ning problems:spam,how to add facebook,how my ning email works

[msmarmitelover]

Hi I've linked my ning group up to twitter but have limited usability because i can't confirm my email address.

I tried to use the ning email but have no idea where the messages are located. Are they the messages on my page's inbox? Do they come here?

Also I'd like to link the group to a facebook page but it's very difficult it seems. I went through the process but then the facebook bit said I didn't have enough people or something.

Also lastly, tons and tons of spam and viagra blog posts...I now have to approve every member, which is a bunch of guesswork. The first lot had hotmail addresses and odd names, this second lot have gmail addresses and odd names. 

[Eric Suesz]

Hi, msmarmitelover! I'll do my best to answer some of these questions or help out. First, let's tackle Facebook. It should be fairly straightforward. Did you already check out the Facebook information on the Help Center?

[msmarmitelover]

Actually the more urgent issue is the relentless spam. It started last Friday and was mostly hotmail addresses, now it's all gmail addresses. I'm suspending them for spam. But they are killing my group.

[Eric Suesz]

Yes, I understand. There is a large spam attack going on across the Internet, and we've been affected as well. I share your frustration. But, we're not taking it lying down. We have a number of measures we're implementing. Our most recent update on spam prevention is located here.

[msmarmitelover]

today these were the spam addresses I got: we all get spam but I've never seen anything like this.
mail Role Profile Date Applied
Miles [e-mail]
Pending Approval
View Page Mar. 10, 2010
Crispin [e-mail]
Pending Approval
View Page Mar. 10, 2010
Titus [e-mail]
Pending Approval
View Page Mar. 10, 2010
Driscoll [e-mail]
Pending Approval
View Page Mar. 10, 2010
Elliott [e-mail]
Pending Approval
View Page Mar. 10, 2010
Drew [e-mail]
Pending Approval
View Page Mar. 10, 2010
Winthrop [e-mail]
Pending Approval
View Page Mar. 10, 2010
Harlan [e-mail]
Pending Approval
View Page Mar. 10, 2010
Royce [e-mail]
Pending Approval
View Page Mar. 10, 2010
Winthrop [e-mail]
Pending Approval
View Page Mar. 10, 2010
Tyler [e-mail]
Pending Approval
View Page Mar. 10, 2010
Conway [e-mail]
Pending Approval
View Page Mar. 10, 2010
Uriah [e-mail]
Pending Approval
View Page Mar. 10, 2010
Bruno [e-mail]
Pending Approval
View Page Mar. 10, 2010
Kit [e-mail]
Pending Approval
View Page Mar. 10, 2010
Douglas [e-mail]
Pending Approval
View Page Mar. 10, 2010
Kenneth [e-mail]
Pending Approval
View Page Mar. 10, 2010
Doyle [e-mail]
Pending Approval
View Page Mar. 10, 2010
Fenton [e-mail]
Pending Approval
View Page Mar. 10, 2010
Milburn [e-mail]
Pending Approval
View Page Mar. 10, 2010
Rolf [e-mail]
Pending Approval
View Page Mar. 10, 2010
Quincy [e-mail]
Pending Approval
View Page Mar. 10, 2010
Merlin [e-mail]
Pending Approval
View Page Mar. 10, 2010
Egil [e-mail]
Pending Approval
View Page Mar. 10, 2010
Joey [e-mail]
Pending Approval
View Page Mar. 10, 2010
Hal [e-mail]
Pending Approval
View Page Mar. 10, 2010
Griswald [e-mail]
Pending Approval
View Page Mar. 10, 2010
Falkner [e-mail]
Pending Approval
View Page Mar. 10, 2010
Rory [e-mail]
Pending Approval
View Page Mar. 10, 2010
Montague [e-mail]
Pending Approval
View Page Mar. 10, 2010
Vincent [e-mail]
Pending Approval
View Page Mar. 10, 2010
Marc [e-mail]
Pending Approval
View Page Mar. 10, 2010
Hale [e-mail]
Pending Approval
View Page Mar. 10, 2010
Sigmund [e-mail]
Pending Approval
View Page Mar. 10, 2010
Wyatt [e-mail]
Pending Approval
View Page Mar. 10, 2010
Evan [e-mail]
Pending Approval
View Page Mar. 10, 2010
Curtis [e-mail]
Pending Approval
View Page Mar. 10, 2010
Doyle [e-mail]
Pending Approval
View Page Mar. 10, 2010
Theodore [e-mail]
Pending Approval
View Page Mar. 10, 2010
Carl [e-mail]
Pending Approval
View Page Mar. 10, 2010
Dylan [e-mail]
Pending Approval
View Page Mar. 10, 2010
Leo [e-mail]
Pending Approval
View Page Mar. 10, 2010
Lombard [e-mail]
Pending Approval
View Page Mar. 10, 2010
Aiken [e-mail]
Pending Approval
View Page Mar. 10, 2010
Tristan [e-mail]
Pending Approval
View Page Mar. 10, 2010
Ely [e-mail]
Pending Approval
View Page Mar. 10, 2010
Adrian [e-mail]
Pending Approval
View Page Mar. 10, 2010
Brett [e-mail]
Pending Approval
View Page Mar. 10, 2010
Cedric [e-mail]
Pending Approval
View Page Mar. 10, 2010
Ivar [e-mail]

[msmarmitelover]

Sorry didn't mean to put all those up...damn was reading your links and couldnt change...
anyway I'll come back to you about linking to facebook....

[Phil McCluskey]

Hi msmarmitelover,

One thing you can do to stop these is to add a new required and private profile question to your network. Something like: "What's 2 + 4? (anti-spam)" Make it multiple choice and then provide a range of answers, like 3,4,5,6,7,8 so that the correct answer isn't either the first or the last. The bot won't know about the question and won't be able to create accounts anymore.

[msmarmitelover]

How do I do that?

[Laura]

Check the Profile Questions section of your Manage tab to add required questions.

Laura

[Ralph Cooksey-Talbott]

You will see the answer in the approval mail. I did this and have processed several new members and it says 4 in the mail.

[Steve]

Hi,

If I require the question 2 + 4? (anti-spam), on sign up, and make it multiple choice like you said, there is still no where to enter what the correct answer is supposed to be. Any answer will still let them sign up. Am I missing something?

[Dave Methvin]

Yeah this doesn't seem to be an effective spammer control at all. When someone bombards our list with 100 new member requests, it doesn't matter whether they answer the question correctly or not. I still have to manually swat them all away.

[Marianne Kieffer]

That's what I suspected. I would like to know if it is an enemy of Ning who wants to discourage us so that we give up our pages, or whether it is a strategy of the Ning team itself to force creators to look after their pages and to improve the effectivity of adds. If the last is true, I would prefer they were honest and would tell us they want us to contribute.