In reply to TJL (Forum Supporter) :
Good idea. I don't write code for a living, but this RegEx will find any numerical string with at least 10 digits, including 0 to 2 non-alphanumeric characters between each digit:
([0-9]([^a-zA-Z0-9]{0,2})){10,}?
I saw some find/replace testing recently; presumably, the forum backend can search for regular expressions...
I need a mod to edit the title of this post please. Hear, not here. https://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/grm/anybody-here-from-don49/257267/page1/
Would a kind-hearted mod do me the favor of editing the title of my thread "Most common cause for dreaded VW ECP light?" and change ECP to EPC? I don't want to look like a VW noob, even though I are one. 
When you get an email notice that a followed topic has a new post, the email always takes you to page one of the topic.
Is there a way to have the email link take you to the post that generated the notice?
In reply to a_florida_man :
I’ll ask.
It appears as if the Edit button in grayed out in all (some) the threads now. I was actually just able to edit this post, but any other post I made cannot be updated.
Hopefully this is a bug and not a feature change. Being able to immediately edit posts is VERY useful (which might still be in effect?).
Being able to edit old posts is also very useful in many cases. E.g. I continually update first post in the very long time AC thread to show the current season (much easier to find once the season gets going).
Also, being able to self remove accidental or inappropriate post is also very useful, and likely saves a lot of work for moderators.
In reply to aircooled :
This is going to screw up the ability to keep the first post in the assetto corsa thread up to date as we can no longer edit it or even open it to cut and paste to make a new thread.
This is going to be a problem. . ..
I am a pay-to-play member here on the GRM forum. I thought this killed advertising.
GRM Popup ads are now a thing that needs to be killed. SO annoying. Please make them go away.
Yes, GRM+ Members see significantly less advertising. What popup are you talking about? Mind sharing a screenshot?
The only popup ad you should be seeing is an occasional (like once per month) email pop-up offering a free piece of content. But it's possible to see it more often if you've blocked tracking cookies, as they're how the site figures out whether or not you should be offered something.
I'm not anticipating good things from this new user, either:
https://grassrootsmotorsports.com/community/ayer/
This user's posts look AI generated:
procainestart said:Can you set up a search of a post's content prior to publishing it?
This regular expression search will find any non-standard (not ASCII, which is a-Z, 0-9, & punctuation) character OR it will find a phone number, even if extra characters (up to three) between digits.
These asshats are using "look-alike" alphanumeric characters or emojis, that is, non-standard text characters, or they're trying to disguise phone numbers - this will find one or the other:
([^\u0000-\u007F]|([0-9][^0-9]{0,3}){10,})
If either is found, don't publish the post. Maybe also consider number of user posts or account age.
Alternatively, how about disabling paste actions for new users, at least for the subject field? Seems unlikely that a legit user would do it.
Thank you for your suggestion. Yes, phone numbers are the common link, and we're looking for ways to prevent new users from flooding our pages with them. I'll forward this suggestion along and we will be rolling our other measures as well. I expect this to start next week.
TJL (Forum Supporter) said:Can we get "quickbooks" banned? Give it the es(ort treatment?
It's something we're considering, for sure. We do want to be careful of banning so many words that it interferes with enjoyment with the forums. Thank you for the suggestion!
https://grassrootsmotorsports.com/community/sanjaykumar/
https://grassrootsmotorsports.com/community/sureshgupta/
As an aside, finding Quickbooks won't always work, as the spammers are using look-alike Unicode characters (called homoglyphs) that are not standard text, of which there are many. I know that your system allows you to evaluate text and modify it (a la Ford subcompact); if it can also refuse to accept a post, then the wildcard search string (a "regular expression") I posted in April should work, as it finds nonstandard text (that is, characters that don't belong to the standard ASCII set) and phone numbers, even if they have multiple characters between number groupings, e.g, 1-(203)-123 -4567.
Actually, now that I think about it, the forum now allows emojis, which are Unicode characters, so the string I provided won't work as written -- below, the part in bold would need to be modified to NOT exclude emojis (the italicized part finds phone numbers with up to three characters between number groupings.
([^\u0000-\u007F]|([0-9][^0-9]{0,3}){10,})
https://grassrootsmotorsports.com/community/kalima/
Is it better to link the post, or the profile?
In reply to Duke :
Profile's better, thanks!
If you search for canoe things like quickbooks on GRM, it looks like the ghosts of the canoes are still there. It shows a link and of course its been deleted, but it still shows up. Can we do a better "delete" that really makes the topics go away? Im just wondering if since it shows up, thats encouraging more canoe's.
In reply to TJL (Forum Supporter) :
That's a really good observation and could explain why the econobox filter worked so well. Passing on to web team.
In reply to TJL (Forum Supporter) :
I've found the spamming kinda fascinating and went down a bit of a rabbit hole. It's called "black hat SEO" -- they're trying to manipulate page rank. Content in forums apparently confers extra legitimacy, which is why they're dumping it here (as well as all over other forums that they can easily post to). Also, GRM's site already has great SEO and a really good domain rank, or authority -- it's very credible, which helps the spammers: their BS rides on the coat-tails of GRM. Meanwhile, I think it's more than just the word "Quickbooks," or whatever other service they're pushing. It's the phone number, too, and if included, links. Plus the repeated use of terms, numbers, and questions.
I also think that once you see the posts in search results like the one above, the spammer has achieved their goal, and they don't care that the post has been deleted: Google and presumably other search engines have crawled the posts and applied them to whatever page ranking the spammer's trying to manipulate. But I don't know this, for sure.
It's also conceivable that a human is posting this stuff. If "Quickbooks" is altered, they'll likely use Unicode characters that look the same but are different (called "confusables" or homoglyphs) and won't be found in a search for the word. They're actually already doing this. And even is you use code that finds them, you can have multiple Unicode characters put together form a single letter, e.g., in some instances, you can create an accented letter by combining two unicode characters. So, it's hard to find them.
It seems the best common element to search for is phone numbers, which, for now, are *mostly* (but not entirely) using standard numerals. All that said, I assume this is a big enough headache for people that there's a tool, or equivalent resources, available that can search for at least a majority of confusables, though you probably wouldn't have to: if a post has more than, say, 10, it's a baddie, and nuke it.
TL;DR Search new members' posts for phone numbers, and don't publish, if found.
Hungary Bill (Forum Supporter) said:Testing. Looks like any interactions on my part only result in error messages.
Hey, if you're getting any error messages, please feel free to contact me. We'd be happy to clear those up for you. Thanks, Hungary Bill!
90BuickCentury said:https://grassrootsmotorsports.com/community/speedrackwest/
Canoe storage racking?
This canoe is a good example. Even though they are de-activated, their name is still an active link. Go to their profile and click the username.
I think this guy has been masquerading as a regular reader but is actually selling canoes for the Dyler website. https://grassrootsmotorsports.com/community/goldenyear/
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