# About The Pm's You Are Getting Reference A Survey



## kitchenelf (Jan 18, 2007)

We are checking with the site owner now, Andy R., to see if he wants this to continue.  This has taken us by surprise too.  If you want to you can just ignore the survey until we figure out what's going on.

Thanks,

Admin Team


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## goboenomo (Jan 18, 2007)

Oh, good. I'm not the only one who got that. That made me kinda angry.


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## Jeekinz (Jan 18, 2007)

Why would you let a spammer continue to send junk emails to your users?


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## GB (Jan 18, 2007)

Often times we get requests like this that are legitimate. This person is not looking for any money or trying to sell anything. At the time we started looking into this he has only contacted one or two people. Once he started contacting everyone we took steps to stop that action as that is when it became spam.


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## Franca (Jan 18, 2007)

GB said:
			
		

> Often times we get requests like this that are legitimate. This person is not looking for any money or trying to sell anything. At the time we started looking into this he has only contacted one or two people. Once he started contacting everyone we took steps to stop that action as that is when it became spam.


I don't think a "Dear Sir/Madam" message is *ever* appropriate for private messaging.... And this one has absolutely nothing to do with cooking!


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## GB (Jan 18, 2007)

But it does have to do with online forums, and when we were first made aware of these PM's they were sent to staff members only, therefore we saw it as asking permission to see if sending something like this would be OK. Doing that most certainly is appropriate. Like I said, once we saw that it went beyond that we took action to stop it.


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## Jeekinz (Jan 18, 2007)

IMHO....any mail, especially PM's from a company looking for a survey is SPAM.  PM's are for users/admins to contact each other by means other than a forum thread.  If the survey was requested for/by discusscooking.com, it would still be spam, just acceptable spam.  I think a continuation of third party advertisements would be a detriment to this site.


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## kitchenelf (Jan 18, 2007)

PM's are not under our control.  Unfortunately especially in this instance.

I know we've talked about "etiquette" a lot lately on the forums - I don't think these people had "etiquette" in mind.   

We really are doing what we can - some actions can only be taken by the owner of this site.


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## YT2095 (Jan 18, 2007)

Typical.
Absolutely Typical!
even Spammers are being stopped from talking to me now, how am I EVER going to make any friends *sob* *sniff*


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## kitchenelf (Jan 18, 2007)

YT2095 said:
			
		

> Typical.
> Absolutely Typical!
> even Spammers are being stopped from talking to me now, how am I EVER going to make any friends *sob* *sniff*



You are BEYOND so very, very bad!!!!!!!!!


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## Candocook (Jan 18, 2007)

Who knows what that link might lead to. Not me boy.


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## kitchenelf (Jan 18, 2007)

Candocook said:
			
		

> Who knows what that link might lead to. Not me boy.



And that's the smart thing to do.  

It does, however, link to a survey and is posted from a legitimate university.  This might very well be a project like they say, they just went about it the wrong way.


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## Buck (Jan 18, 2007)

Any message like this sets off alarms in my head.  That's inconvenient because it keeps me from hearing what "the voices" are saying.  I deleted it.


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## BlueCat (Jan 18, 2007)

Candocook said:
			
		

> Who knows what that link might lead to. Not me boy.


 
Exactly.  I don't think they should be allowed on the board after sending a PM like that.  We're warned regularly at work about unknown people sending viruses throug links in messages.

BC


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## jpmcgrew (Jan 18, 2007)

I got one to I didn't click the link for fear of a virus and to think I was so excited to get a PM.


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## CharlieD (Jan 18, 2007)

Yeah, I just ignored it. I think it was very rude to PM. Now I wouldn't even bother to answer them.


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## kimbaby (Jan 18, 2007)

I personally hate spammers, I haven't recoeved this pm 
so I don't know if it is legit or not, but would rather not recieve any type spam in my pm...you wonderfull members are more then welcome to send me friendly pm's but I do not want any junk mail if possible 
thats why I have filters for spam on my emails, I don't want it,need it or have a reason to keep it!


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## carolelaine (Jan 18, 2007)

Thanks for the update, I didn't notice I had a PM until I read this thread.  I would have been concerned if you hadn't cleared it up.


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## Franca (Jan 18, 2007)

kimbaby said:
			
		

> I personally hate spammers, I haven't recoeved this pm
> so I don't know if it is legit or not, but would rather not recieve any type spam in my pm...you wonderfull members are more then welcome to send me friendly pm's but I do not want any junk mail if possible
> thats why I have filters for spam on my emails, I don't want it, need it or have a reason to keep it!


I quite agree. You're fortunate you haven't received one of these, probably because there are so many members in this forum. However, if the person isn't moderated or banned you may still get one!

To admin folks: here's a suggestion ... make it as easy to report undesirable PMs as it is to report undesirable forum posts so that something like this can be stopped a *lot* quicker.

I really think that PMs should be _*personal*_ - anything else belongs out in the public forum. If it is not deemed worthy of being in the public forum it certainly should not be broadcast by PM. There is nothing personal about a survey, and there was no introductory personal message indicating they were "asking permission" to post a survey anywhere on the forum. Big red flags all over the place. 

Can individual members have their ability to send PMs disabled? That would be another option to stop this sort of abuse without going so far as to ban the member outright. (If there were any doubt that the member was simply taking advantage of the forum, which in this case, IMO, there isn't.)


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## auntdot (Jan 18, 2007)

I got it and opened it and clicked on the link.

They listed serveral websites, the only one I had ever heard of was DC, and it seems to be the only cooking site (I know most of thefood sites and they tell you what they are).

Sounds fishy to me.  Why DC?

Went no further.

Think I will delete it.

Even if they are legit there are ways to do things properly.


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## amber (Jan 18, 2007)

I received the pm as well, but I'll ignore it unless Im really bored   It seems legit according to what admins have mentioned, so I really dont care either way.  Just ignore it or delete it if you dont want to take part in the survery.  No need in getting worked up over the little things in life.  Also you can block that person in your user cp.


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## kitchenelf (Jan 18, 2007)

Franca said:
			
		

> Can individual members have their ability to send PMs disabled?



Do you really think we would have overlooked this if it WAS an option?


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## Loprraine (Jan 18, 2007)

Geez, even the spammers don't pm me.


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## callie (Jan 18, 2007)

Thanks, admins, for looking into this pm.  Not the kind of message I appreciate receiving...I'll be deleting it.  I like the idea of being able to "report this pm."


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## GB (Jan 18, 2007)

PM's or anything else can always be reported by sending a PM to an admin or mod.


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## Aria (Jan 18, 2007)

I got a PM.  Read it.  And answered it.   I was too busy and did not have time to be doing their survey.  Sorry.


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## lulu (Jan 22, 2007)

I got it, I was feeling a bit left out in the cold, but now I can join the "ignored it" group, lol.

Its not the end of the world to delete it and get on with things.


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## StirBlue (Jan 22, 2007)

For all of our DC Members who did not get the PM, I will share mine with you.

*Please Help!* 
Dear Sir/Madam

We are a group of final year undergraduates from Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore. Please accept our sincere apologies for using the forum as a platform in distributing surveys. 

As part of fulfilling our curriculum requirement, we are currently doing a research project on investigating the attitudes and opinions of members towards their virtual communities. Therefore, we require respondents who are presently involved in online communities and this is the only medium where we can contact virtual communities’ members. 

We are currently in our data process collection and would like to seek your assistance in completing our survey questionnaire. We believe the results of this exercise will enhance your experience in your virtual community in someway or another.

The success of our project will depend critically on the survey data collected. We sincerely urge you to take some time off your busy schedule in helping us complete the questionnaire. Your participation is *IMPORTANT* to us! However, this survey is not compulsory and you are not obliged in any way to attempt it should you prefer not to do so.

Please be assured that your identity will be kept anonymous. All information collected will be used solely for research purposes and kept strictly confidential. In addition, all survey data will be analyzed collectively and will not be individually scutinized.

It is our utmost pleasure to share our findings with you. Should you be interested in our research project and would like to receive a summary our preliminary survey results, kindly drop us an email at surveyfyp@gmail.com and we will respond to you as soon as possible.

Please click on this link to access our online survey questionnaire: 

http://www.nbs.ntu.edu.sg/onlinesurv...d=R6634990155Z

Your assistance is greatly appreciated. Thank you for your participation!

Regards,
Huimin
Yahui
Zaherah

IS GOING BY THE HANDLE MICKEY83............HAS NOT POSTED IN DC


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## urmaniac13 (Jan 22, 2007)

Dear me, Lulu, Pook, Stirblue, have you guys just received this now?  Is it still going on?  Or is this from a few days ago?


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## lulu (Jan 22, 2007)

No, no this is today - just got it this morning!


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## urmaniac13 (Jan 22, 2007)

Oh man, che palle!!  I thought it was all taken care of... I am afraid all the admins are asleep right now but I will see what we can do asap!


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## StirBlue (Jan 22, 2007)

urmaniac13 said:
			
		

> Dear me, Lulu, Pook, Stirblue, have you guys just received this now? Is it still going on? Or is this from a few days ago?


 
I received this tonight:
01-21-2007 Please Help! 
10:47 PM mickey83 

*And a response receipt was required.  I have seen this mickey83 some where else and I will figure out where because I do not visit many forums.  I am thinking that when I posted a list of DC members on the B&B thread, mickey83 was on the list.  I had to edit some of the names out because it was to long for the post.  *
** 
*mickey83 needs to share some recipes!   *


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## Franca (Jan 22, 2007)

urmaniac13 said:
			
		

> Oh man, che palle!!  I thought it was all taken care of... I am afraid all the admins are asleep right now but I will see what we can do asap!


It appears the spammer has signed up under another name. Although my PM spam was identical, the sender was "huamun" not "mickey83". Pretty sneaky and persistent. This is not acceptable behavior.
 Maybe ban the IP address?


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## urmaniac13 (Jan 22, 2007)

Franca said:
			
		

> It appears the spammer has signed up under another name. Although my PM spam was identical, the sender was "huamun" not "mickey83". Pretty sneaky and persistent. This is not acceptable behavior.
> Maybe ban the IP address?


 
Yes, I checked the handles and this is the same person.  I sent him a second and final warning at both accounts.  If someone receives another spam, please let us know asap, then this spammer will be a goner.


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## urmaniac13 (Jan 22, 2007)

I banned both huamun and mickey for good, however stay alert please everyone, as this guy obviously likes to sneak around, and if any of you get a spam yet again, please report to us immediately!  Thanks!


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## VeraBlue (Jan 22, 2007)

I just got one this morning...   From Mikey83.  Can a banned poster still send pms?


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## mudbug (Jan 22, 2007)

I got the mickey83 version this morning.  Ignored the read receipt request and deleted the message.


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## licia (Jan 22, 2007)

I just saw mine this morning, but it was sent yesterday. I hadn't been on before. Maybe they are really gone now.


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## Snoop Puss (Jan 22, 2007)

I've just received my copy. And I was feeling so left out... Maybe in future, admins, if you are approached about a survey that you think should perhaps be pursued (for whatever reason), it could be posted as a thread with your approval rather than have messages sent to each of us. We'd be far more likely to trust it and would know that anything arriving as a PM should be deleted toot sweet.


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## Michelemarie (Jan 22, 2007)

I just received my pm from mickey this morning, ignored rcpt and deleted.


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## mish (Jan 22, 2007)

If it had been a scratch & sniff pm with a free recipe, I might have been more inclined to click on the link  NOT!!!


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## KathyJ (Jan 22, 2007)

got mine yesterday at 7:47 pm.


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## lyndalou (Jan 22, 2007)

I was a little miffed when I saw what the PM was, but I am heartened to know that the admins here are on top of this stuff.


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## SizzlininIN (Jan 22, 2007)

Glad to know it wasn't just me that received it.  My PM is acting up though as pm's I'd responded to yesterday and then deleted are showing back up again.  I don't know if my pm's I sent yesterday went through or not.

Also, I was having trouble getting to the site awhile ago.


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## kitchenelf (Jan 22, 2007)

Snoop Puss said:
			
		

> Maybe in future, admins, if you are approached about a survey that you think should perhaps be pursued (for whatever reason), it could be posted as a thread with your approval rather than have messages sent to each of us. We'd be far more likely to trust it and would know that anything arriving as a PM should be deleted toot sweet.



Snoop - yes, we tried to "speak" with these people stating just these facts the first day they posted.  I promise we really do think of all these things and discussed that very thing when the PM first came out.  However, we didn't hear back from these people to confirm it's legitimacy, therefore, we will not put it in the open forums.


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## suzyQ3 (Jan 22, 2007)

Snoop Puss said:
			
		

> I've just received my copy. And I was feeling so left out... Maybe in future, admins, if you are approached about a survey that you think should perhaps be pursued (for whatever reason), it could be posted as a thread with your approval rather than have messages sent to each of us. We'd be far more likely to trust it and would know that anything arriving as a PM should be deleted toot sweet.



Snoop, I doubt that there would be a really good or legitimate reason to let any outside group conduct a survey here. And as kitchenelf noted, they didn't respond to inquiries regarding their intent.


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## YT2095 (Jan 22, 2007)

I tried emailing them back and making Friends with them, they totaly ignored me also 

so as a result I flatly refuse to fill in their silly survey and I hope it hurts them as much as they hurt me! SO THERE! :P


surely a relationship should be 2 Way!?
)))))))))


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## kitchenelf (Jan 22, 2007)

We offered to help them also - I can only surmise they are not on the up and up and are harvesting some kind of information when you respond to them.


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## YT2095 (Jan 22, 2007)

a BOT blocker might be a good idea to have here on sign up, one of those thingies with the random letters and numbers in a box, different colors and twisted typeface/font that CHR Recog bots cant read.

a Human can type it back in, a bot cannot 



just a thought


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## kitchenelf (Jan 22, 2007)

We are working on several things right now YT  Our Tech Department just had to get to the new server first.


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## Aria (Jan 22, 2007)

Everyone......please do not spend time worrying on this subject.  Our administrators are working and taking care of all problems.  One problem in order of importance.  All is well.  We are in good hands.  Our site originator and his staff are FINE and work hard to keep things working for us.


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## PytnPlace (Jan 22, 2007)

How do I delete the message from "Micky", I keep trying and can't figure it out.


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## Andy M. (Jan 22, 2007)

If you're referring to a PM, go to the page that lists your inbox messages. There is a little check box at the far right of the title line for each PM. Click on that box to put a check mark in it (and any others you want to delete at the same time) then go down the window to the end of the PM listing. In the blue bar, there is a Selected Messages window that says Move to folder... Click on the down arrow to expose the drop down menu then click on the option you want - Delete - then click on Go. All the PMs you checked off will be gone.


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## suzyQ3 (Jan 22, 2007)

Pook said:
			
		

> HAHAHA!! I love cussing out a spammer. Sorry. And if it happens again they're in for it from me yet again. I have no patience with such.
> Hugs,
> Pook



I guess if it gives you pleasure, then hey. Personally, I think it's a waste of time and either just tell them not to message me again or, better yet, ignore and delete. They really aren't interested in anybody's anger or frustration.


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## Stinker (Jan 22, 2007)

Just my little ole 2 cents, lol.  I got the same PM from Mickey and I just deleted it.  As I have been reading I can see the Administrators are doing everything they can.  Good luck with it.    Thanks


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## Mrs. Cuillo (Jan 23, 2007)

Aria said:
			
		

> Everyone......please do not spend time worrying on this subject. Our administrators are working and taking care of all problems. One problem in order of importance. All is well. We are in good hands. Our site originator and his staff are FINE and work hard to keep things working for us.


 

I strongly agree!! This site is amazing and I have full confidence that the admins are doing what they can. All the ideas mentioned here are great but some are not possible. This site allows EVERYONE because we want almost everyone to enjoy it just as much as we do. One bad apple shouldn't ruin it for all of us. I think that more times that not the people that sign up to become a member of this site are here to enjoy it...not ruin it. Just let the admins do what they can and notify them when you see something fishy. They can only do so much at a time. "Patience young padawon."~Obi Wan Kanobi 
 
Thank you admins for doing what you can.


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## texasgirl (Jan 23, 2007)

I got it also and just deleted it. I think you guys are doing what you can and I thank you!!!


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## NYBrit (Jan 23, 2007)

I got a message too and just ignored it.


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