News from the Support Team: Forum spam & suspicious accounts
July 23, 2023
What is happening to the site right now is unfortunately something we’ve seen before, and we're sorry to say that the volume of the forum spam posts and accounts being hijacked is at a level which makes it out of the Volunteer BookCrossing Support Team’s
control to try and clean up, or even keep it at bay.
We can however, tell you that we have contacted Bruce (the only owner of the site who is currently still actively involved) and made him aware of what is happening, and have confirmation from him that this is currently in his hands to be investigated, and action taken as directed by him to the members of the Technical Team.
There is therefore, no requirement to comment on posts, contact the Support Team with reports of accounts that are spamming the forums, or to be keeping records of affected accounts.
These can easily be identified in the back end weblogs by our Tech Team via IP addresses - these are not individuals doing this, it is a bot.
Note: Bruce and members of the Technical/Development Team DO NOT read the forums. Thus anything you write there will not be seen by anyone who can "help".
While its understandable that some of you are blowing off steam, and we acknowledge that what is currently happening {again} is frustrating, please remember that the The Volunteer BookCrossing Support Team is made up of a handful of people who are BookCrossing members themselves, who have volunteered their time to "help" with things they can - for example: account access issues, incorrect BCID detective work, forum spam clean up, closing account assistance.
Ultimately, the Volunteer BookCrossing Support Team face the same user front end issues that you do, and they share your same frustrations.
There is a forum post where members are discussing this matter, which can be found here: https://www.bookcrossing.com/forum/9/551492.
We can however, tell you that we have contacted Bruce (the only owner of the site who is currently still actively involved) and made him aware of what is happening, and have confirmation from him that this is currently in his hands to be investigated, and action taken as directed by him to the members of the Technical Team.
There is therefore, no requirement to comment on posts, contact the Support Team with reports of accounts that are spamming the forums, or to be keeping records of affected accounts.
These can easily be identified in the back end weblogs by our Tech Team via IP addresses - these are not individuals doing this, it is a bot.
Note: Bruce and members of the Technical/Development Team DO NOT read the forums. Thus anything you write there will not be seen by anyone who can "help".
While its understandable that some of you are blowing off steam, and we acknowledge that what is currently happening {again} is frustrating, please remember that the The Volunteer BookCrossing Support Team is made up of a handful of people who are BookCrossing members themselves, who have volunteered their time to "help" with things they can - for example: account access issues, incorrect BCID detective work, forum spam clean up, closing account assistance.
Ultimately, the Volunteer BookCrossing Support Team face the same user front end issues that you do, and they share your same frustrations.
There is a forum post where members are discussing this matter, which can be found here: https://www.bookcrossing.com/forum/9/551492.
