Atomic Systems

My private messages have also been blocked. Thanks for explaining why!

Firstly:

I had (I think) been on regular posting because there was no moderation delay. I have now (since my PMs were disabled) made one post, yesterday, on the "General Simulation" forum, under a topic about open rail simulators. That post had a moderation delay. Why has this happened?

Secondly:

If sending PMs cannot be reallowed, could you please at least allow me, in the mean time, to view my received PMs? That would be much appreciated.

Lastly:

Could it not be possible to renable all PM sending, except for the accounts known to have been spamming? If not, I would be interested to know why not because I am also interested in computer programming/scripting.

Thanks, tubetrain11

tubetrain11 wrote:I had (I think) been on regular posting because there was no moderation delay. I have now (since my PMs were disabled) made one post, yesterday, on the "General Simulation" forum, under a topic about open rail simulators. That post had a moderation delay. Why has this happened?

It simply depends on when you post and what moderators are around. If you post and there are several moderators around then it is likely to be approved promptly. If not then it will wait until somebody comes online. We do have more or less 24 hour coverage but some of us have day jobs and I am pretty sure my boss would rather I was working than approving posts.

Without trawling the logs I can't say what I was doing when your post was made yesterday but I did spend a good chunk of time watching the BTCC on ITV4 as well as working on things offline

tubetrain11 wrote:If sending PMs cannot be reallowed, could you please at least allow me, in the mean time, to view my received PMs? That would be much appreciated.

The forum software currently does not allow that.

tubetrain11 wrote:Could it not be possible to renable all PM sending, except for the accounts known to have been spamming? If not, I would be interested to know why not because I am also interested in computer programming/scripting.

THe flaw in your logic there is that until an account spams then it should be free to post. The account in question was a new account and started spamming. The software is not that flexible given the number of custom modifications made to suit our purposes so it is not a trivial task to change it.

tubetrain11 wrote:I had (I think) been on regular posting because there was no moderation delay. I have now (since my PMs were disabled) made one post, yesterday, on the "General Simulation" forum, under a topic about open rail simulators. That post had a moderation delay. Why has this happened?

Hi

Having checked the logs, I can clarify that your post in the Open Rails topic was not made yesterday, but on 26 April, at 18.02. It was approved by a moderator just 7 minutes later at 18.09.

Pretty good service if you ask me!

Ash

Easilyconfused wrote:

tubetrain11 wrote:Could it not be possible to renable all PM sending, except for the accounts known to have been spamming? If not, I would be interested to know why not because I am also interested in computer programming/scripting.

THe flaw in your logic there is that until an account spams then it should be free to post. The account in question was a new account and started spamming. The software is not that flexible given the number of custom modifications made to suit our purposes so it is not a trivial task to change it.

Would it not be possible to, somewhere in the logon script, write:

IF username=nameofspammer THEN blockPM ELSE allowPM

Same flaw in the logic though - how would anyone be able to identify a potential spammer in advance?

Moderators would only be aware of the spammer's user name after they had spammed the forums, by which time any action would clearly be too late.

Ash

ashgray wrote:...how would anyone be able to identify a potential spammer in advance?

Moderators would only be aware of the spammer's user name after they had spammed the forums, by which time any action would clearly be too late.

I wasn't thinking to identify someone in advance. I was just thinking of a good way to give back the PMs to current users without allowing the known spammers back on.

P.S.-Who are the spammers (if it's okay to ask )?

Hi,

I believe that it is only "new" users (or others on moderated postings) who have the issue with PMs.

Thus by being a constructive part of the community you will regain PM access.

The current policy is that just-signed-up users don't have the option of sending or receiving PMs. Regular users can use them, as can users who are placed on moderated posting for some reason.

The problem we have with spamming is that we don't know who might do it: there is no list of known spammers, so sadly we have to treat all users as potential spammers until they demonstrate that they are responsible members.

If you feel you have demonstrated that you are a responsible member through the posts you have made, please feel free to put in a request to the site admin queries forum.

HTH,
Ruth