Dear friends,
We spent too many hours trying to get rid of spammers, hackers and other malicious users from this forum. And we must say that we are start thinking if all this really is worth the effort.
As you already know, nowadays discussions are being held on social networks and a forum like this one is in sharp decline. Part of the reason is that we simply don't have the time to follow this forum as we would have liked - and our absence is clearly detrimental.
However, we would really like to get some feedback from you: shall we keep this forum down? Or is it better to keep it barely alive as it is now?
We're open to any suggestion you may have.
Thanks for your patience and understanding.
Diego & Paola
0
We're Quite Fed Up...
Started by Diego, 27-Nov-2012 12:05
12 replies to this topic
#2
Diego
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Posted 28 November 2012 - 07:47
It looks those darn hackers were waiting for the forum to reopen. Just after a few hours they attacked us again, defacing the home page of the forum and putting in some very nasty code.
Now we cleared up everything, but again we are wondering if it is really worth the effort to keep this forum going...
Diego
Now we cleared up everything, but again we are wondering if it is really worth the effort to keep this forum going...
Diego
#4
Pete G
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- Guardians of the Stones
- 540 posts
Trilithon Connoisseur
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- Location:Avebury, Wiltshire, UK
- Interests:Stone Circles, Henges, Earthworks. Astronomy.
Posted 29 November 2012 - 01:45
over the last 2 years I have spent more time deleting spammers profile adverts than actually posting.
It seem the days of the forum are coming to an end as people move to Facebook and twitter.
I don't know why the hackers and spammers attack this forum so much but it is really tiresome.
Maybe its time to put it to bed and move on.
warm regards,
Pete
It seem the days of the forum are coming to an end as people move to Facebook and twitter.
I don't know why the hackers and spammers attack this forum so much but it is really tiresome.
Maybe its time to put it to bed and move on.
warm regards,
Pete
#5
Anew
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- Registered
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Megalithomaniac
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- Location:Pennsylvania
Posted 30 November 2012 - 22:24
Diego & Paola,
One of the things that distinguishes a labor of love is how much the malevolent love to destroy it . Because they know it hurts . It's a cruel sport . They want to see who can make you cry . They want to see who can shut you down.
That aside, the bigger problem you're facing is lack of input . It is not that you couldn't set up groups on a photo-sharing or social-networking site where security would be their concern… But how much more defeated would you feel if you abandoned this forum to do so and saw little activity there? Really, nothing hurts more than 0 views, no feedback . Here you have a reservoir of posts which will draw web-searches regarding a variety of sites and connected subjects . People do come to your forums, the trick is getting the interested to participate.
I suggest that you foster creative thinking to rebuild activity . Participate in discussions when and if you have the time . Read the posts likewise . Remember that we are considering a past which cannot be completely reconstructed, only inferred from archaeological/genetic/linguistic/cultural evidence, and from our understanding of what it is/was to be human . But at the same time, please consider it is no offense for members to try to reconstruct that past in the mind's eye on your forums . Please don't be impressed by skeptics who enter hurling i-doubt-it(s) before falling permanently dormant only to be replaced by new skeptics with a strikingly similar tone . And please don't let them run over ideas or members if you think there might be something/someone there worth developing . Ideas can evolve and improve, just as can people . In that process, a level of adversity is sometimes helpful, even fun, depending on the characters of those engaged . Use your judgement, remembering that the site will reflect it, and that proper behavior is not one-size-fits-all . If a few are having fun at fighting, let them fight ; but if someone's idea of fun is provocation or bullying, encourage them to stop . Be aware that interpersonal disputes tend to go back several posts ~ someone took a pre-emptive tone, made a slanted remark or a joke that didn't go over, someone feels accused et cetera and then they gain momentum ~ so that it may not be what's happening when you become aware of things that's key . To untangle them, a considered opinion which takes both points of view into account (without necessarily splitting the difference) may be more effective than a scolding ; but if that doesn't work, don't be afraid to suspend a member and to do so without getting upset yourself.
Try to relax and have a bit of fun at it . Here we are : ice-caps are melting, oceans are becoming acidic, elections here&about are being soaked in money then counted in the dark by private interests, Pakistan has too many bombs and Iran doesn't have any (yet), the Israelis and the Palestinians both want their same land under a hot sun, people in Russia are certain Putin was (somewhere) behind a wave of bombings and assassinations (including at least one radio-poisoned defector) but many still voted for him because they like their Czars terrible, my country imports concentrated drugs at a mad pace and exports weapons similarly with a stable of billionaires and a sky-high incarceration rate, the Chinese are working to dissolve an ancient culture in Tibet and polluting with abandon, African tribes from whom we might learn a great deal about pre-diaspora cultures are being proselytized by competing global religions and in some cases driven from their land (including by lethal means) by governments intent on renting it to multinationals to grow food for export, millenarian religious fanatics may try to have WWIII after all, the logical end-state of übercapitalism would seem to be that one enterprise gains effective control over all the wealth/resources/governments on the planet and one person gains control over it and the principal barriers to this would seem to be technological and might be overcome within three generations …… and …… people not only find the time to study the prehistoric past but become passionate about it . It is vaguely ludicrous. More than once it's reminded me of an episode of Star Trek in which a planet's sun was about to blow up and people were fleeing into its past . Spock wound up in a cave in an Ice Age with a beautiful woman, (and McCoy), while Kirk was going to be burned as a warlock . Each of us imagines our pasts differently ~ that there's a part of us that would like to go back is part of the reason we argue over it, but part also of the reason people seek out these sites.
More concretely, (though i doubt my long-term participation as my prospects aren't good), i suggest that you increase the default post visibility for the Alternative Theories forum to match that of the Megalithic forum . By now it should be clear that at least some of those who (may have) argued to you you should be (perhaps) embarrassed by it or the subject matter, (read drug use), i brought up had little continuing interest, and less to offer . I also suggest that you allow non-members to view/download the images members include in posts . Making the forums welcoming to the interested stranger by not hiding graphic content will, i think, bring in more quality people than requiring them to join before they can view . A designated Photos of the Stones forum with a higher, (say 4MB), ceiling on graphic uploads per post may also be a good idea . If a member goes to (say) Castlerigg and wants to post their photos to a like-named thread in such a forum, it will boost activity, particularly if they can share them with their non-member friends ~ who may feel encouraged to join . If you simply don't have the time, i recommend locking the forum rather than pulling it down . That way you'll have something to come back to when and if things change for the better . And who knows, some ideas first posted to your site may come to be accepted theory and then you'll be able to say, "Right here, right here."
Anew, (King of Triangles)
One of the things that distinguishes a labor of love is how much the malevolent love to destroy it . Because they know it hurts . It's a cruel sport . They want to see who can make you cry . They want to see who can shut you down.
That aside, the bigger problem you're facing is lack of input . It is not that you couldn't set up groups on a photo-sharing or social-networking site where security would be their concern… But how much more defeated would you feel if you abandoned this forum to do so and saw little activity there? Really, nothing hurts more than 0 views, no feedback . Here you have a reservoir of posts which will draw web-searches regarding a variety of sites and connected subjects . People do come to your forums, the trick is getting the interested to participate.
I suggest that you foster creative thinking to rebuild activity . Participate in discussions when and if you have the time . Read the posts likewise . Remember that we are considering a past which cannot be completely reconstructed, only inferred from archaeological/genetic/linguistic/cultural evidence, and from our understanding of what it is/was to be human . But at the same time, please consider it is no offense for members to try to reconstruct that past in the mind's eye on your forums . Please don't be impressed by skeptics who enter hurling i-doubt-it(s) before falling permanently dormant only to be replaced by new skeptics with a strikingly similar tone . And please don't let them run over ideas or members if you think there might be something/someone there worth developing . Ideas can evolve and improve, just as can people . In that process, a level of adversity is sometimes helpful, even fun, depending on the characters of those engaged . Use your judgement, remembering that the site will reflect it, and that proper behavior is not one-size-fits-all . If a few are having fun at fighting, let them fight ; but if someone's idea of fun is provocation or bullying, encourage them to stop . Be aware that interpersonal disputes tend to go back several posts ~ someone took a pre-emptive tone, made a slanted remark or a joke that didn't go over, someone feels accused et cetera and then they gain momentum ~ so that it may not be what's happening when you become aware of things that's key . To untangle them, a considered opinion which takes both points of view into account (without necessarily splitting the difference) may be more effective than a scolding ; but if that doesn't work, don't be afraid to suspend a member and to do so without getting upset yourself.
Try to relax and have a bit of fun at it . Here we are : ice-caps are melting, oceans are becoming acidic, elections here&about are being soaked in money then counted in the dark by private interests, Pakistan has too many bombs and Iran doesn't have any (yet), the Israelis and the Palestinians both want their same land under a hot sun, people in Russia are certain Putin was (somewhere) behind a wave of bombings and assassinations (including at least one radio-poisoned defector) but many still voted for him because they like their Czars terrible, my country imports concentrated drugs at a mad pace and exports weapons similarly with a stable of billionaires and a sky-high incarceration rate, the Chinese are working to dissolve an ancient culture in Tibet and polluting with abandon, African tribes from whom we might learn a great deal about pre-diaspora cultures are being proselytized by competing global religions and in some cases driven from their land (including by lethal means) by governments intent on renting it to multinationals to grow food for export, millenarian religious fanatics may try to have WWIII after all, the logical end-state of übercapitalism would seem to be that one enterprise gains effective control over all the wealth/resources/governments on the planet and one person gains control over it and the principal barriers to this would seem to be technological and might be overcome within three generations …… and …… people not only find the time to study the prehistoric past but become passionate about it . It is vaguely ludicrous. More than once it's reminded me of an episode of Star Trek in which a planet's sun was about to blow up and people were fleeing into its past . Spock wound up in a cave in an Ice Age with a beautiful woman, (and McCoy), while Kirk was going to be burned as a warlock . Each of us imagines our pasts differently ~ that there's a part of us that would like to go back is part of the reason we argue over it, but part also of the reason people seek out these sites.
More concretely, (though i doubt my long-term participation as my prospects aren't good), i suggest that you increase the default post visibility for the Alternative Theories forum to match that of the Megalithic forum . By now it should be clear that at least some of those who (may have) argued to you you should be (perhaps) embarrassed by it or the subject matter, (read drug use), i brought up had little continuing interest, and less to offer . I also suggest that you allow non-members to view/download the images members include in posts . Making the forums welcoming to the interested stranger by not hiding graphic content will, i think, bring in more quality people than requiring them to join before they can view . A designated Photos of the Stones forum with a higher, (say 4MB), ceiling on graphic uploads per post may also be a good idea . If a member goes to (say) Castlerigg and wants to post their photos to a like-named thread in such a forum, it will boost activity, particularly if they can share them with their non-member friends ~ who may feel encouraged to join . If you simply don't have the time, i recommend locking the forum rather than pulling it down . That way you'll have something to come back to when and if things change for the better . And who knows, some ideas first posted to your site may come to be accepted theory and then you'll be able to say, "Right here, right here."
Anew, (King of Triangles)
#9
Diego
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- Administrators
- 1,313 posts
Administrator
- Gender:Male
- Location:Trevignano Romano, Italy
- Interests:Megalithic sites, Astronomy, Music, Ornithology
Posted 15 December 2012 - 23:54
We are running circles... Thanks so much Pete for the cleaning.
We will seriously considering a radical change of the website over the Xmas period. And this forum is giving us much more headaches than something to be proud of or happy.
And Anew, thanks for the detailed info and suggestions: something definitely worth pondering upon.
We will seriously considering a radical change of the website over the Xmas period. And this forum is giving us much more headaches than something to be proud of or happy.
And Anew, thanks for the detailed info and suggestions: something definitely worth pondering upon.
#10
Pete G
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- Guardians of the Stones
- 540 posts
Trilithon Connoisseur
- Gender:Male
- Location:Avebury, Wiltshire, UK
- Interests:Stone Circles, Henges, Earthworks. Astronomy.
Posted 19 December 2012 - 01:12
as xmas approaches the spammers are posting several times a day, some of it stuff we don't want children to see.
I think it might be an idea to stop any new people signing up for a while,
PeteG
I think it might be an idea to stop any new people signing up for a while,
PeteG
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