I love the Charlie site itself but the forum has been ruined. A lot of band sites seem to go this way. This forum will be fine unless the spammers take control which I guess they will.
I have just looked at the Charlie website and I think it would better for them to shut down their forum as it is simply spoiling the website. Her Comes Trouble
Its a real shame that the spammers have the run of the whole Charlie-Music website. If the site had been actively monitored from the get go the situation would not have gotten as far out of hand as it has. I'm willing to bet the spammers easily out number the legitimate users over there. But for whatever reason, nobody chose to do anything or if they did they did it "on the cheap" so, now we have the situation we find ourselves in. The lesson here is doing nothing or choosing to do things cheaply, well you get what you pay for, don't you? But 1st off let me say thank you to whom ever decided to take the bull by the horns and create a new "Charlie-Music site from scratch. All of us Charlie fans need to give them, he. she, a hearty pat on the back & a high five for starting this new site. Since 2008 this will be the 3rd Charlie-Music web site that I have seen. here's hoping this site will stand the test of time and actually last longer then its predecessors did. Also lets hope that at this web site that someone is actively watching the watchers so the spammers don't get a foothold.Come to think of it, the first Charlie site didn't have any of the problems the band site seems to.
Like everyone else I got fed up with the junk on the official forum so the only way was to start up a new unofficial forum. Pointless in waiting any longer, if you are going to do something then do it now.
I started up a similar forum several years back for another band and although the site has been attacked by spammers they have not succeeded, it is still going strong. That site has the full support of band members who are always happy to participate.
I hope that once Google has picked up on the postings we should see a rise in activity when people see us on the search engine.
Steve - Totally agree with you, but somehow I managed to get a message on (switch the forum page off). To be honest, I think it was a worthless excersice as I don't think there's anyone really looking anymore (true fans or Julian)
Hi folks. The spam on the official site is gut-wrenching but it seems the engine we choose for the forum is just not solid enough to do a good job. Unfortunately, we also just don't have the resources at the present time to keep it monitored or implement a better one. So, u guys have the ball and I hope can run with it meantime.
Hopefully that will happen, just not right now. Thanks for everyone's patience and continued interest.
We're looking into closing the charlie-music site forum and maybe try to link to here. Thanks, you guys. So great to hear your kind comments and stuff.
Dare I say it have the spammers been banished for good? Honestly, I don't want to jinx a good thing here if its not the case. If so, then that's awesome. Thanks to any & all who helped to foroceibly "take back our site" from the spamming heathens who've ruled it for far too long. I haven't checked back here in a very long time becuase I knew what I would find. But something today, a voice inside my head purhaps told me to do so. Well I'm glad I chose to to listen to "that" voice and stop by. Here's hoping the changes around here are premanentand not fleeting. After all isn't the web a big enough area for spammers to bloody go somewhere else for awhile?