01/31/2012

George Colby, Red Knights Forum Moderator

End of 2011 Year Report

 

I have been the Forum Moderator since November 2007 and 2011 has been a busy year.

With the appointment of a new Web hosting service came a newly designed forum.

The issue of screening all applications for forum membership became a daily battle against bogus applications.

In the past, most of these applications were “Bot” generated. That is to say they were coming from a computer program that a real person generated and after adding a few layers of security they were pretty much stopped.

Now they are coming from real people, the vast majority of which are from Europe, and average

five to eight a day and none of our application security measures are working to keep them out.

286 “Bogus” applications have been deleted from September 2011 through January 2012.

Because these are “real” people the only way to keep them from accessing our forum is to manually delete them. While this is a time consuming process it is the only way to protect the legitimate forum members.

Four steps are necessary to remove each bogus application.

This is done by banning the applicants name, email address, IP address and then deleting the application.

Some of the internet service providers for these people have been contacted in an effort to have them put a stop to these actions but to date that effort has been futile.

We currently have 573 legitimate forum members and they are being protected against spamming by this process.

 

My duties include but are not limited to:

 

1. Checking all applications against the Red Knights Master Roster (I receive updated rosters on a regular basis) to ascertain as to whether the applicant is a member in good standing or a computer generated "BOT" or “Hacker”.

 

2. Emailing each legitimate applicant of his / her acceptance and activating his / her user name and password.

If the applicant is rejected (usually for non-payment of dues or their name not appearing on their chapter roster) he / she is also informed and his / her application is deleted. This enables them to reapply once the problem has been resolved. When it is a matter of non-payment of dues, I forward a copy of the message to the International Secretary and treasurer. This enables them to keep an eye out for a check.

 

3. I am responsible for perusing the forum and keeping an eye on content and correctness of comments for any particular subject.

Should I find something that is improper, I inform the author is of his / her inappropriate messaging I would also delete the post if deemed necessary. If things really get out of control, I ban the offender(s).

Following the chain of command I work under the direction of, and am answerable to the Web Liaison Steve Chappell.

 

 

The forum is accessible from our web site and I invite you to register.

One never knows when something will show up at sparks your interest.

If you are planning a trip, you can ask for places to see along your route and get replies from those who live in those regions.

 

Got something to sell? The forum is a good place to post it.

Technical information and chapter news are other subjects posted.

International convention news as well as regional conventions and major events are other subjects posted by members from all over.

 

If you have not yet applied, please do. If you are already a member thanks you.

 

If there is a forum section you would like to see added let me know. I am reachable by private message once you are registered by clicking on "Forum Moderator" at the site.

 

Regards to all

George Colby