The revised Clinical Waste Discussion Forum has succeeded in keeping most of the spammer out and since the complete re-write in October 2010 not a single spam message has appeared on the live Forum.
The Forum Archive files are still available and well worth a look as they contain much useful information. However, they are locked against further use to prevent spammers.
Regrettably, but perhaps not surprisingly, the live Forum does not escape the attention of spammers. The site is constantly bombarded with spam messages and links but thanks to programmes such as Akismet the live site is kept free from spam intrusions. But they are still knocking at the door, and this takes a lot of time in housekeeping that can better be spent on other more productive things.
So we have decided to beef up our spam prevention systems, to stop spammers at the door and prevent all access. After much simulated testing, this has now gone live and is showing considerable success already.
But as always, there is a downside. Though we have done everything possible to check for any error that might block a genuine visitor from registering or contributing to the site, it is just possible that some problems may arise. We certainly hope not but we can’t test for the unknown!
If you have any problem posting messages or comments to the Clinical Waste Discussion Forum or registering on the site – always a good idea to reduce problems at a later date – please do let us know and we will do all we can to fix things as quickly as possible.
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In the first 24 hours of operation, the new anti-spamming system reports 654 blocked spam attacks!
Hopefully, this will improve site speed and page response times, and create a little less work for the moderating team.
Most important is the easy access by all legitimate users of the Clinical Waste Discussion Forum. If you have any problems with access, with registering or downloading, or with posting messages or comments, please contact moderator@ianblenkharn.com
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48 hours in and the new system has blocked 2146 spam attacks, not quite all of them but we can sweep up the odd few extra and none get through to the live site anyway – and I had no idea we were so popular!
Seriously, this will take a lot of strain from the server to produce a better service for legitimate users. Hopefully, they all will have no problem in accessing all pages, downloads and discussions, and will be able to post comments or register without difficulty.