Did anyone else’s forum turn into hieroglyphics?

For the last two days, the DS forums have been unreadable for me, having been “translated” into what appears to be a futuristic combination of code and hieroglyphics! I am relieved to have woken up to the return of English because these forums have been invaluable to me in the purchase of two DS PCs, with a third imminent. I am just wondering if any of you experienced this strange aberration over the last two days, if you know what it is (I am curious…) and if there is any client-side solution if it happens again!

That explanation makes perfect sense because the only way I could find my own thread about monitors — in English — was through a direct link within an automated response email.

It looked like a gigantic onslaught of Asian-language characters but there were also a ton of symbols that seemed like code rather than any language.

I am very sorry that you have had to deal with this atrocious act of vandalism. I am just a little surprised that it appears not to have attracted much comment, given how active these forums are. Thank you for cleaning it up. Do you know of any possible motive?

Originally posted by bprat22 The attacks have been noticed and commented on, but its an unfortunate fact of life that's been going on for years.

One of the reasons Alex&Co sent out a call for a moderator... what is it, now, 4 years ago?

It is, as bprat has suggested, a fact of life to keep these boards as accessible as possible to new customers and clients. They could lock down registration but that would throttle the drive-by potential customer. So, we deal.

My apologies for not clearing these up as they happened. I can usually keep up with the 20 or so that are a weekly occurrence, but when they really, really push the number of threads created can reach upwards of 500 that have to be cleaned one at a time. Recently (August) 4 new accounts posted 300-500 messages each that caused a complete wipe of the PCGaming section.

I've been asking for a "Delete all posts by user" button, as we have the "Search all posts by user" but, not yet.

As for your posts; Another way to find your posts and threads, should this happen again, is to visit your member page and do a search for your latest posts. This way you won't have to rely on email replies and such.




... edited because words are hard ...

Edited by Snaike - 12 Oct 2018 at 9:48am

A big thank you to Snaike.

it continues tonight.... I'll get to them as soon as I can.

Thank you for the kind words. It is fortunate that our friends in the far east and I keep the same hours. I've been nightshift (graves) for so long that even on my off days I'm up all night.

Edited by Tidgxor - 13 Oct 2018 at 2:42pm

this discussion is buried 22 pages back under spam posts.
Snaike, you need reinforcement!

Some sites do have the ability to delete all posts by user in the Admin Control Panel.   

Have you talked to Alex ?     

The attacks will only increase as other sites somehow block their efforts.   They go where they can.   

Snaike, you have more patience than I would have.   They picked the right guy.    Nice work.     

The last time I spoke to Alex & Nav is when they nuked the PCGaming forum. I had asked if there was still a "hide all" or "delete all" button and if we could use it (as it's not available to me). I know something like this exists because of past practices...   there's a forum member with 5000+ who is listed at "New" and none of his posts show up on any search.

So, until a better solution arises, I'll keep punching that delete button and blocking IP ranges to try to make sure the forums stay legible.

I agree with Tidgxor.    There should be much more effort to neutralize this activity.   Doesn’t look good and not fair to Snaike, which was what I was getting at, in my quiet, subtle way.   

Yeah, this is the first time I've wondered if DS needs a second moderator in addition to Snaike - that or increase his mod powers. 

Thanks... about to list a letter I wrote to DS in a separate thread (in case I have to delete it).

Sorry for all the trouble. I was in Vermont swigging cider and maple syrup, so it wasn't me! Kudos are well earned, so let me add mine, Snaike. Good on ya!

We completely agree. If there were uber powers that we could unlock that gave him the option to mass deletes, we would, but there aren't.

I replied to Snaike's email today, I've informed him to email me directly of such issues and I'll escalate them to our team so they can manually do a batch delete on the actual database and ban the IP address range that is spamming us.

Let's see how that pans out.

SNAIKE.........THE BEST

As one nightshift worker to the next.........humor

My last several years at Xerox field service had me pulling a week of 3rd shift every couple of months. I was a basket case by Thursday nite, not able to sleep during the day all week.    I guess full time would’ve gotten me use to it, but, no thanks.    The great part about it......3rd shift customers and operators were sooo much more relaxed and understanding.     And parking was a breeze.