Keep it going Greg.
Frank has helped a lot of people on here and other forums.
Ex77
Due to the number of Exiges out there vs all Lotus cars this site is always going to be smaller than SELOC et al.
Due to the number of Exiges leaving these shores vs the number being produced the membership is going to dwindle IMO.
That said, there is an issue with profiles not being approved (by me).
The trouble is, there are 8975 profiles in the queue to be approved, of which I’d suspect only 75 of those are real people, the rest are generated by automated “bots” looking to spam the forum with their wares. Even with CAPTCHAs etc in place, the spammers are always a step ahead at getting around the countermeasures.
The amount of new profiles created daily/weekly is too great for any one person to handle on a part time basis.
If you guys collectively want to handle it, I can appoint “user administrators” who can manually review the pending accounts queue… but it’ll be devils own job knowing who is a real account and who isn’t.
In terms of people who have been banned, I’ve always said this place should be like a friendly pub, it is no place for loud mouths or trouble makers. There are plenty of other websites for that. I’d rather the site had 5 friendly posts a day, than 500 bun fight posts.
If you’re interested in being a moderator email me david at splut dot com and I’ll take a look.
Sounds good David, although i think the new V6 ownership helps replace those cars lost to overseas buyers.
Maybe a V6 could be added to the top of the page now?
As for spotting spammers though, i don’t envy anyone with that task.
Yep, if anyone wants to do a new graphic, be my guest
Thanks for posting up David.
There it is then guys, a chance to turn the site around from its current state. 
I cant believe there isn’t a way to weed out the spammers. i wouldnt even know what to suggest re anti spam software there is out there for forums other than like you say manually doing after any software has done its bit.
Like i said my computer skills are not brilliant by any means (read that as rubbish), but looking at the face of it could we not have a private registered area where there is a introductions page. The whole forum (as it is now) is open for anyone and everyone to read all areas so the only reason for wanting to become a member in the first place is to have the ability to post up. So before your allowed to post in any other areas of the forum (even in the registered area other than the introductions page) you must introduce yourself to the current forum users first. Sort of like your account is approved but still on hold. Like you said, in a friendly pub you wouldn’t sit down at a table with a bunch of strangers without introducing yourself first or at some point early on during your conversation. Once you make your first post in introductions your account gets manually activated by one of the admin based on its content. Ie if it goes along the lines of "hello, im Gav i own a s2 exige for the last 3 months looking forward to meeting some of your guys at one of your meets etc etc, then on the face of it its bona fide and it gets approved within 24hrs of it being posted. If its selling watch straps and viagra then it gets manually rejected. For the best part the regualr users will not use the area other than saying hello back to the ones that should be coming through.
Only thing I will say is that no one like to make a first post and not get a response back, It must be the approving Admins role to at least welcome the new member on board with their approval
Its a very manual way of doing it but it as good as it will be at sorting the wheat from the chaff and the regulars are not going to be offended if spam gets through into just one area as it can be easily ignored.
Anyone else with ideas?
Sounds like a good idea Gav
It’s a good start Gav.
Some of us more geeky types may end up asking for a phpBB add-on to assist with some automated filtering to reduce the number of ‘bot’ attempts. This will still require David’s assistance but if we organise it well enough we can reduce the ask on David’s time.
I’ll tip in some time, and I’m sure they is a way to sort the spam issue.
Maybe set all the forums to require a minimum post count of 1, and then leave the ‘welcome’ forum open to allow people to get to 1. Doubt the bots will figure that soon.
T
I’m happy to have a go at this as I did the vector version of the logo for the sunstrips. It might take me a few weeks though…
Go for it 
I’ll consider myself suitably chastised over my lack of posting. 
I don’t have the technical knowledge of most on here, hence my tendency not to post much other than the Meets & Trackdays section.
This site was invaluable to me when I was swithering over the 340R or Exige. It was a great source of info and I think the car I eventually bought was through an ad on here. The last car sold was also through here. I’ve met some truly great folks through this site and shared some great times. I do think the limited numbers makes it a friendlier and closer knit community than any other forum I occasionally look at.
I’ll try and be a bit more active, just don’t expect much in the way of content!! 
Occasionally i see a thread on seloc or pistonheads about how it’s impossible to get an account here and i can relate - it took me something like 6 years to get approved with multiple attempts, I’ve not comes across anything like that on any other forum so hopefully you can find a way around the spammers. It’s not a big deal though, I just come here to buy Sean’s Lotus bits and see if anyone’s coming on track.
The time spent running the forum is appreciated btw, I’m sure the intention of this thread isn’t to complain.
No complaint at all. Its because of this website i plucked up the guts to go racing my first exige back in 06 after meeting up with the racing members on here - RussT, Pesky, Randy, JDS, The Edwards boys, SeanB to name but a few (even old scuffers x)
I hold the place dear to my heart in many ways, its home on the internet for lotus for me and just cant stand to see it as it is now, someone had to post up something…
Seconded Gav. The enthusiasm here was one of the reasons I bought my car in the first place.
I come here every day but have not said much as I am without car 
For some reason most forums are quiet compared to how they used to be, Norlog is really dead and even seloc seems quiet. Maybe it’s a sign of the times with people using toy cars less and spending less on mods etc.
That would be great Ben!
Just make sure you have them lined up in order of ‘coolness’ 
(S1 first of course!) 
Love your introductions page idea Gav and I have e-mailed David saying I wouldn’t mind being a moderator.
This place means a lot to me too. It got me racing and I have met a lot of close friends from here.
I am with David though, I would hate this place to turn into a slagging forum.
David, if you do appoint moderators, can they have an area to discuss any potential bannings etc, so they are done via committee, rather than just one persons opinion?
I mean imagine if Pete was a moderator, we would all be banned following one of his binge drinking, piss up nights in on his own, once he had run out of loo roll and jazz mags! 
Good thinking Gav, i like that idea.
Benja - thanks for having a go, i mentioned it but do not have a clue as to how to make it happen.
I’ve owned and moderated a forum so have put my hat in the ring to help anyway I can
PMSL
Sean very very good!!!
I agree re the committee for banning etc