*Read Update on Bottom* – On Christmas Day there will be a gift from me for each and every forum member. I am very excited about this. No, it’s not just a picture, or a poem or a song. It’s a unique gift to each and every member.
On the top of each forum will be posted “Click Here To Open Your Christmas Gift” – Click that link for your present. We have tens of thousands of members and I realize not all will want the gift. But I think most will. It’s a gift that I myself would be excited to receive, and those are the best kinds to give.
This is also a thank you to all the members that have been so supportive of our communities.
So on Christmas Day after you’re winding down with all the fun things there are to do, check the forum to open your gift from Cybermonsters. I think you’ll like it!
HO HO HO!
Conrad
*Update* – I have spent several weeks working on this and there are still too many security flaws in the operating system. So the grand Christmas launch is cancelled. However, during the process I happened across several other items which I’m working on now to enhance our community experience for members. My apologies.
Happy to help if you’re a member of my forum network having problems. Please remember that most of my forums are open to the general public and I try my best to stay out of the way of discussions. The forums are there for members to interact, not necessarily as a platform for a personal agenda. Don’t be evil, have fun, share your thoughts.
If another member disagrees with you and you would like them destroyed please let me know. (Um……that was a joke).
Contact for forum admin is:
Contact Admin
Please Read First
Scroll Down for Email Contact
ACCOUNT ACTIVATION
Didn’t receive your activation email, lost password or account closed?
Email us with YOUR USERNAME and the NAME OF THE WEBSITE and let us know you need activation.
Example: I need activation for yellowbear on internetprayers.com
Were You Booted or Designated as a Troll?
Then you probably were a new member that dropped promotional links or just jumped into the community with rant before getting a feel for what that community is all about. Many new members are unaware that we often run competing boards for multiple perspectives. We have found that if members read our rules and get a feel for the community for a couple weeks before starting new threads, they easily become acquainted and appreciated within that community, regardless of whether they “agree” with that community. Be reasonable, be nice.
We don’t reinstate accounts that are booted, so if you have a change of heart and read the rules, just open another account. If you open another account and continue to be a troll, then we will proactively block you. We don’t want to do that.
MOST COMMON REASON FOR BEING BOOTED:
1) New member dropping promotional links or going on rants
2) Members posting overly sexual or graphic content
3) Personal “ad hominem” attacks
The tolerance for this varies in each community – That’s why it’s a good idea to get a feel for that community for a bit. What goes on one board might not fly on another board. Each community has grown independent over time.
*Note: With our thousands of members, we only actually boot about one person or coordinated group a month. We really do want you to be part of our community.
For SEO specialists and my old Black Hat crew. An SEO high wind advisory.
I admire the creator of this link scam for their ingenuity. Xrumer is an autosubmitter program – it will sign you with up with major forum software platforms like phpbb and even post your first post for you. Not much new with this type of software, but their game plan is brilliant.
They are using their own software in a massive one way link blitz. This dwarfs the old Google bomb by a longshot.
Their first auto-submitted post does not contain a link, it simply says something along the lines of: “I am looking for Xrumer auto-submit software, does anyone know where I can find the official website?” – Because they did not drop a link like most spammers, it goes unnoticed as spam. Now enter the well meaning member (and I have seen many ADMINS fall for this) who googles Xrumer and posts the link for them.
They have just received a bonafied link from a trusted member of that community. Now that is quality spam!
You can google Xrumer yourself to see how many forums are hit with it – it is quite impressive. It has hit so many forums recently that I really do not think there is a way to undo it – They got massive linkage.
Do not be tempted to buy it, Google will figure it out eventually and penalize it. Maybe you could get away with it if you had a mark that was already branded for linkage – take your chances.
A couple things to consider if you are tempted in buying the Xrumer software:
1) The obvious – you are perpetuating Black Hat SEO and spam.
2) Xrumer is a very unique search term, the same ploy would not work on any competitive term – and if you already have branding for your term, you would not want to take a chance with this anyway.
3) If you drop a link on the first post with the program you will be tagged for spam. To drop a link on the first post is the intended use of the software. Xrumer got around this with a unique term and disposable domain for quick cash.
Just guessing, I would bet they rake in an easy $200,000 in one week, or better. Would be interesting to know the real figures.
It comes after Russian hackers developed a script to auto submit spam posts to a wide range of forum software – and released it onto the open markets.
The script is able to post to forums even when email validation is required – a common anti-spam tactic used by forum admins.
Targeted forum software claimed open to attack includes vbulletin, phpbb, Invision Power Board, PHP-Nuke, yaBB, IconBoard, UltimateBB, exBB, phorum.org, wiki, different types of bulletin boards and even custom-written code.
Forum admins are advised to follow basic anti-spam procedures, and ensure they have common Russian email addresses blocked, such as mail.ru, inbox.ru, cashette.com, and gawab.com.
For those tempted to use high volume forum spamming, it needs emphasising that forum spam rarely lasts more than a few minutes on valuable forums, and the returns are likely miminal.
However, damage to reputation and standing could be considerable, and may additionally subject the user to legal proceedings under the Computer Misuse Act.
Forums are back online. If you’re reading this and need something done on a forum, please email me directly using the email at the “contact” link here on this blog.
Simple fix for SQL Error : 1016
This was a simple problem that came up with one of my databases, and I wasted a lot of time going the long way around the mountain. I’m posting the database problem here along with a quick fix for those with a similar error.
THE ERROR:
phpBB : Critical Error
Error creating new session
DEBUG MODE
SQL Error : 1016 Can’t open file: ‘phpbb_sessions.MYD’. (errno: 145)
This problem can happen to many different mysql database tables and seems to happen specifically on sessions.php – My SQL had been restarted, so that might have been a cause. If you are using PHPMYADMIN to run your databases, you will not be allow to fix the database from within the tables view for that database (like you normally would). Because phpmyadmin cannot complete the listing of tables, you cannot select the table to fix, and also do not have the normal listing of functions to select from (including the “optimize” table and “repair” table functions).
But just because you can’t see the sessions or users table, doesn’t mean they don’t exist. On my databases I entered “REPAIR TABLE phpbb_sessions” as an sql query and it fixed the table, which fixed the database problem.
In looking for a fix for the problem, I saw this same error across many different software platforms including phpbb, vbulletin and several ecommerce software platforms.
My initial fix was to backup databases from the command line on the server, since I had root access. I then deleted the existing database and reloaded the backups. A very long process when the mysql query fixed it. To perform the simple query you do not need root server access, only access to phpmyadmin.
Another reason I’m posting this, is I saw several dozen instances where other people had this error for over a month, effectively closing their websites. Hopefully this will help those who, like myself, are technically challenged with mysql.
SELECT u.* FROM phpbb_users u, phpbb_sessions_keys k WHERE u.user_id = 2 AND u.user_active = 1 AND k.user_id = u.user_id AND k.key_id = ‘d0d838d45d9db9fea44a2500bb8199ab’
If you came here from one of my online forums then thank you for taking the time to read this post, and also thank you for being part of my online community network.
We’ve had an increase in spam posts lately, especially from the porn and pharmaceutical industries. Spam is when they drop a link to their website on a post; they do this to increase their rankings in the search engines. 99.99% of the time it is a new member and it is done on their first post. It’s very easy to spot. Some that are very clever will disguise it as an actual post, with an unrelated link.
ON MY FORUMS I DO NOT ALLOW LINKS FROM NEW MEMBERS – so if you see a member with one or two posts that has dropped a link in any forum besides the “Website Links” forum – PLEASE REPORT IT. I have a lot of anti-spam features installed on our boards, but it’s not catching all of them. It is a major problem lately for anyone who runs a forum, and not something focused specifically to my network.
. HOW TO REPORT A POST This little exclamation point graphic appears on the top right of every single post on my forums. If you click it, you will be “reporting a post” – it will ask you to briefly describe why it is being reported. I am immediately sent an email with this information and will take care of it ASAP.
MODERATORS – Mods, please don’t just move the spam post, please report it to me – then I can additionally ban the hosting email company and IP of the poster.
THE REVENGE
Many porn companies use automated robots to create member accounts at forums – I have features in place so they have to do it by hand. It takes them much more time to create an account, than it takes for me to remove the post and boot them. So at least there’s a little revenge built into the process.
Let’s keep the forums clean. Thank you for your help!
I run a network of free discussion forums on a variety of areas including music, theology, politics, sports and niche groups. The first of all my forums was Fender-Talk.com – A forum for guitar players that love Fender guitars. A little ironic because at the time I was playing keyboards for Freddy Fender.
They tolerate me on this forum, because I don’t play guitar. Actually, many of the forums I run it’s true that I am not a member of the group that’s represented by the forum. I started this forum with a friend of mine from the Roy Rogers Jr. band, and he loves Fender guitars.
All my forums are free, and it’s taken a considerable amount of money to keep them going – but I really believe in them, and the discussions between members have helped countless people in so many ways.
But THIS post is about the MONTOYA NECK! In December 2003, nearly THREE YEARS AGO – members at Fender-Talk.com started mailing a Montoya guitar neck to each other. They each signed the neck and sent it on to the next member.
Now there’s 19 signatures on the neck, so if everyone had sent it UPS and got it right to the next person, this process should have taken about three months. But these are guitar players we’re talking about – so it took them THREE YEARS to do this. The forums went through a tumultous time in between there, and were even down for a couple months. But they persevered, as guitar players always do, and just today I received the Official Montoya Neck in the mail. AWESOME!
I own a brand new Fender American-made Strat that was signed by Freddy Fender and has only been played by him, but this headstock is much more valuable to me. It marks three years of transition and persistence, and a great memory of a fantastic group of people – the members at Fender-Talk.com
Coolest thing of all, I knew NOTHING about all of this until earlier this year, a complete surprise.
THANKS GUYS!!!!!!!!
Conrad
THE FENDERTALK NECK FRONT
FT NECK BACK
CLOSEUP OF HEADSTOCK BACK
Reads: FenderTalk Custom DonutCaster
(At FenderTalk we LOVE to talk about Krispy Kreme Donuts)
Lucky13 Signature – Reads “LOVE ME”
Gotti the Cat Signature with Cat Drawing
Closeup of Back reads:
Fender MeatoCaster
with enhanced seasonings
Grade A Safest Beef
THE FENDERTALK NECK IN JANUARY 2004
Here are the member signatures and locations on the neck:
Voodoo Funk – New York
LouisWu – Tucson, Arizona
ACFixer – Victorville, California
StratFreak – West Virginia
Trouble – North Carolina
Dangerine – New York
Carlos – Marion, Illinois
Colin – Tulsa, Oklahoma
SAGuitar – Oregon
McGillman – Nevada
Tim B. – Naples, New York
Midiman
Gotti the Cat – So Cali
Herb – Kansas
Voodoo
CAFeathers
Lucky13 – Reno, Nevada
Last name unreadable
December 2003 – The Original Montoya Neck Thread
January 2004 Montoya Neck Thread
January 2004 Montoya Neck Thread
February 2004 Montoya Neck Thread
June 2004 Montoya Neck Thread
July 2004 Montoya Neck Thread
May 2005 Montoya Neck Thread
September 2006 FT Neck Thread
Montoya Neck in January 2004, at that time signed by:
LouisWu (Ray) – Tucson, Arizona
ACfixer (Lance) – Route 66 (Victorville), California
Carlos (Keith) – Marion, Illinois
SAguitar (Stan) – Oregon
Herb – Kansas City
Dangerine49 (Fender-Talk Member) Holding the Montoya Neck
