BOT postings Are Becoming Very Annoying

[Y-my-R]

If Peter registered the domain d8bforum.com and paid the fees, then he’s the guy who will get to enter who will have administrator rights.

The hosting company for d8bforum.com is bluehost.com (you can look this sort of thing up on the registry for this stuff, here: https://lookup.icann.org/en/lookup).

The hosting company will not do anything for you, unless you’re Peter, or at least an administrator listed for the page. For lack of a better word, d8bforum.com (or at least the registration thereof) is Peter’s “property” - they can’t just add somebody else because they ask, nicely.

As for the forum being overrun by bots… I think it’s because the version of the phpBB “Bulletin Board” software this forum is based on, is hopelessly outdated. If the copyright info is correct, then this is likely running a version from the year 2007. New versions are still being released as recently as Nov2024.

I would expect that newer versions of phpBB have better protection against such bot-attacks built in, but I don’t really have much of a clue about managing forums.

IMO, to “really” make this forum “future proof,” the underlying software would need to be updated to the latest version… and THAT, is a task that is too much work to keep an “already dying” forum alive, IMO. At least in my opinion, with only a handful of people posting here over the past few years, the effort vs benefit stand in no relation to each other, IMO.

What SHOULD be easy enough to do, is to turn the forum off and only keep the database. Maybe it’s possible to make the forum “read only” so the info doesn’t get lost, if that is the main concern.

Having said all that… as long as I still have my Mackie gear, I’d be willing to act as a “moderator” for the forum. Meaning, I’d check in every few days and kick out the bot-posts. BUT, I have no desire to do anything beyond that… so, I’m not gonna tackle upgrading phpBB to the latest version or anything like that.

I think it was pretty nice and generous of Peter, to pay the annual fees for the domain registration one more time (…and who knows how much he has to pay for “traffic” on the page, since bots still create traffic… and those thousands of views probably aren’t cheap).

As nuss said further above, though… I think this forum is dying, and I see more posts on the D8B Facebook page. So, even IF I had the technical knowledge to upgrade the forum to the latest version (…I’d have to read myself into this and don’t really feel like doing that), I wouldn’t want to invest the time to make those upgrades at this point, and can’t blame anyone else (e.g. Peter) if he doesn’t really want to spend his free time on this, either.

If you’re worried about losing access to the info on the forum, another thing that may at least give “some” results, if the actual forum would go away, is the “Wayback Machine.” So, to view snapshots of this page at earlier points in time, you’d go here:

https://web.archive.org/web/20241215000000*/d8bforum.com

[csp]

Y-my-R,

Second attempt as the first vanished mid typing and I don't think that thre is an automatic back-up facility.
Thank you for the info but most of it passed over this geriatric head.

One thing you mentioned I had not previously thought about, is if Peter is still paying for the annual Domain Name registration, it is surprising that he has not made contact and if he is no longer paying the subscription when is the money paid going to run out and the Forum taken down without any notice.

David

[csp]

Thanks to Y-my-R's suggestion I just looked up the info and found the following:


Registry Expiration: 2025-11-21 00:33:06 UTC
Updated: 2024-11-05 10:14:16 UTC
Created: 2008-11-21 00:33:06 UTC

Which if I an reading it correctly means that Peter paid the renewal on the 21st November last year and we have been trying to contact for well before that date --- very strange.

The information also suggestrs that unless renewed the forum will cease on the 21st November this year. meaning that we have a few months to tr to work out what to do !!!!!

Also of interest on looking up the information is the following, although I am not sure what it means:

Domain Status: clientTransferProhibited https://icann.org/epp#clientTransferProhibited.

Exactly what does "Client TransferProhibited" mean, unless it is a standard thing in Domain Name searching.

David

[Y-my-R]

A 1-year renewal period is pretty normal for domain registrations.

Many hosting-companies offer multi-year deals/discounts when registering through them, but that the domain renewal shows a single year isn't unusual.

When that expires, Peter could of course choose not to renew... so, it could be the end-date for d8bforum.com, unless he'll renew before that date... then it'll be active for another year.

Also, these dates usually renew when the previous year was up (and the fees paid in time), and then renews to the same date a year later (at least I think... I haven't registered a domain in years).
So, the renewal date doesn't really have much to do with when exactly you talked to him... but b/c this form page still exists, it would suggest that Peter paid the fees before the time was up, and that's why we can still enjoy this page, now.

"clientTransferProhibited" just means that any attempt to ask to get the domain name registration transferred to another person (without the OK from the current registrar) will be met with a strong "NO!". It's just a security feature... also nothing unusual about it.

All this is very normal stuff. I just thought I'd share where you can look that stuff up, since you wondered about the hosting company... but you can only look stuff up, if you're not Peter. Nobody else can ask to be added as an adminstrator or as the new registered "owner" of the page from the hosting company.

So, after what I posted really goes back to before I posted: Only Peter can do these things... but maybe it's a little clearer now, why

[csp]

Y-my-R,

Re the transfer prohibited bit, what you have stated is what I had presumed, but I wanted to be sure --- thanks.

David

[csp]

Looks like it has started again !!!!!!!

Peter where are you ???????

David

[Octupole]

Hi everybody, I pass by this forum only occasionally. Following the concerns about the future of this site, I tried to do some some research. There might be some hints how Peter might be contacted. There is still a working URL to his (old?) studio website:
https://www.sonido-7.com/newstudio/studio.html
Under "contact" you find an (obsolete?) mobile number and email adress:
Mobil: (+34) 655 311 500.
E-mail: peter@sonido-7.com
Using "34 655 311 500 peter holmquist" as search string in a web browser you find the contact page of another web site:
https://www.peterskitchenlab.com/contact-us/
Looking at the "About us" page of this website, it appears that the left photo is indeed Peter.
Now searching for the second contact of this site ("Victoria Holmquist") leads to this web site:
https://victoriaholmquist.com/
The "About us" page of this site again shows a photo of Peter down on the left. On the "Contact" page one can find a phone numer and an email:
(+34) 655 44 85 40
victoria.holmquist@gmail.com
Maybe you might be able to reach Peter via these these "coordinates" ?

[csp]

Thank you for doing all of that and I will have a look at the sites tomorrow (now Thurs night in my neck of the world) and will give him a call --- I am sure that I have spoken to him when he was doing something for me about 10+ yrs ago (business wise) and if correct he spoke English. I have a friend who lives about 60 miles away who is Spanish and I could also possibly contact him to call on my behalf.

David