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Hi, all! As any site gets big and draws a lot of traffic, it becomes a target for spam, questionable members, and unwanted emails from said members. In fact, since Christmas, the incidence of spam members has increased quite a lot despite our very rigorous spam filters.

As a result, I now review every new member who joins the site, and I actively delete those who appear to be here for purposes of spreading spam or making unwanted advances to other members. Today, I have already deleted several accounts in the course of a few short hours of being awake, and I have barred those email addresses from accessing the site again. This is something I do EVERY day.

However, if you happen upon such a member/account before I do, there are a few things you can do to help me out and to keep the site free of these annoyances:

1) Report the post to me using the report feature, which is generally located to the right of photos, or under comments. Or send me a private message with a link to, or a screen shot of, the objectionable member profile or content.

2) Do not send your reports to other members or contributors of the site. I am the only one who can delete members of the site or content, so sending the complaint to someone else only delays my addressing of the issue.

3) While I take care of cleaning up the site, you can always block spam members by using the "Block" feature to the right of the person's member profile. Though, in all honesty, this should rarely be necessary as I routinely comb new members every day.

Sadly, these sorts of things add tremendously to the admin burden of this site, and there may be times I am busy with more important work and do not catch these things before you do. For that, I apologize. But, please know that I am working hard to keep this site "clean", and please help out by taking the above steps if you encounter any issues.

Thank you.

Last edited by Julia M. Usher
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Hi Julia,

First, thank you so much for taking care of a recent spam I received.  I just wanted to let you know a couple of things that happened that did not allow me to follow all of the steps you outlined above.  When I typically click on a comment on a Post, I can click on the "Take Action" tab and select "Report Reply."  When I received a "Private Message", this feature was not available.  I tried to find your name when searching for members but your name did not appear in the listing.  I reached out to another member as a last resort and she was able to get the message to you.

I happened to "cut and paste" the message and included the spam member name.  I'm not sure I would know how to "link" the original message to a message that gets sent to you so additional info on how to do that would be helpful.  And lastly, I was wary about touching anything relative to the spam message as I didn't know if it would open more of a problem after clicking on any additional parts of the message.

This is the first time this has happened to me on this site and I knew it would be resolved quickly.  I appreciate all of the time and energy it must take you on a daily basis to keep the site clean and in check.  Always grateful for your site and your attention to the details.

Diane.

Cookie Celebration LLC posted:

Hi Julia,

First, thank you so much for taking care of a recent spam I received.  I just wanted to let you know a couple of things that happened that did not allow me to follow all of the steps you outlined above.  When I typically click on a comment on a Post, I can click on the "Take Action" tab and select "Report Reply."  When I received a "Private Message", this feature was not available.  I tried to find your name when searching for members but your name did not appear in the listing.  I reached out to another member as a last resort and she was able to get the message to you.

I happened to "cut and paste" the message and included the spam member name.  I'm not sure I would know how to "link" the original message to a message that gets sent to you so additional info on how to do that would be helpful.  And lastly, I was wary about touching anything relative to the spam message as I didn't know if it would open more of a problem after clicking on any additional parts of the message.

This is the first time this has happened to me on this site and I knew it would be resolved quickly.  I appreciate all of the time and energy it must take you on a daily basis to keep the site clean and in check.  Always grateful for your site and your attention to the details.

Diane.

When private messaging Julia type “Julia M”. 

Econlady posted:
Cookie Celebration LLC posted:

Hi Julia,

First, thank you so much for taking care of a recent spam I received.  I just wanted to let you know a couple of things that happened that did not allow me to follow all of the steps you outlined above.  When I typically click on a comment on a Post, I can click on the "Take Action" tab and select "Report Reply."  When I received a "Private Message", this feature was not available.  I tried to find your name when searching for members but your name did not appear in the listing.  I reached out to another member as a last resort and she was able to get the message to you.

I happened to "cut and paste" the message and included the spam member name.  I'm not sure I would know how to "link" the original message to a message that gets sent to you so additional info on how to do that would be helpful.  And lastly, I was wary about touching anything relative to the spam message as I didn't know if it would open more of a problem after clicking on any additional parts of the message.

This is the first time this has happened to me on this site and I knew it would be resolved quickly.  I appreciate all of the time and energy it must take you on a daily basis to keep the site clean and in check.  Always grateful for your site and your attention to the details.

Diane.

When private messaging Julia type “Julia M”. 

Hi, Diane (@Cookie Celebration LLC)! Thanks! Glad we resolved that one! I saw his account as soon as he joined, and he also sent me the same message, so he was deleted within minutes of joining the site. There are several issues like this everyday, most of which people never see and all of which are pretty harmless - just annoying and sometimes inappropriate.

Yes, you are right; the "report" feature does not appear on private messages because they are supposed to be private. But you can always take a screen shot of one, or click on the link in your browser (to expose the link to the private message) and send me a copy of that link. See the screen shot below for how I did this on a private message I recently sent to Ryoko. A screen shot is generally all I need though. I am sorry you had trouble locating me on the site, but I can am definitely searchable under the Member Directory under "Julia M. Usher" (see screen shot below of what I found when I searched for me). And you can click on my name next to my avatar anywhere it appears on the site and be taken directly to my member profile where you can send me a PM. My name/avatar appears at the top left of every post I make on this site. My email address is also located in the signature line of every post I make on this site, under the "About/Contact" section of the site, and on the home page to the right in the "Connect with Julia" box (see screen shot below). Hope this helps! Thanks again to alerting us to the recent issue.

Screenshot of Exposed PM Link in Browser:

Screen Shot 2018-01-28 at 1.46.09 PM

How I reveal in search of Member Directory (just click on the link and you will go to my member profile):

Screen Shot 2018-01-28 at 1.45.31 PM

"Connect with Julia" box to right of home page (envelope icon is my email):

Screen Shot 2018-01-28 at 1.54.19 PM

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Images (3)
  • Exposed Link in PM in Browser
  • Julia in Member Search
  • "Connect with Julia" Box on Home Page
Last edited by Julia M. Usher

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