Sunday 31 May 2009

SUNSET RIDE FOR BROKEN TRAILS

Today someone hacked into Broken Trails and commented on just about everything in gibberish.
I've had to put a comment moderator on - something that I did not want to do as I wanted people to feel free to comment as they liked. Not sit at my computer and censor comments. Gives people the impression that if they say something that I don't agree with that I won't publish it.
Broken Trails wasn't built that way.
Broken Trails - in my wife's words - is like a magazine. That was the original intention - to write about all sorts of things and, sometimes, use a theme or a trail if you like.
At the moment I am not sure whether to continue with this blog - I don't know what damage this hacker has done - or whether to start afresh or what.
For the time being there will be no more posts until I have thought things through.
In the meantime - Thank You to everyone who has followed or read my blogs.

9 comments:

David Cranmer said...

Ray, I’m sorry to hear that someone has hacked your blog. I hope they weren’t able to alter your posts and did nothing more than leave BS comments.
It’s a shame because the Broken Trail is one of my must read blogs.

Gary Dobbs/Jack Martin said...

Please keep it coming - I've had some spam but it's eased off now. Keep going Ray

Chris said...

Rats! Dumb old commenter! I've noticed this happening on a couple of other blogs. Maybe you could disable comments for awhile?

Hope to see you back soon...I'm actually back as of now!

Jo Walpole said...

Sorry to hear that Ray but I know how you feel. A troll once decided to leave a personal attack on my blog and I didn't touch it again for about 2 years. I think you're doing the best thing by walking away and giving yourself time to decide whiether it's worth the hassle. Re. moderation on comments - I don't mind it myself because generally I understand the reason for it.

I.J. Parnham said...

Ray, don't panic and give up. This is a fairly common problem that affects blogs. Spammers (rather than hackers) trying to promote their services have put comments for others to find. They haven't infiltrated your computer's security.

Putting comment moderation on for a while should keep the unwanted comments from appearing publicly and you can delete the ones that are there through your dashboard.

Craig Clarke said...

In a strange way this is a compliment, because the spammers only target blogs that a lot of people read. Keep up the great work.

Nik Morton said...

Sorry to hear you've had this trouble, Ray. There are a lot of sad people sitting in front of computers, Ray, with nothing better to do than cause hassle. All I can do is endorse David, Gary, Jo and Ian - keep going if you can. I do really enjoy your blog.

Randy Johnson said...

Yes, hang in there. It's probably not as bad as it looks and I ,too, look forward to your posts.

Steve M said...

Ray, don't give the blog up. I had this problem some time ago (31 spam posts in one day) I just deleted them through the dashboard and put comment moderation on for a week or two. So far I haven't been hit again but I'm sure I will be. Have noticed Gary's got a new one on TA too.

Steve