Pudge, i don't know if you were coming to these forums years ago when we had to register with our email addies and they were all visible, appearing where "My Page" is now. At one point, someone harvested all our addresses and we were sent some horrible full screen porn, many windows of it that couldn't be x'd out of. You couldn't select the email to delete it, even. Fortunately at the time, my computer was so slow that i could control-alt-delete out of it fast enough. That's when the moderator at the the time had to change things, but it wasn't before a lot of people left.

Yikes! I haven't looked at the other forum yet but.....

A few weeks ago when I was trying to log in and wasn't having much luck, I got a little popup thingy that said as of, I think, April 7th, an email address would be required. I didn't pay too much attention, but a few minutes later I thought to myself, that wasn't a good thing, so I contacted them asking about it. Haven't heard a thing. Also, about a week before that I contacted them asking why some of the people had an email address and not a My Page where you could look how long they'd been a member, etc., and again, no reply.

Maybe I should say my goodbyes now =:( No offense intended to any of you, but I don't want my email address visible to the whole world, particularly after reading Marcia's info.

What's your take on all this?

The "My Page" thing replaces a person's email address and someone can only contact you through the Garden Web if you have a setting for that. I've noticed that some people's email address will show, but i think that's something to do with how they set their own preferences. I don't think IVillage will display our addresses on purpose.

I'm not sure what the popup you got was about, Lynn. I have popups blocked so maybe it missed me.

I was just trying to think how long ago that was, and i'm sure it must have been 11 or 12 years ago at least. Yikes! LOL

Yes, I was around then, Marcia. I think I registered the winter of '97 or '98 - I know it was right after we moved here and I was planning a new yard. It was quite young then - there wasn't a Far North forum, as I recall, and you had to upgrade (pay) for some of the forums - I remember Garden Party was one of them.

People were always getting 'sent to Disney' (banned from posting) and posts would be deleted. Spike, the moderator at the time, was ruthless. It seems it's just very barely moderated now and that's how all these spammers and people who want to advertise themselves can get thru. It just irks me. So do the pop up ads but I seem to have a handle on them now.

I remember that russian porn site that you couldn't x out of. When we had to re-register with the email address, I just created another email (at yahoo.ca) and that's the one I used only for Gardenweb. Now I use it for all questionable sites that require registration, and I don't really care about all the spam email that gets sent to that address.

Garden Party went pay-to-post in 2001. That's when Spike was having a meltdown about some things, and then 9-1-1 happened and he abruptly made that and the kitchen one, i think, pay-to-post. There were a lot of people at GP who had been questioning and flaunting his rules and i think that's why he changed it - to weed those people out. A bunch of us formed another forum and it's still around. I check in sometime but not too often.

I got sent to Disney once, and i can't remember why. It was a mistake, whatever it was, because i didn't do anything deliberate to get sent there. It startled me, all those whirling teacups! LOL

It's up to 27 pages now. I reported it as well.

I've seen spam on the Far North within the last year or so, reported it, and it was gone in about a week.

It does sort of suck that nobody's moderating anymore but I think they used to go way overboard, deleting anything even the tiniest bit off-topic. I remember Hunnerbun posting that she would be on holidays in case anyone was looking for her, and it got deleted. :/

I'm also sure your email address is only visible if you choose it to be.

I sent a report also. So far, all the spam is still there.
It's disturbing that nothing is being done about it.

Good Grief ! 30 pages.

I bet you girls that reported it were nice about it.

I'll contact them, too. I'll be ruthless, LOL !

Has any one had a reply about the spam?

I did ! They said they are aware of the spam and are working as quickly as possible to remove it. They've blocked the spambot, but say it'll take some time to remove the thousands of posts. ( Note to self. Ask DH how long this would actually take) They suggested posting legitimate messages to get them off the first page.

So, was telling them that they may lose their credibility if they don't remove them ASAP, ruthless enough? LOL !

( Do you suppose they'll kick me off of here now? )

Yep - out you go! LOL

I never got a reply from them, but i'm glad you did. At least they're doing something now!

50 pages now, btw.

It's still happening. I checked today, and there's 10 pages of spam with Mar 31 date.
It's unbelievable!

All the old posts are gone too.

Should I be concerned that GardenWeb has had a security breach that could put all our info at risk? That stuff is posting on that site every minute. One would think gardenweb would be able to block such an invasion.
I wasn't smart enough to create a different email address to use on this site as others have.

Me neither, Marie. I guess i'm too trusting. More and more i've encountered people who have done that. I've never had any trouble, though - not a terrible lot of spam and no viruses to speak of. Knock wood!

OH No!
Looks like it's starting here.
Maybe if everyone reports it, they'll stop it before it gets out of control like it did on the Northern site.

I reported it early this morning. Maybe it will be just a bit because there's only the two posts. Hope that's all it is!

Canadian Winter Sowing got hit about 20 times.

They must have blocked drmaxim by now I guess.

I think they need to up their spam blocking ASAP.

No kidding! I had looked at Northern Gardening but not the WS forum. There are so many forums here - makes me wonder about others that might have gotten hit.

I reported it too...another one in the bee forum...I'll have to see now.

They have taken this one out in a few hours...I think they're getting the
upper hand now.