won’t be a huge change for members in terms of how to post on and use the site. The difference with the new software is that it’s much more secure, and has some built in tools that will help the Admins and also automatically block the kind of activity that has been causing our issues.

This change is in the works and I’m actively making it happen, but at this moment we don’t have an exact date set. We are currently vetting techs that are capable of doing the transfer without losing any posts, grow diaries, or pictures along with the change. We are also going to try to keep all features in place such as the like systema and also the member badges. We will keep you updated as things progress and we approach a finalized date for the upgrade. Let us know if you have any questions, and if there is anything that you would like in particular that we may be able to accommodate with the new software we will take it into consideration. Cheers and keep your thumbs green!

David

Thanks David.

[M_C]

LOL - I told you years ago that Xenforo was the way forward... Bud even posted on how to incorporate the databases - but glad to hear it's eventually happening

It's, obviously, an ambitious project &, obviously, the time frame can not be second guessed... but do you have any goals on this so the members can see what progress is being made?

[BackWoodsDrifter]

Yual the greatest and always on top of things. Hope it wasn't anything I finger fucked here but glad yur fixin it for the folks. Blessings to you all

Bwd

[M_C]

Any updates on what is happening?

The site is unusable (again!) today

[Samwise Gamgee]

Greetings valued Talkers!

As you may know, I don't often post on the site. Recently and also not so recently, the Admin team and some of you have been a great help in reporting issues with the site that have been experienced by all. We have been going through a lot of challenges with spammers, bot attacks and some hosting related issues which have resulted in site slowdowns and have caused a headache for the Admins and most importantly you. I’d like to apologize for this; but just so you know the Admin and Moderator teams have been often working around the clock to has been manually removing the offending accounts, and has also been making small changes and tweaks to try to get our current setup to work for us.

Since the issue is recurring - and also based on your feedback, we have realized that it’s much too time consuming and a difficult job to keep this up manually. Thanks very much to Ithe Admins, especially IceCalibur and of course to you our members for sticking with us through it. I really do appreciate it and I wanted to let you know that those “keeping the lights on” here including me, have a plan in the works to clean up and update the site to improve your user experience drastically. Relief is in sight!

What we plan on doing will mitigate the issues that we have been experiencing and just might even entice some of the members that may have moved on due to frustration or just stopped posting on the site back to becoming active contributors. The problem as identified appears to be the our old forum software which plays a big role in the issue from what our techs and Admins have mentioned. The plan is, to upgrade to Xenforo software which is very similar to the vBulletin in user functionality so it won’t be a huge change for members in terms of how to post on and use the site. The difference with the new software is that it’s much more secure, and has some built in tools that will help the Admins and also automatically block the kind of activity that has been causing our issues.

This change is in the works and I’m actively making it happen, but at this moment we don’t have an exact date set. We are currently vetting techs that are capable of doing the transfer without losing any posts, grow diaries, or pictures along with the change. We are also going to try to keep all features in place such as the like systema and also the member badges. We will keep you updated as things progress and we approach a finalized date for the upgrade. Let us know if you have any questions, and if there is anything that you would like in particular that we may be able to accommodate with the new software we will take it into consideration. Cheers and keep your thumbs green!

David

The site is slower than I have ever known it, and its going to be really off putting to any new potential users, I am not sure of the owners plans for this forum, and this is the first post I have seen you ever post and your apparently a Super Admin. I really don't mean to cause any kind of offence, I see the other Admins cleaning up the forum regularly when I am about, but have never seen your nick until today.

Personally as a long time member of this site, I will like to know the overall plan you guys have?, I work in ICT and this project I have heard whispers of, seems to never materialise?.

Would the owners be partial to a user buy out, as lots of people would be happy to get this forum back to what it was, but it seems like the management plan at the minute is to run it into the ground

[GanjaSyndicate]

The unfortunate cost of building something of value, everyone comes after it.

[M_C]

The site is slower than I have ever known it, and its going to be really off putting to any new potential users, I am not sure of the owners plans for this forum, and this is the first post I have seen you ever post and your apparently a Super Admin. I really don't mean to cause any kind of offence, I see the other Admins cleaning up the forum regularly when I am about, but have never seen your nick until today.

Personally as a long time member of this site, I will like to know the overall plan you guys have?, I work in ICT and this project I have heard whispers of, seems to never materialise?.

Would the owners be partial to a user buy out, as lots of people would be happy to get this forum back to what it was, but it seems like the management plan at the minute is to run it into the ground

Street Smart is our owner, Sam. It's unusual for him to post in anything bar the Mod & Admin forums.

[Jstatus]

The unfortunate cost of building something of value, everyone comes after it.

Wtf do you mean by that ? Who's going after what?

Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk

[Samwise Gamgee]

Street Smart is our owner, Sam. It's unusual for him to post in anything bar the Mod & Admin forums.

Ahh OK fella, I am a bit out of the loop on this stuff, I still thought it was owned by that American couple.

It would be good getting this forum rocking again thou, like it did back in the day, remember that online Xmas party we had that year?, that was a great laugh and great fun with the radio and everything.

I am just as much to blame as anyone tbh, as I have got very lethargic and Ent like in my old age lol