Please Update Your Password

[Steve Petersen]

It’s not just this site. I Mod an OK hunting forum and we’ve had a spike in spammers from India, Pakistan, Philippians and Russia (yes those damn Russians are at it again). We had to revamp the software for member sign up and block a slew of IPs. The last 48 hours have been crazy. I think I’ve personally banned/ blocked close to 80 new accounts in the last 72 hours.

 

[Dave N]

Changed. Now I just have to remember it!

 

[noharleyyet]

If you have the means and are so inclined, pay it forward to the forum treasury. It should not be compulsory and it is it’s own reward.

 

[blueridge]

Just not in my nature to ask for donations.

Randy, I wouldn’t look at it that way at all. It’s giving us the opportunity to express the value we find in the community here in a way that supports it and ensures its quality and continuation. It can be a non-obtrusive button and be phrased “Support” or something similar. 100% should not be all on your shoulders. Share the load.

 

[devon deer]

I'm on the road right now while Matthew and I work with the Xenforo tech team to reduce the likelihood of another spam session like yesterday.

Mudranger's PW was likely discovered by folks trying to hack his personal or financial information elsewhere. Using the same PW in multiple places is problematic if you are hacked by one of those groups. They easily track your web browsing and try the common user names and PWs they have observed you using.

Changing PWs helps a lot.

On our end we are buying a plug-in to block activity from any IP address that is not one of the whitelisted countries we approve.

Based on our traffic history, it is suggested we only approve the following countries:

USA
Canada
Mexico
New Zealand
Australia
UK

Most spammers are based in Eastern Europe, Russia, Asia, or Africa.

That will be a bummer for less than 0.4% of our audience. But, we have to take more drastic steps than just subscribing to a known data base of spam IPs and fake emails.

Please help this effort by updating your PW.

Sorry I hadn't been on for a couple of weeks, I missed the trouble you had to deal with.
I have changed my password.

Looking at the above countries, does that mean you have blocked existing members who are not on the approved list, or is it just new members applying?
If it's for existing members who are not on that approved list this could be interesting, and you can check their IP address.

I have sent you a pm

Cheers

Richard

 

[come2elmo]

I'm on the road right now while Matthew and I work with the Xenforo tech team to reduce the likelihood of another spam session like yesterday.

Mudranger's PW was likely discovered by folks trying to hack his personal or financial information elsewhere. Using the same PW in multiple places is problematic if you are hacked by one of those groups. They easily track your web browsing and try the common user names and PWs they have observed you using.

Changing PWs helps a lot.

On our end we are buying a plug-in to block activity from any IP address that is not one of the whitelisted countries we approve.

Based on our traffic history, it is suggested we only approve the following countries:

USA
Canada
Mexico
New Zealand
Australia
UK

Most spammers are based in Eastern Europe, Russia, Asia, or Africa.

That will be a bummer for less than 0.4% of our audience. But, we have to take more drastic steps than just subscribing to a known data base of spam IPs and fake emails.

Please help this effort by updating your PW.

I would also recommend you enable the two-step authentication feature. That adds another layer of security.

 

[MarvB]

A modest annual subscription fee might not be a bad idea. Donations are nice/great even but sure make it difficult for long term planning and budgeting. Hell Randy saves most people here the cost of most annual subscriptions just in providing discount codes!

 

[FI460]

Thanks for you thoughtful idea on this. It is an option with the forum software platform. Other forum owners I know use it and suggest I do the same. Just not in my nature to ask for donations.

Thanks again. I'll take it under advisement.

I've noticed numerous other forums have a member sponsorship feature. I think that's something many of us would be interested in contributing to. The knowledge I've gained here is invaluable, and I would look at sponsoring the forum similarly to my membership with any of the stellar NGOs we all support.