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Post by procswrongfoot on Sept 16, 2020 18:00:10 GMT
The recent mini explosion of Spam posts really began to grind my gears.
Out of total frustration, l contacted ProBoards Support (had to register first which was fairly straightforward).
Anyway, as some of you may have noticed, thankfully they took prompt action and removed all the recent offending posts.
Whist contacting them, l did raise the issue of our lack of moderator, as "snowy" has long since cast us adrift. The result from ProBoards was as follows:
' It appears that the forum has been operating fine other than the spam issue. If it happens again, just let us know and we'll go from there'.
(I somewhat think that with our severe lack of traffic that it is presently not worth their time and effort in sorting out a new moderator for our forum).
Anyway, at least we now have a mechanism for getting rid of unwanted Spam posts and therefore my level of ongoing annoyance has subsided.
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Post by scrumpjob on Sept 16, 2020 19:17:19 GMT
Cheers for sorting Proc. Be good to get some more chat going to be honest.
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graham
Junior Member
Posts: 84
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Post by graham on Sept 16, 2020 20:30:22 GMT
The recent mini explosion of Spam posts really began to grind my gears. Out of total frustration, l contacted ProBoards Support (had to register first which was fairly straightforward). Anyway, as some of you may have noticed, thankfully they took prompt action and removed all the recent offending posts. Whist contacting them, l did raise the issue of our lack of moderator, as "snowy" has long since cast us adrift. The result from ProBoards was as follows: ' It appears that the forum has been operating fine other than the spam issue. If it happens again, just let us know and we'll go from there'. (I somewhat think that with our severe lack of traffic that it is presently not worth their time and effort in sorting out a new moderator for our forum). Anyway, at least we now have a mechanism for getting rid of unwanted Spam posts and therefore my level of ongoing annoyance has subsided. Thanks for this. Over the last few days I have been hitting the report post option and tagging as spam not knowing if it would have any affect. I did do some research a year or so ago about getting a new moderator set, but didn't really get anywhere. The fact that I am still showing as a junior member is a good indication of the few number of posts we get. It would be great to revive the board and get a new moderator in place. As you have already contacted ProBoards support, maybe they could advise on the necessary process to appoint a new moderator. Best wishes Graham Edit: I think they missed one spammy post. This new users post appears to be just a vehicle for an advert in the signature. maxpayen Anyone know who Mayo are? gloscricket.proboards.com/user/183/recent
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Post by procswrongfoot on Sept 19, 2020 9:45:33 GMT
Graham/Scrumpjob Background Clarification: Regarding my initial contact with ProBoards Support on Wednesday (16th). I raised the issue of the lack of a moderator for our forum, which had been brought to a head by a mini explosion of spam. Born out of total frustration, I bravely (or perhaps foolishly) volunteered to take over the role of moderator, thinking that this was the easiest and straightforward solution. To my great surprise, they merely accessed our forum and removed the obvious spam posts. As they had totally ignored the lack of a moderator issue, I went back to them a second time. Suffice to say, it merely brought about the response that I originally quoted above.
Anyway, I have subsequently done a little more research. From what I can ascertain we would seem to potentially have three options regarding getting a new moderator.
OPTION 1 I quote from the ProBoards Help Guide: 'If a forum admin passes away, or if the main admin has clearly abandoned a forum, ProBoards may determine a successor for the account. ProBoards will make a determination at their sole discretion what it views as the best course of action for the forum's members'.
(NB. ProBoards seem reluctant to bother taking this option as in their view...."It appears that the forum has been operating fine, other than the spam issue").
OPTION 2 Somehow contact "snowy". He can transfer his admin account ("ownership of the forum"), but only by directly contacting ProBoards Support and following their set procedures.
OPTION 3 Once again somehow contact "snowy". Ask him to access our forum and then assign additional powers to another member or members. (NB. Hopefully, this method would work and would entail absolutely minimal effort).
Regarding attempting to contact Alex Winter aka "snowy". Alex is a fairly well known cricket journalist/BBC local radio cricket commentator. If we could find someone who is well into social media (Facebook, Twitter or Instagram) then it is distinctly possible that we could get a message to him.
Somehow playing devil's advocate...but do we really need a moderator at present (we can hardly claim that we have squabbles, bad language or a need to lock down threads!). Personally think that we can probably cope without at the moment, but not totally ideal as we have no direct control and would need to rely on others (ProBoards Support) to remove further instances of spam.
Finally, if we do wish to pursue this then we would need a volunteer moderator or moderators. To be honest, I am a self confessed "technophobe", so perhaps best classed as a last resort.
Apologies for the length of this post, but have a mull over and let me know your thoughts in due course.
Naturally, I would also very much welcome input from any other forum members on this issue.
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graham
Junior Member
Posts: 84
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Post by graham on Sept 19, 2020 20:03:03 GMT
Thanks, great knowledge to identify snowy as sports journalist Alex Winter. A quick search easily brings up a twitter handle for said journalist.
Like you, I don't really feel a great calling to take on the role of administator/moderator for this forum.
Perhaps we are best to continue to monitor how things go and contact Pro boards support if/when we get another influx of spam posts.
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Post by scrumpjob on Sept 20, 2020 8:06:09 GMT
I concur with Graham!
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graham
Junior Member
Posts: 84
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Post by graham on Sept 20, 2020 19:28:53 GMT
Alex Winter was actually co commentating on the Gloucestershire last ball win against the old foe this afternoon at the county ground.
So if we do need to contact him that is another possible route.
A great last ball win on what would have been a great late summer afternoon in the sunshine at Neville Road.
Some compensation to have been able to watch ball by ball on the TV via YouTube, arguably a better view of the wicket to wicket action than one gets at the ground.
Shame the club still haven't been able to sort out a consistent ground effects mike set-up to relay the bat on ball and player action. Not sure what the point of the music is when the only people who can here it are the players, staff and residents of the flats.
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Post by scrumpjob on Sept 20, 2020 20:26:03 GMT
Really enjoyed today's game. Over the second half of our innings I regularly moved from writing us off to considering us favourites as our fortunes waxed and waned.
Very impressive innings from Cockbain and great 'finishing' from Howell and Smith who really held his nerve.
I felt sorry for the young Somerset bowler who bowled the last over. Gregory as captain and an experienced death bowler should have stepped up there.
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Post by procswrongfoot on Sept 21, 2020 9:58:24 GMT
Thank you both for your responses on the moderator issue.
Will continue to monitor the situation and follow up as necessary. Could not quite believe that we could suffer once again with the rogue post of yesterday. (Suffice to say.....don't worry, the matter is hopefully in hand).
Interesting to hear that Alex Winter was co-commentating yesterday (is he still the BBC Northamptonshire cricket commentator ?). Perhaps he is angling to make a permanent return to his original spiritual home. It would be a most welcome return....always seemed a very knowledgeable guy.
(An outdoor family gathering yesterday afternoon meant that I missed following the live cricket action. Occasional score updates had me sensing a looming defeat. Subsequently, could not quite believe that we had managed to win off the very last ball. What tremendously exciting stuff).
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Post by procswrongfoot on Sept 21, 2020 16:34:44 GMT
Bingo.....kaput.....good riddance to the rogue post (will refrain from adding my rather stronger feelings).
Very many thanks snowy............I am somewhat assuming that in some roundabout manner, you have been contacted and have zapped the latest spam post.
Be good to hear from you again (Glos or more general cricket related). Sincerely hope that you have not acquired divided loyalties over the result of the coming T20 Blast quarter finals!
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