Ok, so I've gotten some complaints lately on the amount of bots that spam the forums.

Yes, you are correct that this isn't good for the forums and maybe we should do something about it.

The logical explanation would be to have one of those code things with the letters and numbers when you first sign up. However, Back when I made Mana-sama.net I didn't have good knowledge on making forums (unfortunately I still don't), therefore after much trial and error with many forum types I eventually settled down for Invisionfree forums because they were reliable and easy to use.

I think we can all agree that the forums worked great for a while...but suddenly all these robots keep hacking their way in and spamming the place. They have made some posts that are COMPLETELY inappropriate to the reputation of the forums and also not something members of the forums particularly want to look at.

What I'm talking about is sexual contexts, advertisements for casinos, pharmacy drugs, and even enhancements for adults.

Unfortunately because I chose invisionfreeI do not own the entire system. It works through remote hosting. The best I can do as an administrator for now is catch these spam posts and ban the IP addresses, emails, user names, and delete the topics.

I've somewhat looked into forum issues and looked at my administrative options.
At this point I can explain our options. I'd like your opinion on our options as Mana forums. PLEASE KEEP IN MIND THERE IS MORE PEOPLE THAN THE MAIN GROUP THAT POSTS ALL THE TIME. There are members here who are shy and don't post often, or just don't have much to say. Also, consider newer members and members who do still come here from time to time, just not every day.

Forum Options:

1. We can bare with these robots for a while longer. I can't promise you how long it will be, BUT invisionfree has been undergoing a test run with a new type of forum, Zetaboards. They finished the basic beta version up like last year, but are still undergoing some test runs where people can point out bugs and such. Eventually I will be able to update these forums with Zetaboards (again, I don't know exactly when, but I'll look into it more) where we can keep all our members and information and Zetaboards /SHOULD/ work against these spam bots we have been experiencing. Its built better so the forums will work even better and we shouldn't have such bothersome issues to deal with anymore.

Here are the pros and cons to it:

Pros: We will be able to keep the same forums, with all the same members and posts and nothing will be disrupted from our regular usage.

Cons: We may have to wait a while and continue to deal with these robots. The time with bearing with these could vary from a few weeks up to several months. I just can't say right now. (but when I find out more information, I will let everyone know)

2. Our second option we have to choose from is get new forums. /EVERYTHING/ will be deleted. All members, posts, memories, and saved information. However, we get the safe bet of getting better more advanced and nicer forums. I'd LOVE to get PHPBB, because those are wonderful forums that can be fully controlled by the forum admin, but I don't know how to set it up or work with it with my hosting plan and it could take me a long time to set them up.

So to put it in easier terms, pros and cons again:

Pros: Better forums, cleaner, no worry of spam bots again, better admin and mod control.

Cons: All data lost, all members lost, could take a VERY long time to rebuild, and I really don't know how to make them. XD;

If a new forum is what you guys want, I can give all my efforts to remaking new forums, but I can't promise how long it would be until the new forums would be available. To be honest, it could take months. I understand these spam robots are very annoying...trust me, I'm the one who has to deal with them more than you guys do (even though I totally understand where you're coming from as the viewer's point of view having to go on forums and see such vulgar. It is VERY unbecoming). However, at this point your choises are between waiting it out a while longer, or restarting everything to scratch.

Its really up to you guys, so please post your thoughts!

I forgot to add, I did find an option on the forums where I can view and personally accept or reject every single new member that comes in and wishes to join the forums.


I could do that if you guys decide upon the first option to make things a little bit more controlled. But, my biggest problem right now is that I will be gone to Japan August 13-22. Unless I find someone to take care of things for me (with Administrator options) all registration will have to be closed down for those days. I know this doesn't effect you guys who are currently members, but it does affect other people.

I would still go with option 1. It would be too sad if we lost everything since all the things we've posted so far are a part of what makes this place awsome. I decided to register buy lurking for a while and reading all those post. If it wasn't for that I wouldn't be here now. I'm sure it's the same for most new members. I can live with the bots for a while if it's what it takes to keep all the data.

Well Sarah, as we have talked about this subject for so long, via PM. You pretty much know my opinios, which are.

I am for option 1.

Unsure about option 2.

And option 3. XD Sarah i told you i would take the job of personaly reading for the memebership acception program. And now that you are going away, you realy need someome to do that.

But also like i said, it is totaly your site and we back you 100%.

I'd go with option 1. Would be a shame to loose everything.
A possible solution for the bot problem, and finding a user you'd trust with Admin power, would be to create some moderators.
Sure, they can't ban people, but they can delete threads and posts. And since most bots usually only write once, the mods could just delete the thread/post, and send a PM to you with the username of the bot.
Then, whenever you return or have time, you can read the PMs and just ban the bot and slam an IP ban on it now we're at it.
I'd say if you do want to make some mods get some from different continents, it'll increase the chance that someone is online and can clean up the mess before anyone notices the bot.

That's a very good idea.

I agree. I don't want Option 2. I don't want to lose everything! :(

I fully support Option 1, but if you choose Option 2, that's your choice. But I don't want to loose anything on these forums either. We've had good times on here and it would be a shame to have them destroyed and lost in cyberspace.

Yes, this bot problem is highly irksome, but I'm sure everything will be fine in the end. ^_^ Hopefully we'll be able to post in a place where we can't be harmed by stupid bots. :)

I'm glad to see most people are for option 1 and care about everything we've posted so far. The forums are really important to me and it would make me really really sad if we lost everything.

Guess the vote's pretty unanimous already, but I (yeah, I'm still around ^_^) wanted say I'd pick option 1 as well. Don't want lose so much awesomeness again (laptop kinda crashed, lost pretty much everything), so I can live with the bots for a bit longer. And hey, annoying or not, those bots do inspire some great captions! :D

Indeed.

I like option 1, and that 3rd one sounds like a good idea as well.

I'm glad you guys are up for option 1!
I really didn't want to restart everything, because I feel the exact same way as the rest of you. We've made so many memories on here that it would be a big loss to all of us (old members and new members who would probably enjoy it) to just delete everything just because of the vulgarities of spam bots.

I promise I will take care of everything as fast as I can, but being only one person (and obviously if you haven't noticed the soul administrator/mod left) it is difficult for me to be there 100% of the time to take care of everything, but I do my best!

We will stick with Option 1, and I will look into this new updated forum that should be coming around before too long but right now its not the best time for me. Still, I will see what I can do, and I do think you guys are right on the moderators. I really like all your input!

I'm probably going to post a new thread about creating moderators, because this is such a tough decision to make since we're all pretty close.

The new thread on moderators will go in depth in what it takes to be one, what you are expected to do, and how you can apply.

I've gone through SEVERAL moderators on these forums, and to be quiet frank, none of them have been quite loyal to the forums. Therefore, this time I'm going to make sure things go right, and I want to pick people who are strong enough to keep things up and going.

Like I said, I'll go more in depth with this in another thread (that I may have to post later because I'm at work). I want those of you who are interested to think about it now if this sounds like something you could handle. There will be regulations involved and I will go through the fairest possible process I can think of for choosing either A new moderator, or possibly a few mods.