As most of our regular readers may recall, for quite a while we were experiencing frequent instances of spam on our board. Our members were always quick to alert the moderators, and we would ban the offending "user" and delete the spam.
As the spam increased, we asked the server provider that hosts our board if there was a solution that could be employed. He installed software that targets bots and DOS attacks, and the spam instantly ceased to be a problem.
However, the software caused a different problem.
We started receiving reports of members denied access and being banned from the board. At first it was thought that there was a password problem; but increased instances and further inquiry suggested there might be something else going on.
The software that targets bots looks for behaviors that bots exhibit like multiple rapid log-in attempts; and some of what our users were reporting didn't seem to match these behaviors.
Apparently, and admittedly I don't fully understand this, if some other entity that shares the same IP address as a member is the source of bot activity, then when that IP address is banned, any of our users who share that IP address will be blocked.
Whether or not that is an accurate description of the situation, the result is that the software that bans the bots has now been removed. We decided that having our members and visitors banned through no fault of their own was not a tenable situation.
So, for now, be on the lookout once again for spam, and report it when you see it. We'll try to get to it as soon as we can.
And thank you!
