Why have a forum if you're just going to ignore it

I'd like to ask why people setup forums on their sites then let the forums get overun with spam posts, some even on the illegal side. I've visited a lot of websites that people have in their profiles and on certain occasions when visiting a forum to check it out I'm presented with filth and generally what's wrong with the world.

To the guys who have forums on their websites. Please check them out every once in a while to make sure they are clean and find a way (plenty of mods available for all free forums) to stop spam bots posting.

aye i remember somone telling xylvian his board was over run and checked it out
true enough spambots with post counts of tripple figures
in the end he just nuked that part of his site (or atleast stopped linking to it)

afaik those type the wavy word things are getting bypassed too

Just stop visiting them. It reflects badly on the site owner only. If they don't maintain the site properly then that's their fault.

It also tells you that they generally don't support things well, so you shouldn't buy anything from them.

I do stop visiting once I've checked it out. I visit users websites to see what kind of stuff they have and what their website is like but like I said sometimes I find that they have forums and they're overun with spam and not just standard spam.

IF I hadn't have informed Xylvan that his site forum was overun like that it would have been left to get worse.

Yeah as soon as I got spam on my framework forum I enlisted the help of members to fix it and now it's totally sorted! I visit it every day as it's the customer service hub for my framework.

I guess blogs are similar to forums in that they could get filled with spam except that normally a blog post won't appear unless it's validated by a user first.

Make sure your banning the spam account's IP's aswell. IMO forums shouldn't ever allow non-members to post.

It's a shame. Just got informed by Amon of all the accumulated filth on my site from the spam bots. Thing is, it's only a jokey little site, so not worth a lot of effort to maintain. The pesky bots have cost the forums. Hitting delete was the surest method.

Hmm, some people just want a forum to look good, then don't bother ever checking it after they realize they didn't really need a forum, I guess.

On the topic of websites, Amon... yours doesn't work properly under Opera (the pulldown menus are flakey).

in my experience spambots only attack forums named 'off topic' or 'general discussion'
so naming them something else usually prevents bots

nah they hit the events folder of john's bringing it to 60odd pages ... one poster bot had a tripple digit post count and probably not the only one so it had either been going on unnoticed for a long time or they are very prolific (probably prolific as they are spambots)

I agree with Amon, such forums are a disgrace, very frustrating to visit because you realise that the spammer and pirates have WON

anyway - maybe some people reading this are thinking of having their own forums now but are wondering how

IF SO

if the hosts of your site cannot provide you with a DATABASE you cannot set up forums of your own BUT you can still get forums.

Many "free" forums exist on the market today that do not require you to even have a website let alone a database

here's a couple of examples of free forums http://www.forumup.co.uk/ http://invisionfree.com/ but there are many many more

You can also PAY for forums - again these "paid for" forums do not require you to have any website or database

here's an example
http://www.siteground.com/invision_board-hosting.htm AN INVISION BOARD is offered, the firm "throw in" a free domain too


MY RECOMMENDATIONS

Choose your site name
Choose your host
Decide whether you need forums
If so ask for a database, also ask for sitebuilder/ site studio and ask if the host provides phpMyAdmin (the best hosts DO)
Activate your "sitestudio"
If you want your own forums then download phpBB2 or phpBB3, your choice but leave that to after you're happy with your "site"
those are my recommendations but HEEEEY do others have advice?

i wouldnt bother with a forum
even a bug reports one
id just ask em to email what the bug is and that as well as any questions would just be a faq and a bug report page
if the questions not on the list it aint been asked so emal me at blalblabla

GT

Don't really agree - I have a forum and although its not been a hive of activity, I have had useful feedback from users. It is a way of building community.

Also, when I check out an obscure game release, what's going on in the forums does factor in to my decision to purchase - not so much the quantity of posts, more what the posts are talking about (game critical bugs?) and whether the posts are being responded to.

So having a well tended forum where users are being responded to and they're not complaining of game breaking bugs (e.g. 'game crashes on startup!') can net you a few sales.