A Little Hiccup.. ugh.

[Damien Hannah]

Well, that was a little panic moment! Good thing I grabbed the  Ning Status RSS Feed earlier! :)

Glad to see you're getting the issue resolved Ning, I seem to be back up and running.

Smoothly, I may add.

Good job! You were on it fast! :)

One thing to note, I had a spam bot as a new member when I got access to my network back.

Perhaps another wave of these stupid spam bots attempted again? I notice they come in waves. Will likely see a few more sign up tonight and tomorrow now that I've got this one. (I know the "Spam" issue is covered many times here, but regardless of what you want to call it, written scripts are over riding your written scripts, allowing nothing but wires and circuits join our "secure" networks.

Just saying, I bet a lot of your problems are coming from one persons computer, some hacker who has figured out how to bypass your systems, and make money online providing backlinks. I'm not a computer/internet/seo/coding expert, but over the time this has been happening, and the hundred or more fake members I've deleted, I've noticed patterns, and been paying very close attention to the other's posts. Seems you have a real problem on your hands here, and so does Google. How many networks is Ning hosting? 24 000 or something like that? It's a gold mine for link backs, especially when not all of your network owners are deleting or banning them, allowing them through to increase their numbers. This is an infection, a virus if you will. We are the symptoms of the disease, calling your name, you are the immune system, we so desperately depend on. This recent outage proves that. What are all my members that were online thinking when Addictapic suddenly disappeared? All those hours uploading photos, sorting into albums, writing descriptions and linking to all the other networks out there?
 

Eric, I know you're gonna jump in on this, and say something generic, I don't blame you, you're probably sick of hearing about the damn spam... well we're sick of dealing with it. Ning (As The Company/business) whoever they may be, should take heed to this spam, the method these intruding scripts are using, the reasons they're doing it, and ACTUALLY DO SOMETHING. Giving us the most recent "ip banning" tool, only gives those who don't know what the hell they're doing the opportunity to make a mistake and ban everyone in the world, sitting there wondering why nobody is joining their networks. I won't ban any IP, these bots are smarter than that, one look at the email address they're using, and anyone with common sense knows this is a repeating, computerized, systematic process with an intention, directed DIRECTLY at Ning networks.

So Ning, I've read that a recent merge with GlamSocial has changed things within your ranks, etc. Things have been going down hill, in my opinion and observation. Perhaps it's time to get your S*** together?

Maybe I'm a babbling idiot, but I am very observant, very pursuant and inquisitive, I know how to research and have done things by choice, such as teach myself quantum physics. I know a major issue when I see one, and this issue everyone so quickly calls "spam" is more like a plague that is obviously uncontrolled. How long before the robots poor in by the hundreds, every day, because the businesses using these backlinks start making actual money, and others start doing it too?

That's my two cents, you got it because I've been frustrated with these intrusions for quite a while, and just now, that's the first time my network has gone down, and my LIFE LITERALLY REVOLVES AROUND MY NETWORK. I have just been panicking for like 2 or 3 straight hours, maybe more, maybe less, I don't know, but it's time I spoke my mind.

There, I feel better.

Glad the sites are back up and running.

[Eric Suesz]

It wasn't fast enough. This isn't the type of issue we see very often (hardly ever), so our apologies for this downtime. We're going to be looking closely at this to make sure we know the exact cause. I can understand any frustration you've had about this. 

[Damien Hannah]

Sorry, edited my message. Yes, I was very frustrated, but now it works. Perhaps I may not be wrong by saying above, look into that "spam" issue, I had new fake profiles as soon as I got access back, which means they signed up during the outage.

[Damien Hannah]

See, I called it... here's another one.

Seriously, I'm not an idiot, and I'm not directing this at you Eric, just proving my point. It's barely been 10 minutes, here's number two bot sign up.

[Damien Hannah]

***NOTE***

"Person" is online, yet not showing in the chat bar.

Not a real person.

For what I've read, enabling the pay wall feature "paid access" is the only way to block these "bots."

If that's the case, you should provide this service free, and not an extra $20/month.

SOMETHING needs to be done.

[Damien Hannah]

What a surprise....

I hate when I'm right. :(

[Damien Hannah]

Another thing, I use Feedjit.com, a website visitor tracker. It gives an audible "ding" every time some one lands on my website. It works very well.

I've never heard it go off when these bots sign up, and I'm sitting right here watching them sign up.

These bots are signing up WITHOUT EVEN VISITING MY NETWORK.

[Damien Hannah]

I can't even express how F'N SICK OF THIS I AM!!

I called it, I said it would happen, I wake up to three more stupid bots, for a total of 6 since your little "emergency maintance."

I think YOU GOT HACKED and won't admit it.

You have a real problem on your hands and won't admit it...

I like how there's NO REPLY on this thread.

Must be a bunch of mumbo jumbo.

9am, I love waking up ANGRY AND FRUSTRATED EVERY DAY!

yeah, awesome, check it out, they even OVERRIDE MY LAYOUT SCRIPTS, AND CHANGE SH#T

It's really, really fun when you put every waking minute you have into a dream, just to wake up to find your dream is tainted by a plague you can do nothing about. You call out for help, but nobody listens, nobody cares, they just wanna get rich.

It's embarrassing trying to explain to my members, that yes, Addictapic is getting Hacked by spammers, but no, don't worry, your personal info is safe, my website won't implant a virus into your windows OS and steal your life, don't worry about it, just upload a photo, it's gonna be ok.

BULLSHI*

I've basically figured this out just by paying attention. NING, Seriously, WHAT'S THE TRUTH?

Ugh, I see this is gonna be a NICE DAY. Pffft.

[SweetPotato]

Try adding recaptcha, change the quiz question to something more random ( what is the name of this site, for example, bots will never guess addictapic) and maybe turn on member moderation. You only have 78 members so caafford to moderate for a while.
Good luck
Sp

[Damien Hannah]

I'll try that, but the thing is, that's like taking cough syrup for a cough. You're treating the symptoms, not the disease.

These bots change scripts, just have a look at the last photo I uploaded above. The captcha, profile questions, blah blah blah, it's all useless.

A simple question is not keeping these things out, they are manipulating the very coding NING runs on. Nothing in our little "customer" power is going to stop these bots, unless you put up a paywall, like has been said before here on creators. Bots don't pay, and they don't donate. They don't proceed when hitting a paywall.

I shouldn't have to pay an extra $20 per month to stop spam. This is a NING issue, and they know it.

I don't want a code or wall or some other restriction my members have to deal with, I want Ning to realize they have a MAJOR issue, and THEY are the only ones who can TRULY FIX THE PROBLEM.

I read somewhere that it was because of iphones, and the fact that you couldn't upload a profile pic while creating a new profile on ning networks, so they made a "Back door" for iphone users.

Guess what Ning, iOS changed all that, you no longer need your back door, close it, the bots are getting in.

How about some SECURITY, and maybe, just maybe, a LITTLE PEACE OF MIND.

Argh.

[Eric Suesz]

Hey, man. I responded to you as soon as you posted. No one got hacked. We had an unplanned outage. Please don't read more into it than is there.