Oshi

[Toki]

Melfina i dont really know if you ever actually come on your forums anymore. But myself and some other members have noticed that alot of spam users/topics are appearing and its very unfair on your moderators to leave them in this situation... I suggest either terminating your board or placing IP Bans on these members as its becoming increasingly stupid here in the forums. I wont be back until its changed im afraid and i think most members feel the same.. Either change it or loose your members

If you do change feel free to email me @ tapephobia[  at  ]hotmail.co.uk to let me know!.

Thanks again.

[Vangs]

I 100% agree with you AR, I made a post similar to this 2 weeks ago, and I actually stepped down as moderator of AN a week ago because of it. To date Melfina still has not even read my thread which is in a restricted area.

It's unfortunate that Melfina is displaying such a disregard for her site, but what can anyone do? There has been a significant decrease in genuine posts as of late, and an enormous rise in spam posts. The spam is a lot more prominent now however, due to the lack of posts to cover it. All it is really doing is scaring more people away from joining.

[americanangel]

I agree...I remember there was a time - even a few months ago - when there were always at least 10 SUBSTANTIAL posts every time I would check the forums, which was at least twice a day. Now it looks like the forums and the site are being seriously neglected. I remember when I first joined these forums, I was really excited because it was a place that I wanted to be - a place where I could ask questions of other graphics designers and get some tips on how to improve my work...but now all that I see most of the time is spambots with ads posting here (which there is supposed to be a filter for but obviously it doesn't work) and spam...totally USELESS spam. And at one time we were getting a lot of new members - I think it was something like, 5 or 6 or more a week? Now we get that maybe in a month, if we're lucky. These forums are slacking and its not because of the moderators. They can't do everything alone, and Melfina is ultimately responsible for what is put on her website - which includes the forums.

[vini1_2]

My god--- these are some angry posts, you forget Melfina has a life... everyone time to time gets way too busy, and vangs.. i understand u r really hardworking... but really calm down.. its a forum at the end of the day! what forum is made of - is lively posts(and love for the forum), and its still there belive it or not... its just ppl don't have problems with their site much, as all the questions nearly on html n css are given in celestial tutorials... I for one feels Melfina has done a great job.... if shes a lil busy at this time, I'm sure she'll come back with the same enthusiasm for her site. I am not leaving visting this forum or cs. And those who know how good these sites are won't either.

[americanangel]

We're not angry, just disappointed in Melfina. She refuses to give the mods the power that they need and deserve to ensure that the forums are not littered with the spam that has been cropping up lately, and has even stopped updating CS as much as she did even 2 months ago. A point in example - for the past 3 or 4 months (when I joined back in July, so 5 months ago) people have been pointing out the fact that all the image links for the Cowboy Bebop in the gallery are broken and I know for a fact that Melfina has been made aware of this. She has had ample time to fix it, yet she has done nothing. Basically she is showing a disregard for the site - only fixing the spam-blocker for the site so that her email inbox is no longer filled with spam and whatnot, rather than putting one on the site and on the forums. People are not posting here...how often do you check the forums? I can go almost a week without checking, and I do the "recent posts" search, and all that comes up are ads from bots and spam...if anything at all. So please step back and lookt at it from the point of view from those of us who have been here a lot longer than 2 months before you acusse us of being angry with the neglect that has been shown to this site. She used to greet almost every new member herself - including me - but now we see her posting in the forums maybe what...once a month?

I also run my own site and I know how crazy things can get and how busy a webmistress can be - I go to school fulltime and also work full time (40+ hours a week) Yet I still somehow find the time to update my site at least once a week - even if I just add something to let my visitors know I am still around, and add 1 or 2 graphics images. So being busy is no excuse in my opinion.

[Toki]

Im not saying she should be here everyday. Just check her forums more regularly as its getting beyond a joke tbh.

[Blackstone]

While I do agree that it would be nice for Melfina to check in with us every once in a while, or at least give administration powers to someone who could run the site in her stead, I do also want to say that leaving isn't the way to make her get on here.

Leaving will only cause the forums to plumit even more, if not die completely. I know from experiance that if the owner of a forum does not get on enough, then the forums will not flourish as they could, but I also believe that forums can survive without it's owner. If everyone leaves, that is not possible. The reason this forum is dying is because no one is posting, NOT because Melfina isn't here and certainly NOT because of the spam messages being posted on here daily. I delete every single spam message that is posted in these boards, they do not hinder it's activity.

The point of my post is to encourage everyone to hang in there. While it is discouraging to log in and find various spam messages awaiting me, and hardly any true posts, I still love this forum. I haven't been posting as much on it as I should be because of the season, but I try my hardest, and I try to look on the bright side of things. I think if we can all wait out the season, then the forums will perk right up in the new year.

Melfina does have a life, and lives tend to get busier during the holiday season. I know mine certainly has. All I'm saying is give Melfina, and AN, a chance. I don't want to see the forums die, and if everyone leaves just because of spam messages, then it certainly will die.

[Vangs]

vini1_2, I am perfectly calm about this, my point is not that Melfina isn't around, I understand that she has a life, so do we all. What I am annoyed about is that she has the time to come onto her site, yet not visit the forums. I posted in the moderator's forum 2 weeks ago exactly, and she has yet to even read the thread. How is Melfina to know there hasn't been a serious problem that me or Blackstone hasn't been able to deal with?

I'm continually deleting the same posts from the same spammer's over and over, if I had the power I could ban or delete the account, preventing it from posting the spam again. Also if there was adequate spam prevention put on the forums it wouldn't be half as bad as it is. A bot is easily able to read the image verification on the register form, so it definitely is not stopping spammers registering, and if you don't think that's true, look at the members list and try to find a genuine account!

Don't get me wrong, as annoyed as I am, I'm not trying to encourage people to leave the forums. I actually hope that the forums begin to thrive again, and the site continues to do well, but if it continues this way I honestly cannot see it staying alive too much longer, which is a shame.

The Cowboy Bebop gallery issue, americanangel brought my attention to it  on August 28th, she reported it to Melfina more than a month prior to telling me about it, so I personally told Melfina about it then, to this day the images are still not back up.

Coming onto the forum daily just to delete spam is not my idea of enjoying a site, I'd rather come on to no posts than to a bunch of spam posts. Yes I understand that part of a moderators job is to delete spam, it is not the only job, nor is it an excuse to not update the site with anti-spam methods. I enjoy doing the SOTW, but even it is dead, its lucky to scrape together 3 people in 2 weeks to enter, and most of the time it's because I'm asking friends on MSN to join!

The community itself is declining, I'm not quite sure of the exact reason for it, I'm sure there is multiple reasons, but the spam and neglect are sure to be among them.