New Mono forum

[andrewcliffe]

Looks good

[RedRedWine]

er, Robots? What they? Is this anything to do with a musical piece called Yoshimi Fights the Pink Robots? (which I have never heard)

[tristancliffe]

They are, basically, computer programs that scan forums, join up and post viagra spam, or do other naughty things like try to steal membership data (though the latter is quite rare these days).

Usually shortened to 'Bots'. Have a look at this and you might learn more http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_bot

[broadside]

At the risk of exposing myself as computer illiterate......... when I open the forum I now can't see the full width of the page without scrolling accross, is there a simple fix? (without changing how everything else on my computer looks!)

I am still on windows 1978...........

Laughing in the face of silcone!

[tristancliffe]

At the risk of exposing myself as computer illiterate......... when I open the forum I now can't see the full width of the page without scrolling accross, is there a simple fix? (without changing how everything else on my computer looks!)

I am still on windows 1978...........

Laughing in the face of silcone!

Move your screen further away from the computer, so you can see more of it. Or sit closer to the monitor. It works just like a window - sit closer and you can see more (to the left and right), or move it further from the object so you can see more of it.

Or hope that Stephen is able to make a forum style that isn't fixed width

[broadside]

It works better if I look in the back.............

[Emma Cliffe]

Stephen, I have the same problem as Broadside, although I only lose things like 2 columns of font colour in the "post a reply" screen, so I lose very little and Broadside may lose more.

Screen set to 1024x768 pixels on my desktop non-widescreen screen. On my widescreen laptop, it looks fine.

I ought to change my desktop screen though - I've got dead pixels going half way across and about 1cm wide now.

[broadside]

Thanks Stephen, thats sorted mine.

Graham

[Club F3 Meister]

Hi Stephen

Keep up the good work. Forums without someone like you at the helm are not very good, so as I say, keep it up.
When I've just logged in, I see Registered users: Club F3 Meister, Google [Bot]. Does this mean you can't totally rid yourself of these pesky little bots, or is this OK?

Ian

[andrewcliffe]

The web is full of automated tasks which do things for their owners. These are often called 'bots - short for robots. Web search engines use these, often referred to as spiders.

Search engine 'spiders' crawl around the WWW checking links and following them to see where they end up, recording key words and phrases along the way. This is good because it helps people find the Monoposto sites 'by accident'. Code embedded into websites instruct how often they should come back and check out new content.

A good search engine ranking is important. It can be done easily without costing anything. Googlebot should be given full read access to all public areas of the Mono site.

Search engines promote sites that are linked to elsewhere. If lots of sites are linking to one particular site, then google (and friends) assume that site is an authority and can be highly positioned. Thus if you have your own website, a link to http://www.monoposto.co.uk will help boost the clubs ranking, and in return, your website in your forum signature will boost yours.
(I've just been on a course on Search Engine optimisation)

These things can be used maliciously as well....

If you had an army of bots and they signed themselves up to lots of web forums which may not have all the latest security mods done, then they can post messages. These message may often link elsewhere and its normally to boost that sites google ranking and may get a few links from forum members as well.

Whats on the website you visit? Possibly adverts for viagra. Possible sites for dodgy software, porn or even money scams. More likely there will be even nastier software which downloads automatically onto your computer - key loggers which record bank and credit card information and send it elsewhere. Viruses which remain dormant until a trigger is broadcast. What happens? Various things - your computer could be used to constantly log onto particular websites. Of little consequence if its just one computer, but hundreds or thousands could cause website servers to fall under the strain. This is called a DDOS attack - DDOS standing for distributed denial of service.

So, in summary. Search engine 'bots' good. Bad robots.....

[Ian]

Hmmmm. . . . very informative. Thank you.

Tell me, what colour is the sky on your planet??

[andrewcliffe]

Its exactly the wrong shade of pink.

Bonus Point available for identifying the quotation.

[tristancliffe]

HHGTTG (or HGTTG if you prefer)?

[RedRedWine]

Am I right that we can delete our own posts on all forums if there are no posts after them, edit them at any time unless the thread is closed, but can't edit or delete our own posts on the marketplace?

No particular reason for asking, just curious.

Thanks