System updates

This forum is for administrator/moderator updates on system status, updates, enhancements, etc.
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Mooseman
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Re: System updates

Post by Mooseman »

I'm a mod on another board and we had one guy, who was actually a major contributor, go all scorched earth and deleted most of his content because he got called out on something. He basically went post by post and replaced them with slashes. I spent the better part of a day restoring most of it (he didn't realize that the software keeps edit versions for a while).

So yeah, I understand it perfectly.
2011 Caprice PPV, former RCMP test vehicle, never put into service
Build Thread: http://www.newcaprice.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2419
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elc32955
System Manager
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Re: System updates

Post by elc32955 »

HI folks!

Just wanted to let everyone know that I've gone through the user database this morning and deleted all old accounts that have zero post traffic that were made before September 1, 2018. The last time I did this was in mid-2016.

We do this for a number of reasons. Primary is that before this time, most all accounts were basically auto-validated. Steve tells me we had a spammer come through with an auto-validated account that had been dormant for a considerable period of time before it started spewing ilk. Fine, I just took care of that problem! Under our new validation standards you have to prove to an admin that you are living, breathing, and can take instruction before we let you into the forums with a post-capable account.

Going forward I'll be purging the database every 6 months, this means you have at least 180 days to make a first post if you're a new user. Dormant accounts (with zero historical posts) longer then this interval are subject to deletion during the next database maintenance activity.

Thanks
Eric
System Manager and your tour guide for the day. 2015 Caprice w/LFX, former NC DPS staff car. Partial hybrid G8/SS/Camaro SS interior mods, SS MyLink radio upgrade, 2016 Camaro V6 rims, GMPP Malibu chrome exhaust tips, otherwise bone stock for now.
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elc32955
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Re: System updates

Post by elc32955 »

Hi everyone!

Just wanted to advise the members that for some reason we seem to be having intermittent dropouts on uploads to the system. This includes pictures as well as other files. We're working to try to find a solution, however for right now this may restrict us from directly posting pictures.

Please note & double check that if you do post pictures that it may take a few attempts to post things up. If you check your message and your picture does not post, please give it another try. You can always post pictures on another site and link in your post to the picture(s), as far as I know that is working correctly.

FYI on another related site on the same server we are seeing some issues with Google Chrome and file downloading. Not saying this is a Chrome bug, but something else to try may be using another browser like IE or Edge or Opera.

Sorry for the inconvenience, we are working to resolve this bug as quickly as possible.

Thanks
Eric
System Manager and your tour guide for the day. 2015 Caprice w/LFX, former NC DPS staff car. Partial hybrid G8/SS/Camaro SS interior mods, SS MyLink radio upgrade, 2016 Camaro V6 rims, GMPP Malibu chrome exhaust tips, otherwise bone stock for now.
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elc32955
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Re: System updates

Post by elc32955 »

Hi Folks,

Just thought I'd send out a reminder that it's 6 months since I performed the last database maintenance, this means that any zero post accounts (I.E. "dormant" accounts) made prior to March 15, 2019 will be subject to deletion over this weekend. If you have an account but have been lurking in the shadows just "copying the mail", it's time to say hello to everyone in the new user forum as all it takes is one solitary post to insure your account is not deleted into the foreseeable future.

Thanks
Eric
System Manager and your tour guide for the day. 2015 Caprice w/LFX, former NC DPS staff car. Partial hybrid G8/SS/Camaro SS interior mods, SS MyLink radio upgrade, 2016 Camaro V6 rims, GMPP Malibu chrome exhaust tips, otherwise bone stock for now.
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elc32955
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Re: System updates

Post by elc32955 »

Hi everyone,

Just to highlight, it's time for the zero post account deletion again. If you have an active account on this board and you have never made a post, if you registered prior to May 1, 2020 your account is in danger of being deleted! All it takes is one quick, simple post in the intro section to say hi to everyone, or post on a topic thread anywhere on the system, but just please take the time to say something so we know you really exist. We're pretty sensitive & attuned to bots on here as over the years we've had a few miserable sleeper bot attacks, and the zero post purge is really the only way we have to insure we didn't miss any. RIGHT NOW 232 USERS FALL INTO THIS CATEGORY!

The zap gun comes out November 1, so you have until then to keep your account active if you're a serial lurker and have never said anything here. If you just like to read, a posting account is not required to do that - all of our material is open except posts in the Lounge sub-board.

Thanks
Eric
System Manager and your tour guide for the day. 2015 Caprice w/LFX, former NC DPS staff car. Partial hybrid G8/SS/Camaro SS interior mods, SS MyLink radio upgrade, 2016 Camaro V6 rims, GMPP Malibu chrome exhaust tips, otherwise bone stock for now.
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elc32955
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Re: System updates

Post by elc32955 »

Hey everyone,

Just thought I'd post a brief update, it seems that the forum EMAIL system is lately working a lot better then it has been these last few years. I'm not going to say it's dead nuts 100% perfect, but everyone should now be seeing PM notifications from the forums, status messages when appropriate, etc... I wanted to wait a while before I made a public pronouncement that the problems seem to be mostly resolved as it'd be just my luck it'd stop working 30 seconds after I hit the "submit" key! If anyone has other experiences please let me know.

Thanks
Eric
System Manager and your tour guide for the day. 2015 Caprice w/LFX, former NC DPS staff car. Partial hybrid G8/SS/Camaro SS interior mods, SS MyLink radio upgrade, 2016 Camaro V6 rims, GMPP Malibu chrome exhaust tips, otherwise bone stock for now.
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elc32955
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Re: System updates

Post by elc32955 »

OK, our member database is now up to date. It REALLY pains me to kill over 200+ accounts at a time, however all it takes is one single post to insure your account stays active & undeleted forever! If you want your account back if you were deleted, just submit a new application and we will re-validate you. As long as no one files for your former user name on top of you....

Thanks
Eric
System Manager and your tour guide for the day. 2015 Caprice w/LFX, former NC DPS staff car. Partial hybrid G8/SS/Camaro SS interior mods, SS MyLink radio upgrade, 2016 Camaro V6 rims, GMPP Malibu chrome exhaust tips, otherwise bone stock for now.
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elc32955
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Re: System updates

Post by elc32955 »

Hi everyone....

Just a quick reminder for all of our new users, it's time for dormant account purges again. Every 6 to 9 months I go through and kill all the zero-post accounts older then 180 days old. This means if you have not posted a welcome message in the new user section or posted on the system otherwise, if you made your account before Jan 1, 2021 your account is subject to being deleted under our dormancy policy. This is to prevent attack by sleeper bots, little insidious accounts that look like a real user on the surface but wait until signaled to unleash their ilk on an unsuspecting system. We try to do our due diligence on validations, however there's always that chance that one or more may get through, we've had it happen in the past and it's miserable for all of our users.

June 1 is the day that the zap gun comes out, if you have not made a new user post please do so by that date. Last time I killed over 230 accounts, I always hate doing this but it's for the good of the system. If I do kill your account by mistake, all you have to do is create a new one, be re-validated, and then make a new user post. One single, solitary post guarantees you will not be killed due to dormancy for the lifetime of the system. Remember, you do not have to have an active account to have read access to all posts (except for the Lounge, that area is protected to allow for freedom of speech without search engines and the Wayback Machine grabbing the content).

OK, off my soapbox. Time to lose the shyness, say hello to your fellow users!

Thanks
Eric
-------------------------------------------------

UPDATE 6/4/21 - OK, I ended up killing 136 accounts in this last purge. That's enough people to fill up a medium-sized restaurant. All it takes is one simple post to keep this from happening to you. Make an intro post when you first join the system and you never have to worry about account dormancy deletion!

Eric
System Manager and your tour guide for the day. 2015 Caprice w/LFX, former NC DPS staff car. Partial hybrid G8/SS/Camaro SS interior mods, SS MyLink radio upgrade, 2016 Camaro V6 rims, GMPP Malibu chrome exhaust tips, otherwise bone stock for now.
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elc32955
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Re: System updates

Post by elc32955 »

Hi everyone,

It's time for the standard nag message again, I'm preparing to delete zero-post accounts that were made prior to January 1, 2022. Right now 42 users fall into this category, so this is fair warning that if you're on the list either make an introductory post or your account will be deleted within the next 72 hours.

I really dislike doing this, but it's for the protection of all users against the dreaded slimy sleeper-bots. It wastes my time and the time of our admins going through the validation process for a user that never posts. Read access is free and you don't need an account to do that, all sub-boards are open for browsing from outside the system except for the Lounge. I'd hope if you take the time to request a post account you'd at least have the time to take a moment and post a brief intro once you are validated. It saves your account from ever being deleted for the life of the system. One single, solitary post is all it takes.

This is your call to action for the following users...

THE RANKS OF THE UNDEAD - Users to be pruned

» dsfdlish » JunkinMyTRUMP » marc.giannoni » gtgracing » denneyc » hotrod688
» justbob94 » mrvans » andreilungu » Bluesky » Mr.T » AJL » djvanyel » Lukester826 jkremers
» i4wheel13 » Totstg » Bigindie_ » theonlyherb » gman1227 » dasbooterror » Durki2005
» Esfiftyfour » amazingamy » Ajbarcheski » Chargermon66 » MeatHook » NeterCaprice
» Kikadin63 » Lay-Z Jay-Z » mtah64pilot » silver9c1 » 87Gotta6.0Get » hotrodi95
» brandt » thee3p » B1U3B1RD » Pdowlnc » JustAuBy » Doughnuts » Macnifcent
» Blart


The clock's ticking folks.

Thanks
Eric

UPDATE 7/31/22

And..... ZAP!
System Manager and your tour guide for the day. 2015 Caprice w/LFX, former NC DPS staff car. Partial hybrid G8/SS/Camaro SS interior mods, SS MyLink radio upgrade, 2016 Camaro V6 rims, GMPP Malibu chrome exhaust tips, otherwise bone stock for now.
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elc32955
System Manager
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Re: System updates

Post by elc32955 »

THE NEW RANKS OF THE UNDEAD. Zero-post users registered before July 1, 2022. The 43 users listed here have 72 hours to post a message in the forums or be subject to my zap-gun.

» Happycaprice, » 15caprice, » 815garage, » jgordo78, » Tahoe_Joe, » Coobie, » MacioJames, » Cptn. Riece
» Jonke, » SWOHPPV, » CoryBlack, » Sean717, » Dmurph802, » Rs4mtnitro, » detandy, » Jbush05, » bluenite13
» Dako510, » bhiller450, » kelmqt, Dmacke, » The95ersGarage, » CoobsPPV, » Riosteve, » erroneous_rex
» richcarol1, » ShawnFedler, » Chansen1997, jab3brown, » Tezzmeret, » dmcnabb, » PPV123, » wantaholden
» dragonwizard, » TJG, » wjb3556, » bigmatt, » OGMADMAX, » OlJim, » LongBeach GTO, » KCCAPRICE, wsdrees


Folks, I don't know what more I can say. The system policy is in the registration terms, it's reminded after successful verification at initial sign-up, and if the posts are being read you can see we're doing the culling every 6 months or so. This is one of the most painful parts of running the forum for me, but every one of these names is a potential sleeper-bot until you prove otherwise by posting something. A hello message, a question, anything saves you from vaporization!

'nuff said. Clock's ticking!

Thanks
Eric


UPDATE 1/11/23

And..... ZAP!
System Manager and your tour guide for the day. 2015 Caprice w/LFX, former NC DPS staff car. Partial hybrid G8/SS/Camaro SS interior mods, SS MyLink radio upgrade, 2016 Camaro V6 rims, GMPP Malibu chrome exhaust tips, otherwise bone stock for now.
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