Accented character ate my web host.

[zappaDPJ]

Now I've got your attention with a headline worthy of the Daily Mail I'll tell you the story behind it 

While I was away this weekend I looked in on one of my larger forums. There was a thread that caught my attention but when I went to view it I encountered what appeared to be an SQL database error. Shortly after that my forums appeared to go down. The first thing I did this morning on arriving home was to log into my forums. Everything appeared to be normal until I attempted to look at the same thread. Again I got an error and again subsequent attempts to reach any part of the forum where met with an unavailable error.

Long story short, a user had posted a thread with an accent over one of the characters in the thread title. An anti-spam measure (now disabled) employed by the web host had added every IP trying  to view that thread to the firewall block list. From what I can gather so far that took out every single active member of that forum.

My web host, who I have to say is a damn good one, says they have always employed this particular anti-spam software and although it's true I don't recall seeing a thread title with and accent in it before, it does surprise me as we have a large number of users from all over the EU. My main concern now is that everyone blocked has regained access and of course communication from anyone who doesn't might prove rather difficult.

[Simon]

Can you not send out a mass email to all members, explaining what happened, Zap?

[Rik]

Thankfully, accented characters are rare here, Zap. Good luck with picking up the pieces.

[zappaDPJ]

Thanks

Can you not send out a mass email to all members, explaining what happened, Zap?

We can and I've got the moderates working on it now 

[Rik]

No extremists then? 

[DorsetBoy]

Thankfully, accented characters are rare here, Zap. Good luck with picking up the pieces.

ŤĦãťŞ Ϣḥḁṯ ẏỖṵ Тĥîńķ   

[Rik]

 

[zappaDPJ]

No extremists then? 

You've not met my moderators, moderate they are NOT!

[Rik]

 

[Technical Ben]

You've not met my moderators, moderate they are NOT!

I've actually left a forum now for it's ridiculous moderators. Deleting my posts and giving me warnings over tiny things (like being ever so slightly off topic), while they swear on every post, and send insults to half the users, all to be ignored by the rest of the community. 

How do you manage Zappa?
It's got to be a hard job though, so a big thanks to the mods here. 

[Rik]

Thanks, Ben, we appreciate that. Generally, though, our members moderate themselves.

[Lance]

Thanks, Ben, we appreciate that. Generally, though, our members moderate themselves.

And we've a big stick for the rest!!!

[Glenn]

But no carrots

[Rik]

Diamonds are forever

[zappaDPJ]

I've actually left a forum now for it's ridiculous moderators. Deleting my posts and giving me warnings over tiny things (like being ever so slightly off topic), while they swear on every post, and send insults to half the users, all to be ignored by the rest of the community. 

How do you manage Zappa?
It's got to be a hard job though, so a big thanks to the mods here. 

Some of the boards I own or manage are quite large so it's necessary to have a robust support structure. On the larger boards there will be at least two admins under me who will also be coders. Then there are the moderators who are picked because they are active, literate and always have the user's best interests in mind and this is often where the conflicts arise but not between the mods and users. Moderators are always long standing members so they have their own ideas on how things should be run which is sometimes in conflict with the admins and my vision of things.

We rarely have issues between mods and users but there is quite often tension between admins and mods. I often have to remind myself and the admins that we run the boards for the benefit of the users and not ourselves and every so often a moderator will reinforce that in no uncertain terms as we try to lose a user's login down the back of the forum sofa 

[Rik]

We take a similar view, Zap. We believe we hold the forum in trust for the membership. The reason we're all admins here is that we wanted the team to be a team of equals.

[zappaDPJ]

And you do it very well if I may say so

[Rik]

Thanks.  Our members make it easy for us.

[Ray]

Thanks, Zap. 

[Simon]

Nice of you to say, Zap. 

[Glenn]

 

[D-Dan]

We take a similar view, Zap. We believe we hold the forum in trust for the membership. The reason we're all admins here is that we wanted the team to be a team of equals.

Yeah. right. Remember when you admonished me for posting something "unsuitable" and deleted all my pos... - Oh - wait. That was the Orange users forum.

Steve

[Niall]

You've not met my moderators, moderate they are NOT!

That reminds me, I've got to ban someone from my forums

{edit} How odd. On the forum I'm an admin on it's got one user awaiting approval, but in the admin section of the forums there are no members awaiting approval. I'm confused

[Simon]

Is it an SMF board, Niall?

[zappaDPJ]

There could be a number of reasons for that but most likely it's already be actioned by another admin and the back-end hasn't caught up yet.