PLEASE DO NOT READ THE SPAM ON THIS FORUM.

IT IS SOME BOT FROM CHINA AND IT RECORDS THE NUMBER OF HITS AND GOES INACTIVE IF IT DOES NOT RECEIVE ANY CLICKS. SO IF WE WANT THIS BOT OFF THE FORUM, PLEASE PLEASE DO NOT CLICK ON ANY OF ITS POSTINGS.

THANK YOU

CB

P.S. CHRIS HAS NO INTERNET AND CANNOT " FIX " IT RIGHT NOW.

Man, Chris doesn't have internet? What a royal bummer.

The Chinese bot recently self-generated two more identities: "Betty01" and "Wuchenjian." It appears that not only can the bot make new posts, as it normally does, but it can also post (R)eplies to legitimate threads, as "Betty01" just did to the thread, "Please everyone read." So every time somebody goes to that thread, the bot registers another click.

I've run a lot of forums, both personal and professional, going back 20 years to the old "listserv" email lists. A forum needs a minimum activity level to maintain its momentum and stay alive. Sort of like a surfboard needing a minimum size wave in order to move through the water. I've seen forums and discussion groups take YEARS to build up enough active users to stay alive.

But once a forum's activity level drops below a certain point, for whatever reason, it's almost impossible to restore its momentum. It gets caught in a vicious cycle: it's inactive because nobody uses it, and nobody uses it because it's inactive. It just dies. Seen it a million times.

I hope this forum isn't going to suffer the same fate, even if we do eventually get rid of this bot.

Ruark