I don’t know if this topic has been raised before, but almost every morning when I sign into the forum, I see avatars in the Users Online box that have zero posts and are actually using the forum to advertise their businesses or services in their Profile.
My question is, how are they able to breach the software to get signed up? Is it that automatic to sign up that anybody, model railroader or not, can simply register and post their profile?
Just wondering.
Rich
Interesting. I’ve been on here for seveal years and have not noticed that.
There is one up there right now, a Marion H Ross advertising cryptocurrency.
Rich
.
I rarely have more than one or two in the “Users Online” box, and have never seen what you have described.
.
Could you post a screen shot of what you are seeing?
.
.
All I see right now are Mobilman44 and my SGRR herald. I don’t even see you, and obviously you are online right now. Interesting.
.
-Kevin
.
ahh, maybe they are preying on me. Stalkers!!!
Rich
When you say advertise, do you have to click on their profile to see that?
I too only see one or two users. Sometimes I see myself as being online, sometimes not. I often leave the forum window open while doing other things, as I did after I made this post. I disappeared from Users Online until I clicked see all.
Often I see a couple of women, who work for Garden Railways or Classic Trains online frequently. They never post in this form.
I haven’t really noticed it, but then I never click on the Users Online anyway.
Maybe these are folks using a business account just to drop in and see what’s happening on the forum. I understand we have lots of lurkers who never post.
Paul
There have been a number of “fake” members registering in the past, but it usually takes only a short while for the Kalmbach people to delete them. Nothing to worry about, just don´t click on their profiles.
Unlike posting, registering on the Forums is an automatic, unmonitored process. So someone who never posts, and only posts advertising material in their profile, flies below the radar. I will occasionally seek these characters by searching the Forum for keywords they tend to use, but this is a time-consuming process. And since I don’t have the ability to delete a user account, all I can do is forward these usernames up the chain to the IT department, who we would usually rather have working on more productive tasks (like keeping the Forum itself running). So as long as they don’t cause any harm, disregard them.
if you have an emal address, you get validated …
three email addresses?? three user ids !!
-almost- all users don’t spam, and it’s pretty easy to recognize …
bottom line … ignore the advertising , it’s really not that bad, lol
Yeah, I’ve seen them. They’re not fake, they’re actually people behind them. Some of them I’ve actually clicked on and their profile was either an investment firm or a site to meet girls. I was really surprised to see the admins allow this registration.
My concern for these “non-model railroaders” would be are they here in an attempt to hack the site and gain personal information from it’s registered members? Get into members profiles and get emails to send spam? Some forum members unwittingly expose themselves by providing to much information.
Terry
It’s hard to know who would be more disappointed by the selection of potential customers offered by this Forum: investment advisors or the girls.
Dave Nelson
Yeah, probably doesn’t take them long to figure out that our disposable income goes to model railroading [(-D]
Terry
Sure glad I don’t get any spam, hold on Microsoft is calling something about my computer causing problems for the Internet. [:D]
Let them ramble on just a bit, then say “how can that be, I don’t have a computer”.
I like to play with them, the longer I can keep them on the phone the less damage they can do to someone else. My longest is 6½ minutes before they figured it out.
Mel
My Model Railroad
http://melvineperry.blogspot.com/
Bakersfield, California
I’m beginning to realize that aging is not for wimps.
6-1/2 minutes? Not even close. I had one on for about 1/2 hour.
They wanted me to go to a website. I kept telling them that the computer kept telling me “site not found”. They gave me another website and I told them the same thing. So they escalated that to their supervisor. Went through the same thing again. They finally wanted me to hit the microsoft flag key (between the Ctrl and Alt keys) on the keyboard. I told them I didn’t have one of those.
Next time they call I plan to tell them that the FBI hasn’t returned my computer yet.
I don’t get many calls from telemarketers or Nigerian princes, but I do get the occasional pop-up ad (as it were) for v1agra or c1alis.
Robert
My son, who was 12 at the time, had one phone sales rep call him back 3 days in a row each time he was on the phone for about an hour or so. Finally the rep asked if he was gonna buy or not. He told the rep “I cant cause I am only 12.” The rep never called back. This thread is a good reminder why I dont give out personal info on line.
Aw, shucks - you guys get all the fun and I don´t get any!