Forum Moderation

WSKinVA · 04-01-2015, 05:31 AM

Hi Folks,

Just wondering what amount of moderation is available for these forums. After joining, I went through and saw a whole bunch of spambot accounts and occasional spamblasts like the ones from today.

javascript:emoticon('

') Needs a *tiny" little bit of policing...

profdant139 · 04-01-2015, 09:26 AM

There are moderators, and they do a great job -- but the spammers are fast and robotic, and it is hard for a real human to keep up.

WSKinVA · 04-01-2015, 09:30 AM

Yes, they (the moderators) do a great job! They spam was gone by the time I finished posting! Sorry about that...

Newbee mistake.

Keep up the good work!

**LJAZ** · 04-03-2015, 11:32 AM

I'm the only moderator for this site. You can tell by looking at the moderator listing on the bottom of each forum and my user name is the only one listed.

The SPAM does seem to have gotten much worse lately. I guess they think us trailer types are in dire need of Nike's, Pandora and golf clubs.

Unfortuneately I'm still a working stiff so don't have as much time to devote to trailering (and this forum) as I'd like. I do try to log on at least once a day and get rid of the spam, but some days I just don't have time. Or if I'm out in the FF at a site without wifi it could be a few days before I can log on. So just bear with me and ignore those spam posts until I can get rid of them.

If anyone else has in interest in being a moderator you could send an email or PM to user funfinderclub who is the site administrator and volunteer.

Happy camping all!

profdant139 · 04-03-2015, 06:23 PM

Bless you for what you do, and hang in there!!

WSKinVA · 04-03-2015, 08:12 PM

I second thst!

I have been moderator and managed websites for many years.

As a volunteer you are doing a great job. Again, sorry to jump so quick. Being new to the board i did not know how things ran.

Great job!

Travels with Yoly · 04-04-2015, 08:51 AM

This forum would be hurting if it weren't for the efforts of LJAZ. People come and go so much on forums it's hard to get real stability and every forum needs a moderator(s). This October will be LJAZ's 5 year anniversary as moderator and that's phenomenal in this day and age.

We travel a lot and are without a connection for sometimes long periods of time, otherwise I might offer to help out if it would help. At least I'm retired and have time otherwise

I also don't know diddly about being a moderator although I'm a member of at least a half dozen forums

michellep · 04-04-2015, 10:42 AM

I have volunteered to help moderate, and have sent a PM to the Forum Administrator.

I'm an Administrator/Moderator on another RV forum, which is also phpbb software based.

I, too, am retired, and for the most part, don't have a life - pretty much just hang around and kick the dog - so there's plenty of time for moderating!!!

**LJAZ** · 04-04-2015, 10:43 AM

Thanks for the kind words all. Geez I didn't realize it's been 5 years. Oh well I guess as long as I have the FF I'll continue. And since the DW loves it and cuts me off if I even start to mention looking at another trailer I'll be here until the wheels fall off.

Actually, moderating this forum isn't very hard. Yoly, you're blog probably takes more know-how. I knew nothing about it when I started, but it was pretty easy to figure out. And honestly as a moderator I don't have much power. I can manipulate the threads & posts to delete, split, combine, lock or make them stickies but that's about it. I can't even ban these spammers which is frustrating because I keep seeing the same names pop up. Oh well, they'd just log on with a new user ID I guess. At least this way I know it's spam just by looking at the name.

I think this software is pretty old too as it's not very sophisticated at least by today's standards. Some sites require you to go through multiple steps to register making hard for spam bots to get a user ID. But we don't have those extra layers.

Oh well, we've got a great community so I hope we're all posting here for many more years.

WSKinVA · 05-13-2015, 07:34 AM

Hi All,

Just a follow up on this topic. I have sent several PMs and emails to the "site administrator" 'funfinderclub' and have had no response.

I also drilled down to the website owner / domain owner and sent emails to several addresses list in ICANN and the GoDaddy host, as well as through her own business site and have no response.

http://www.victorialantz.com/

So, I have to wonder if this site is about to be 'orphaned'... The domain name lease runs through next March. If it is on auto-renew, that will go until the charge account chokes.

Anyway, if anyone has any other ideas on how to contact the administrator, or has had any success doing so, please let us know.

I would love to see this resource remain available and take on some improvements (I found TapaTalk via the Heartland Owners forum and find it to be a great improvement for viewing posts on a phone or tablet).

Thanks,

michellep · 05-13-2015, 07:46 AM

Is she the actual owner of this website? Or did she design it for someone else, and register it?

**LJAZ** · 05-13-2015, 07:53 AM

I know several folks had offered to chip in to help moderate and had sent emails to the site administrator. Sorry to hear that there's been response. I'd hate to loste this site. Not a huge bunch of users but it's gotten to be a pretty close knit group.

michellep · 05-13-2015, 07:58 AM

There are two Facebook groups with the same name - one is a GROUP and the other is a PAGE - the only difference is an apostrophe in the "website" version (pages)

This one was created by Joel Frederick on October 24, 2013. I do not know if Joel Frederick has any affiliation with the first group below:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/442420275866327/

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Fun-F...663687?fref=ts

WSKinVA · 05-13-2015, 08:07 AM

The Facebook thing is another issue that needs attention, too. Best I can tell, the administrator of this forum created the "Website" Facebook page, and that is the one that is linked here. I also went through that to try to make contact...

The FunFinders Owners Facebook Group is new and active.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/442420275866327/

Good bunch of folks there. Facebook groups are great for chatting away and sharing anecdotes, but are still clunky for things like researching a problem or product. That is where forums like this one work best.

If the Heartland Owners Club gets around to it, maybe a new section for Cruiser RV folks will be added there and we can somehow migrate info from this forum to that. Long shot, though.

michellep · 05-13-2015, 08:09 AM

I just sent an email to the owner of the WomenRV forum to see how expensive it is to find a host for a site like this.

Anyone out there with experience setting up a Forum using phpBB software?

WSKinVA · 05-20-2015, 06:16 AM

I have completed a second round of sending emails to all of the possible contacts... Next step is an actual snail mail to the PO box for Ms. Lantz. I am going to send signature return.

I'll keep everyone posted.

**LJAZ** · 08-01-2015, 10:24 AM

Has anyone heard anything back?

michellep · 08-01-2015, 11:17 AM

Not me.

jbfunfinder · 08-01-2015, 02:30 PM

LIAZ
You can see that I have been a member for a while and I too an grateful for your work in monitoring this forum. Thank you.

Travels with Yoly · 08-01-2015, 03:29 PM

Every forum needs one or more moderators and they seldom get the credit that they deserve. All get kudos from me just for their loyalty alone and their fundamental desire to make something better for other people