People following my friend, can you advise me?

A rather friendly person in the welcome area has suggested I post this question here.

Some friends and I were running an art and crafts forum but we were gettings swamped with rather rude and disturbing spam I believe it is called. My dear sweet friend Betty was so disturbed by those goings on that she chose to close down the forum and start a new one, all nice and fresh like a nice spring day. Betty is worried that the people who were posting rather dirty images on our old forum will be able to find her new forum.
You see, Betty bless her heart has started a new forum using the same 'servers' I think the term is. Now my dears, can you tell me quite simply, can these terrible people find Bettys new forum even though she has created a new domain I believe it is called on her servers and is running our new forum from this new domain.
I apologise if I have not used the correct 'jargon', please be gentle with me my dears, this lady is a little fragile.
Bless you my dears, Marg

 

It is an art by itself to know how to run a clean forum.

You cannot leave these days forum that are completely open there would be always "sleaze" that would find unprotected none moderated forums and trash them.

Most clean forums ask for registration with a valid email address and have few moderators (usually volunteers) that between them monitor the forum almost 24/7, delete inappropriate posts as they appear, and ban the user from further posting.

 

im not sure if you can do this, but why not make it so you have to verify the username yourself? that way if someone you dont know made a user name you dont have to accept it. its an idea if you cant moniter your forum all the time.

 

Yes, a lot of forum software permits this. IPB, Invisionfree, php and Vbulletin
If you let us know what type of forum software is involved, I'm sure someone will be able to advise on how to set it to manual validation of new members.

 

Good morning to you all, what a lovely fresh day it is, I had a delightfully brisk walk in the woods with my two poodles at 6 o'clock, such a lovely start to the day I always find.
Let me see now, I have had a long chat with Betty and I have to say that I wish Betty would come on here and talk to you herself. It would seem that Betty has been upset more than I suspected by these people following her as she puts it. Well you see, Betty tells me she understands how to set permissions as she put it, I was little put off by her shortness in all honesty.
I must say that I thought I had explained her problem quite clearly but Betty has told me off quite sternly. Now let me see if I can put this across more clearly for you all, do please be a little patient with me my dears.
Betty wonders if people who used to distress her so on the old forum have any way of knowing she has started a new forum on her servers even though it is on a new domain name within the self-same servers account. Can people follow her old domain name link to her server account and discover what her new domain name is. Am I making any sense her at all, my goodness, I feel a little like a child trying to understand her first days at school, oh how the worms turns.
Betty assures me that computer wizards have skills and talents we old fuddy duddies couldn't even start to imagine. I do understand that computer technology has come forward in leaps and bounds in the last few decades. The basis of computer technology in terms of a user experience is still surely a matter of mathematics. I do feel terribly silly at not being able to totally understand the limitations of these computer wizards, but there is just so much to take in.
In short then my dears, can someone discover Betty's new domain name by following the road to her servers account via her other domain name. Oh yes of course, Betty uses Simple Machines forum software, she has favoured the blues on their standard colour scheme for some time now.
I will pop by later today to catch up with any answers you all may have given me, until then, tata, Marg.

 

It's always sad to come across vandalism; malware/spam is a form of vandalism and combating such I believe was the major inspiration behind this site Major Attitude please confirm).

Yes if a vandal is sufficiently determined and has the resources your friend's new site could be found and targetted.

I see that you are in the UK. Here this contravenes the Computer Misuse Act and the Police have all sorts of powers to get ISPs to disclose things that even forum moderators don't possess. If The problem reccurs, let them deal with it.

Whilst location informations is very helpful when recommending things like 'clean the sand out' or what a price should be in dollars, dinars or dung-chips, Gloucester is too specifc, especially in the circumstances. UK is fine. Also the private messaging system on the forum can be good in these cases.

Having said that there is another vbulletin forum, up your way, currently having heartache about Ebay. Your friend may be interested to read their thread.

http://www.vintage-radio.net/forum/showthread.php?t=16614


Studio T

 

really though, the internet is a scary place. theres rarely a way to completely prevent a person from misusing it as people can find ways around most of the security out there. if theyre good and have the time anyway. as for the people "targeting" your forum, if they really want, they will keep doing so. my only advice is to tell your friend to use the software that jimmy talked about. that will keep your forum clean.
another thing to think about is the fact that running servers makes you a target on the internet for just about everything. take all necessary precautions to keep your security strong. im not sure how it is in the UK, but here in the states the fact that hackers are everywhere and someone WILL try to break your security is reality. i recently set up a linux firewall on my home network and check the IDS logs from time to time and it really surprised me that so much crap was trying to get in my network and i dont run servers. if you get into the habit of thinkign that the Internet is out to get you and stay safe when youre on it, itll really reduce the chance of something bad happening, even if it is just some forum spam.