why the cover up

[jaypp]

Regarding some recent banning of members, I don't understand why there seems to be a 'hush hush' rule for some things and not others. For example, just recently all members were warned about multiple accounts and consequences, yet not given info on content that has resulted in a ban for some members. Awaiting my first warning/ban!!!

 

[Marvo]

When someone has multiple accounts on the forum (which is not permitted) I send them a PM requesting they let me know which account they want to keep so I can close the other one. If they're not an established member and I don't get a reply then I close both of them. Most of these accounts have one post of maybe a handful of posts at the most. The multiple account warning I posted was just to give people a chance to salvage their account if it was closed and by some slim chance they wanted to keep it.

If someone makes a post with unacceptable content the post is deleted and an infraction is given which automatically results in a 7 day ban. It's not 'hush-hush' but it's not open to public consensus or debate either, staff actions are just between staff and the member involved. When the infraction is given a notification is sent to that member. How it's received depends on the setting of the members account, they would receive a PM and possibly an email with a brief explanation.

 

[jaypp]

Thanks Marvo for the explanation. It would be helpful for the forum in general, I think, to have info on the kind of posts deemed to be unacceptable.

 

[Kris]

Common sense should tell you wots appropriate and wots not to be said on public forums, ive always lived by the moto its nice to be nice,

 

[Marvo]

There's no definitive list unfortunately. The forum is open to all types of people of all ages, members are just required to post accordingly. The line between what's acceptable and what isn't also moves depending on where the post is made, in the forums that aren't public facing we cut more slack because those pages don't show up on Google search results and won't get the forum penalised in rankings or reported for inappropriate content.etc.

 

[Engineer54]

they would receive a PM and possibly an email with a brief explanation.

Well it seems that hasn't happened with Pete 999, and a PM wouldn't be of much use, if a ban has been issued if they can't read it.

I'm still being subject to these daft ''security pages'' literary every 15 minutes or so!!!! It has nothing to do with China either as i'm now in Cyprus and have been for a week now and with no proxy in line. But even while in China, the proxy would nullify any relationship with China anyway, that's the whole point of them.... The proxy i'm using actually uses my Cyprus provider IP.
If i can go on to high security financial web sites without any problems at all (which i have to do as part of my project duties almost on a daily basis) and have absolutely zero problems with any other forum websites, then i can only surmise that something has been put in place against my name on this forum.

 

[jaypp]

There's no definitive list unfortunately. The forum is open to all types of people of all ages, members are just required to post accordingly. The line between what's acceptable and what isn't also moves depending on where the post is made, in the forums that aren't public facing we cut more slack because those pages don't show up on Google search results and won't get the forum penalised in rankings or reported for inappropriate content.etc.

That makes sense, thank you. As you can see, I'm not one to make offensive posts and where I may have potentially offended/crossed the line, have acted accordingly.

 

[Marvo]

Whether an email is received or not is down to the members settings which they control with their individual options in their control panel. If their email notifications aren't enabled then one won't be sent because that was their choice.

There's no restrictions placed against your account I can assure you. I checked your permissions earlier and reset them, you should have full unhindered access to the forum. Because of the recent attacks that were designed to take the forum off-line various counter measures were introduced. If you're getting frequent security screens I'll speak to Dan to see if the situation can be improved.

 

[GMES]

Whether an email is received or not is down to the members settings which they control with their individual options in their control panel. If their email notifications aren't enabled then one won't be sent because that was their choice.

There's no restrictions placed against your account I can assure you. I checked your permissions earlier and reset them, you should have full unhindered access to the forum. Because of the recent attacks that were designed to take the forum off-line various counter measures were introduced. If you're getting frequent security screens I'll speak to Dan to see if the situation can be improved.

Sorry to hijack the thread guys but @ Marvo if you ever bump into the above mentioned Dan can you ask him to sort out our photography section.
Right that's me done / has you were Gents!!

 

[brum]

Common sense should tell you wots appropriate and wots not to be said on public forums, ive always lived by the moto its nice to be nice,

Hi Kris that will be coz yere a plumber and were all nice guys..brum

 

[Engineer54]

Whether an email is received or not is down to the members settings which they control with their individual options in their control panel. If their email notifications aren't enabled then one won't be sent because that was their choice.

There's no restrictions placed against your account I can assure you. I checked your permissions earlier and reset them, you should have full unhindered access to the forum. Because of the recent attacks that were designed to take the forum off-line various counter measures were introduced. If you're getting frequent security screens I'll speak to Dan to see if the situation can be improved.

I am indeed, about every 15 minutes or so, after any post i make (and more often than not that post gets lost into the bargain) and replying to PM's. Something is very wrong somewhere and it's not at my end. For about a week just recently i had no security pages popping up, even to get on to the forum, then suddenly they are back again with a vengeance!!!

 

[Kris]

hi kris that will be coz yere a plumber and were all nice guys..brum

sssshhhh

 

[1stfix2ndfix]

I am indeed, about every 15 minutes or so, after any post i make (and more often than not that post gets lost into the bargain) and replying to PM's. Something is very wrong somewhere and it's not at my end. For about a week just recently i had no security pages popping up, even to get on to the forum, then suddenly they are back again with a vengeance!!!

I reckon it's Marvo

 

[Richard Burns]

I reckon it's Marvo

E54's IP address was white listed but it has probably changed since then and is therefore now getting security blocked again, though why this should happen from Cyprus I do not know.

 

[Rockingit]

I have an issue with my business email which is at my ISP end - one of their other clients was unscrupulous and using their account to send spam so got kicked off and cancelled, but unfortunately it was on the same shared server as me and a few others so now the internet spam engines are having difficulty screening the legit domains sending from that IP address! So for the time being I'm having to use an Outlook account purely as my outbound portal.

But with regards to the OP.....moderation is a really hard job and infractions are not given lightly on any forum. There's an awful lot more leniency given here (and the competition) than you'll find on some professional forums of other trades!!!

 

[Marvo]

I have an issue with my business email which is at my ISP end - one of their other clients was unscrupulous and using their account to send spam so got kicked off and cancelled, but unfortunately it was on the same shared server as me and a few others so now the internet spam engines are having difficulty screening the legit domains sending from that IP address! So for the time being I'm having to use an Outlook account purely as my outbound portal.

Penalising IP addresses and ranges of IP addresses used to be fairly effective in combating spam and malicious activity but more recently with the shortage of IP addresses they have been shuffled and moved around from country to country so it's now a problem where ranges that were notorious for trouble now have a bad name even though they've now been reissued elsewhere.

AsRichard mentioned in his previous post I also suspect Eng's IP address has changed and isn't whitelisted on the security software. I've already requested for Dan to assist.

 

[shanky887614]

Penalising IP addresses and ranges of IP addresses used to be fairly effective in combating spam and malicious activity but more recently with the shortage of IP addresses they have been shuffled and moved around from country to country so it's now a problem where ranges that were notorious for trouble now have a bad name even though they've now been reissued elsewhere.

AsRichard mentioned in his previous post I also suspect Eng's IP address has changed and isn't whitelisted on the security software. I've already requested for Dan to assist.

the problem is also agrivated by a lot of people dont have a dynamic ip.

bassically they get assigned different one every time they connect

 

[jaypp]

the problem is also agrivated by a lot of people dont have a dynamic ip.

bassically they get assigned different one every time they connect

So would someone who tries to surf anonymously by (not sure of correct term) bouncing their IP address have problems with forums etc.?

 

[shanky887614]

So would someone who tries to surf anonymously by (not sure of correct term) bouncing their IP address have problems with forums etc.?

its not anoymous though, you can trace the ip quite easily.

if you log the time and ip you can find them through a court order by forcing the isp's to tell you who connected then follow the chain.

the better way is to use a vpn rather than a different ip.

for example to take the content protection of my phone would require me to go into the shop or use a credit card (i refuse to get one).

anyway i have a vpn and gets around the filters quite easily

 

[Marvo]

the problem is also agrivated by a lot of people dont have a dynamic ip.

bassically they get assigned different one every time they connect

Dynamic IP is where it's changed after a certain time by your ISP, basically you only lease it for a short term. Most ISP's use dynamic IP address systems. Static IP is where you retain the same IPaddress from you ISP indefinitely.


I also use VPN's sometimes but mainly as a way around geo restrictions. If you want to be anonymous rather use Tor Browser, it's as secure as you get and it's free.

 

[djw]

the problem is also agrivated by a lot of people dont have a dynamic ip.

bassically they get assigned different one every time they connect

I guess you mean they do have dynamic IP addresses, then yes you get a new IP address when you re-connect to your ISP, but within the block of addresses your ISP has been allocated.
I think....:dozey:

 

[shanky887614]

Dynamic IP is where it's changed after a certain time by your ISP, basically you only lease it for a short term. Most ISP's use dynamic IP address systems. Static IP is where you retain the same IPaddress from you ISP indefinitely.



also use VPN's sometimes but mainly as a way around geo restrictions. If you want to be anonymous rather use Tor Browser, it's as secure as you get and it's free.

my mistake marvo i gor them mixed up

tor isnt secure marvo, have a look at defcon, blackhat etc.

because the nodes are random there is no way to verify how secure they are

 

[Marvo]

my mistake marvo i gor them mixed up

tor isnt secure marvo, have a look at defcon, blackhat etc.

because the nodes are random there is no way to verify how secure they are

TOR is as secure as you get. Most of the weaknesses are avoidable by following their advice on how to use TOR securely. If you're going to attack TOR using the exit node which is the only feasible vulnerability, you can capture info from text based protocols such as HTTP but you've no idea where that data came from. So even then in a worst case scenario it might not be secret but it's still anonymous.

If like I said you follow their advice on secure browsing you won't be using a text based protocol like HTTP, you'll be using an encrypted protocol such as HTTPS which is end to end encrypted. TOR combined with end to end encryption is solid for anonymity and secrecy of data.

 

[davesparks]

Whether an email is received or not is down to the members settings which they control with their individual options in their control panel. If their email notifications aren't enabled then one won't be sent because that was their choice.
.

Is that the option to not receive email notification of PMs?
Because that's seems to be very unfair if it is, choosing not to have my inbox filled with emails every-time I receive a PM doesn't seem like a good reason not to let me know if I have been banned or why!

 

[Marvo]

Is that the option to not receive email notification of PMs?
Because that's seems to be very unfair if it is, choosing not to have my inbox filled with emails every-time I receive a PM doesn't seem like a good reason not to let me know if I have been banned or why!

If you choose not to receive emails notifications then the forum won't send them. I'm really not sure what else to say, it's your choice and the forum abides by it. I'm not sure how that's unfair, it's just is what it is. I can imagine the hoo-har that would happen if emails were sent to members who'd specifically set their options not to have them, we really can't win. Anyway it's outside of the staff's control, the only thing we could do is go into the control panel and manually find the members email address and send them an email from our own email client which would still be classed as unsolicited mail and isn't going to happen I'm afraid.

 

[jaypp]

If you choose not to receive emails notifications then the forum won't send them. I'm really not sure what else to say, it's your choice and the forum abides by it. I'm not sure how that's unfair, it's just is what it is. I can imagine the hoo-har that would happen if emails were sent to members who'd specifically set their options not to have them, we really can't win. Anyway it's outside of the staff's control, the only thing we could do is go into the control panel and manually find the members email address and send them an email from our own email client which would still be classed as unsolicited mail and isn't going to happen I'm afraid.

Fair point that

 

[Paul.M]

Any member that receives a ban and is unable to read their own PM's can go to the front forum screen, at the bottom click "contact us" and an e-mailed reply will be sent.

 

[davesparks]

If you choose not to receive emails notifications then the forum won't send them. I'm really not sure what else to say, it's your choice and the forum abides by it. I'm not sure how that's unfair, it's just is what it is. I can imagine the hoo-har that would happen if emails were sent to members who'd specifically set their options not to have them, we really can't win. Anyway it's outside of the staff's control, the only thing we could do is go into the control panel and manually find the members email address and send them an email from our own email client which would still be classed as unsolicited mail and isn't going to happen I'm afraid.

But if I choose not to receive notification by email of PMs specifically I wouldn't expect that to prevent me receiving emails about my account. And I have left the option to receive emails from administrators ticked so I would fully expect to receive an email about a ban.
Notifying someone about a ban by a messaging system primarily designed to be accessed once signed in to the forum from which the person is banned is crazy!

 

[Paul.M]

But if I choose not to receive notification by email of PMs specifically I wouldn't expect that to prevent me receiving emails about my account. And I have left the option to receive emails from administrators ticked so I would fully expect to receive an email about a ban.
Notifying someone about a ban by a messaging system primarily designed to be accessed once signed in to the forum from which the person is banned is crazy!

Point taken Dave, I've checked into this and if a banned member tries to log in a message is displayed as below:-

"You have been banned for the following reason:Swearing on the open forum.
Date the ban will be lifted: 16-09-2014, 11:00 PM"


It gives the reason for the ban and the date+time when it is lifted. Hope that explains.

 

[Marvo]

Okay, after some investigation here's how it works.

When an infraction is given the staff member fills out two specific sets of details. Firstly there's an explanation that gets posted in the staffroom and secondly there's a message to the member stating why he received the infraction.

That message is sent as a PM. Normally an email notification would also be sent to tell the member he's received a PM, in that email is a link you can click to take you straight to the PM. When you click the link you're asked to log in then if you've been banned you'll only see a screen that tells you so and gives you the reason you're banned along with the date it expires.

If you don't receive the email notification it doesn't really matter because next time you log in you'll see the same screen with the same info about your ban anyway.

 

[Silly Sausage]

If you've got email notification off, you don't know if you've got a PM because you're banned and can't login to see if you've got any notifications!

Then you have to wait until your ban is over, I know

Can't you send a regular email to the banee?

 

[Marvo]

If someone has been banned and they log into the forum they see a screen that informs them they're banned and why. It also tells them when the ban expires.

Can't you send a regular email to the banee?

Like I said in post #25 even if we had the time to do this it would also be an unsolicited email.