Parasites - Spam on Fly-in Section

John Price · Post by **John Price** » Mon Mar 30, 2009 12:32 pm

Looks as though the Fly-in site has been hi-jacked.

John.

Peter Harvey · Post by **Peter Harvey** » Mon Mar 30, 2009 12:47 pm

John Dean and Penny have been deleting an increasing number of spam bot postings on our free-to-all 'Fly-in' section.

Sorry, but we're going to have to provide access to registered users only. It's a shame, since most users recognise opening up this section can provide a useful resource.

We'll work on a system allowing anyone to register and gain access to the Fly-in section. Currently, one has to be a member to register.

This will be addressed a little later, since we're currently stretched on other work.

Once again, if anyone with appropriate web skills has some spare capacity to assist us on this and other technical areas, we'd welcome the contact.
Pete Harvey
CEO LAA.

Nick Allen · Post by **Nick Allen** » Mon Mar 30, 2009 2:22 pm

Pete, Is there a way of giving a couple(ish) of regular forum users the privilege to delete this spam from the Fly-in section? Then we could clean it up as we go...

Post by **John Dean** » Mon Mar 30, 2009 3:37 pm

Nick

I really don't think that is the way forward, much as I wish it were.

I have been deleting a steady trickle of bot postings almost since the Fly-In section was opened up but at the weekend I was deleting hundreds of them at very regular intervals. The postings would probably increase at a faster and faster rate producing an intolerable situation even for a large team of "deleters".

As Peter said, as soon as time becomes available an alternative way of opening up a section of the forum will be investigated although I suspect it would have to be one which is not labour intensive.

Nick Allen · Post by **Nick Allen** » Mon Mar 30, 2009 4:07 pm

Hadn't realised the scale of the problem -- your efforts are appreciated John! As an interim measure, perhaps we need an LAA Facebook presence...

J.C. · Post by **J.C.** » Tue Mar 31, 2009 8:24 am

Such a shame, just shows what a crap world we live in now.Its always a case of a few spoiling it for the majority,be they terrorists or perverts.
The prime reason for opening it was to provide feed back to make organising the BB flyins easier.
However the feed back from LAA members has been poor to say the least(bearing in mind they are who the flyins are really for.)
I have asked for indications of intent to attend the flyins and one week away from having to book the BBQ at Sackville I have zero response.
The project propellor do is a logistical nightmare to organise and to date I have one reply.
From this I can only assume there is no call for the fly ins anyway so the forum might just as well be locked again.

Peter Harvey · Post by **Peter Harvey** » Tue Mar 31, 2009 9:36 am

Don't lose heart. Opening up is a good idea. We need to experiment occasionally, some things will work, others fail, but we'll learn and improve. We will open up sections to non-members ASAP.

As with many of these things, they need a critical mass to succeed. Once we develop an open, but secure mechanism, I'm sure more folks will use the facility.
Cheers
Pete Harvey.
CEO LAA.

Nigel Ramsay · Post by **Nigel Ramsay** » Tue Mar 31, 2009 9:43 am

John,
The BB is a notoriously poor barometer of LAA member views. I realise you are trying to run a Forum Fly-In but in-fact any fly-in of interest to the members would benefit from a wider audience.

2 thoughts:

A banner Ad on the main LAA site (homepage) - if Peter would countenance it (hopefully he would)

An announcement in the Mag (again I'm sure Brian would co-operate)

??

steveneale · Post by **steveneale** » Tue Mar 31, 2009 11:50 am

Nigel Ramsay wrote: The BB is a notoriously poor barometer of LAA member views.

Thread creep but I disagree. The BB is in my opinion a good barometer though you sometimes have to look what is implied rather than written. If it has suffered a reduction in balance, it's because a lot of people got fed up with being mucked about and have moved elsewhere.

Fortunately after years of misguided antagonism toward it, Peter is I.T. savvy, understands the potential of the forum and is trying some ways to reinvigorate and open it up.

Steve

Nigel Ramsay · Post by **Nigel Ramsay** » Tue Mar 31, 2009 1:56 pm

Can't agree Steve, 8000 members versus 200 or so BB members? The dilemma as always is that it's the face of the association that the world sees, yet it's a very few who regularly post and thus it's 'their' opinions and comments however misguided that flavour the overall view.

It only takes one misguided comment on the BB, but it takes a hell of a lot to put that right - I have run a couple of restaurants in my time and believe me, one bad report on a website can almost close your doors (I actually had a customer complain that his Plaice was flat!) NO it wasn't a Fish n Chip shop!

Nigel Ramsay · Post by **Nigel Ramsay** » Tue Mar 31, 2009 2:02 pm

Actually I see there are 900 odd registered users, much more than I had thought, but it would be interesting to know what proportion of those 900 actually post - I seem to see the same old suspects time after time.

Steve Brown · Post by **Steve Brown** » Tue Mar 31, 2009 3:37 pm

How do you know how old I am and anyway what is wrong with old suspects ? And why do you think all the registered BB users are odd

- just kidding!

Seriously it would be good to promote the BB in the mag now & again and tout for more members to sign up and participate.

Post by **John Dean** » Tue Mar 31, 2009 4:39 pm

Nigel Ramsay wrote: it would be interesting to know what proportion of those 900 actually post

You can get some indication by looking at the "Memberlist" link near the top of the page and sorting according to total posts.

steveneale · Post by **steveneale** » Wed Apr 01, 2009 9:00 am

So that's 380 that have posted at least once then. Out of interest that is 5 times more than attended the last LAA AGM. There were many more registered and posting actively on the PFA BB before the first 'cull'. If people want to see the potential influence of a "notoriously poor barometer", monitor the Flyer forum threads on the new ATSOCAS Basic service.

Steve

Nigel Ramsay · Post by **Nigel Ramsay** » Wed Apr 01, 2009 9:07 am

I make that 4% of the membership roughly....... As you said this is thread drift and doesn't help the BB fly-in cause in the slightest.