Previous Thread
Next Thread
Print Thread
Hop To
Joined: Nov 2006
Posts: 195
Likes: 1
T
Member
Member
T Offline
Joined: Nov 2006
Posts: 195
Likes: 1
Hi Guys

I've had a couple of issues with my forums today that I don't usually have.

1) I received the following alerts from Google Search Console:

---

Third-party spam detected on http://www.koptalk.com/

Google has detected a significant portion of your site being abused with spam that violates Google's Webmaster Guidelines and adds little or no value to the web. The spammy content may appear in your forums, guestbooks, social media platforms, file uploader, free hosting services, or internal search pages.

This spammy content is possibly generated by site users or other third-parties, and it leverages your site to promote spam rather than the actual subject matter of your site.

Therefore, a manual spam action has been applied to appropriate URLs matching this pattern: koptalk.com/members/ubbthreads.php?ubb=changeprefs&what=style&value=4&curl=

The good news is that we generally believe your site is of sufficient quality that we didn't see a need to take manual action on the whole site. The current manual action will only affect those pages with spammy content. However, if your site has too much spammy content like this, that may affect our overall assessment of the site, result in a bad user experience, and affect your site’s reputation and ranking.

Following are some example URLs where we found pages that have been compromised. Please review them to gain a better sense of where these spammy content appears. Please note that the list is not exhaustive.

https://www.koptalk.com/members/ubbthreads.php?ubb=changeprefs&what=style&value=4&curl=http://fjtrv10-30go26.%D1%82%D0%B3%D0%BF4.%D1%80%D1%84

---

User-generated spam detected on http://www.koptalk.com/

To: Webmaster of http://www.koptalk.com/,

Google has detected user-generated content on your site that is either malicious or of no value to Google Search users. This type of content leverages your site’s reputation to promote spam rather than the actual subject matter of your site. Therefore, a manual spam action has been applied to koptalk.com/members/ubbthreads.php?ubb=changeprefs&what=style&value=4&curl=. This also causes your site’s URLs to appear for queries not related to your actual site content, lowering the quality of search results for Google Search users and thereby also impacting your site’s reputation and ranking. For that reason, we strongly advise you to remove the spam and file a reconsideration request. After we evaluate your site and determine that you have complied with our guidelines, we will remove this manual action.

---

2) My forums went down today due to a MySQL issue. When the forums came back online after contacting my host, the forum's theme had changed to another of my themes that I personally don't use, although it is a theme any registered user can use. I changed back to the default theme that I do use and after a few minutes the theme changed itself again despite not touching anything.

---

In the links that Google provided I notice the reference to 'style' value. Style 4 is the one that my theme keeps changing to even though I'm not selecting it manually. Other users are not reporting this change.

Do you have any ideas what's going on and how to fix this issue that's causing Google to flag it up to me?

My forums are a closed community for paying supporters so nobody can just register and create spammy stuff etc. I've disabled style 4 but I guess that won't just fix it. I guess they are adding my url to their urls because my domain has a good rating?

If I search 'koptalk.com/members/ubbthreads.php?ubb=changeprefs&what=style&value=4&curl=' on Google you can see it appear with many Chinese looking destination URLs. I just wondered if there's a way within Threads that I can block or deter this?

Thanks very much guys smile

Last edited by ThreadsUser; 11/22/2023 1:36 PM.
Joined: Jun 2006
Posts: 16,354
Likes: 125
UBB.threads Developer
UBB.threads Developer
Joined: Jun 2006
Posts: 16,354
Likes: 125
Please see Re: Google Third-Party Spam Warning

As for re-setting the default forum style, simply navigate to the Control Panel -> Display -> Styles page, select the style you wish to have as your Forum Default in the "Default" ratio column, and click on the "Update Styles" button.


I am a Web Development Contractor, I do not work for UBBCentral. I have provided free User to User Support since the beginning of these support forums.
Do you need Forum Install or Upgrade Services?
Forums: A Gardeners Forum, Scouters World
UBB.threads: UBBWiki, UBB Styles, UBB.Sitemaps
Longtime Supporter & Resident Post-A-Holic
VNC Web Services: Code Modifications, Upgrades, Styling, Coding Services, Disaster Recovery, and more!
Joined: Nov 2006
Posts: 195
Likes: 1
T
Member
Member
T Offline
Joined: Nov 2006
Posts: 195
Likes: 1
Thanks Gizmo. I'll take a look. The theme was changing itself every few minutes as I browsed the forums despite what I selected. I always have the default theme but it kept changing to another one. I'd switch it back to default, it would be ok for a few minutes, then it would change again. It seems to have stopped doing it now. I couldn't get my head round it smile

Joined: Nov 2006
Posts: 195
Likes: 1
T
Member
Member
T Offline
Joined: Nov 2006
Posts: 195
Likes: 1
I made the change to /scripts/changeprefs.inc.php and I think it's fixed.

You are a legend Gizmo. Thank you so much smile

PS: Happy Thanksgiving!

Joined: Jun 2006
Posts: 16,354
Likes: 125
UBB.threads Developer
UBB.threads Developer
Joined: Jun 2006
Posts: 16,354
Likes: 125
Thanks really guess to Isaac for listening to me ramble and remembering how we patched the change preferences screen for v8 lol...


I am a Web Development Contractor, I do not work for UBBCentral. I have provided free User to User Support since the beginning of these support forums.
Do you need Forum Install or Upgrade Services?
Forums: A Gardeners Forum, Scouters World
UBB.threads: UBBWiki, UBB Styles, UBB.Sitemaps
Longtime Supporter & Resident Post-A-Holic
VNC Web Services: Code Modifications, Upgrades, Styling, Coding Services, Disaster Recovery, and more!
Joined: Nov 2006
Posts: 195
Likes: 1
T
Member
Member
T Offline
Joined: Nov 2006
Posts: 195
Likes: 1
Ha we'd be lost without you guys!


Link Copied to Clipboard
ShoutChat
Comment Guidelines: Do post respectful and insightful comments. Don't flame, hate, spam.
Recent Topics
Is this a cookie usse?
by Baldeagle - 10/05/2024 2:01 PM
Search button not there
by ehill - 10/02/2024 2:56 PM
Change the Order of the buttons in a post
by Unixspot - 09/19/2024 10:04 PM
How do I get rid of this?
by Baldeagle - 09/12/2024 6:30 PM
Purging logs does not work
by Baldeagle - 09/12/2024 5:16 PM
Who's Online Now
4 members (Gizmo, Ravenfreak, Ruben, Baldeagle), 308 guests, and 71 robots.
Key: Admin, Global Mod, Mod
Random Gallery Image
Latest Gallery Images
Los Angeles
Los Angeles
by isaac, August 6
3D Creations
3D Creations
by JAISP, December 30
Artistic structures
Artistic structures
by isaac, August 29
Stones
Stones
by isaac, August 19
Powered by UBB.threads™ PHP Forum Software 8.0.1
(Snapshot build 20240918)