Private Message Numbers -- have they been changing??

[HavinaGo]

Hi,

Thanks Neil et-al for keeping this enjoyable and informative community alive.

A minor query - are changes to the number of Private Messages happening and if so what is the expected end point of the changes?

I noticed my Private Messages were at 100% this morning (as per Edlanos post in - http://www.woodworkforums.com/f36/help-wanted-members-forum-speed-problem-129527/index8.html#post1264325)

At that time I realised I was allowed a max of 20 PMs - so I cleaned up ruthlessly.

Now it seems to be a max of 60 PMs -- I should have waited! :)
(Thanks for the extra space)

[RETIRED]

We are making minor adjustments at the moment.

[HavinaGo]

Thanks for update

[Waldo]

I did some spring cleaning too when I saw my PMS were at 100% too :?

Oh well. :doh: It was only stuff that Skew and I lobbed to each other. :U

[vincentvega]

I tried to PM a moderator about this but i cant as my quota has been reached!

How many private messages are we allowed to have in our inbox? I have the following error reported:

Inbox contains 12 messages.
You have 12 messages stored, of a total 5 allowed. (Empty Folder (http://www.woodworkforums.com/private.php?do=emptyfolder&folderid=0))

is this correct?

Thanks

[DavidG]

Reported to Admin.

[RETIRED]

The Private messages as well as other minor things have been changed.

Neil will comment later.

[ubeaut]

These forums like most others around the world have been under massive attack from spammers for the last week or so since the only almost foolproof human verification program ReCaptcha was broken by the spam robots(bots). Have a look at this link for more information... Google reCAPTCHA cracked (http://www.allspammedup.com/2010/01/google-recaptcha-cracked/)

In the first week alone we deleted, banned or denied access to almost 6,000 spammers. They are the blight of the internet and a major problem for anyone running a forum or blogs.

We have had to take some drastic measures to curtail these spammers and one of them is to make such things as PM storage, signatures, and a few other things, something that has to be earned by posting on the forums. Once the number of posts is reached a member will be promoted from Registered to a new usergroup called Intermediate Member and will have most of the privelages restored. After another amount of posts there will be a further promotion to Full Member where there will be mor privileges than there have ever been for members before. Including PM storage of 60 messages up by 20 from before.

Unfortunately the spammers have made this a real problem and are ruining it for everyone. Not just the Moderators and Admin who have had to work their buts off to keep the mongrels at bay, but they have also made it harder on the members.

If anyone thinks this is a bit harsh on the members spare a thought for the moderators, All posts by members in the Registered user group are now placed into moderation and and have to manually checked for spam before being approved. They have so far deleted some pretty nasty stuff including and other stuff like malicious sites and more.

If and when someone comes up with a first class workable solution to these lowlife mongrels we will definitely look at making it much easier for the genuine members. But until then these measures will have to stay in place otherwise this definitely won't be a nice, safe or very friendly place to visit.

Cheers - Neil :U

PS the 6,000 odd we have already dealt with are only the tip of the iceberg there are many, many hundreds more, who got in and were able to register before we were able to stem the flow. These could sit there dormant for years before becoming active. It could take up to 5 years before we can rid ourselves of the bulk of them.

PPS. If there are pm's with info you wish to keep, you can store them in a folder or download them as XML, CSV, or TEXT files rather than having to delete them.

[vincentvega]

I feel sorry for the admins having to sort this mess out. Not a fun task.

Is it possible to manually set existing users to intermediate status? Can I please be changed if possible? Thanks

[vincentvega]

Can I get an answer to this question please? Just tried to send a private message... still no go.

[RETIRED]

Gooday, sorry about delay, I forgot about it.

Your PM limit is set at 20. Only under exceptional circumstances do we set it higher.