On how we’re dealing with the spam problem
**UPDATE: This seems to be under control now, and all functionality is back to normal. Thanks for your patience.
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One of the delightful differences between print media and the web is that people pushing things like pharmaceuticals can’t paste their advertisements all over a print magazine before it makes it to news stands. Here on the internet, however, sites like ours are vulnerable to such things. It’s the price we pay, I suppose, for aiming to keep the community as open and welcoming as possible.
Currently, Ning’s admin controls allow us a somewhat limited ability to combat spam, as we can only delete it once it’s been posted. The only mode we have for pre-empting spam is to make the community less open and welcoming, i.e. moderate who gets to join, who gets to post blogs, etc. Due to a major influx of spam today (Tue., Apr. 13, 2010), we’ve locked down the blogging function in hopes that it will help us discourage spammers determined to post their drug ads in our blog space. This is by no means to discourage actual roots music-loving ND members from blogging – please continue to do so. I’ll see your blogs and approve them, and will continue to feature the best content on the homepage throughout the day. It just means the blogs you post will have to be approved before they show up. I promise to do this as quickly as possible, and appreciate your patience in the meantime.
We’re also being vigilant with the list of new members. For the time being, we’ve locked down membership, and will be approving all members before they can join this site. Hopefully we won’t have to keep that in place for long. All that said, there’s still the possibility that some spam might seep through. Bear with us. We’re keeping close tabs on the site and doing what we can to keep it the best place for roots and Americana music fans on the web.
Please let us know, as usual, if you run into any issues or have any questions. And, thanks for stopping by!