Thank you webmaster for coming on Saturday and liquidating that horrible Korean spam.

Where is that LIKE button! Thumbs up to the IT crew. Many thanks from me as well.

Team work for the win!! A very keen forum member had warned the Webmaster of spam attacks exactly like this one on Trip Advisor and other travel sites, so thanks to her, we were ready.

We'll continue to remain vigilant throughout the weekend to make sure we're ahead of this.

Yes, thanks very much for cleaning up this mess! Especially on a weekend.

I just can't understand why anyone does this. What do they get out of it?

WOOHOO! Thanks for your great work!

Thank you for getting rid of this mess! The RS Web Dept. is the best!

Thank you!!!

Thanks for the clean up. I was despairing of being able to use the forum until Monday - glad to have it back!

Thank you Kate!
I was having a terrible time figuring out how to have my morning coffee without the Travel Forum--it just can't be done!

Checked on the site before I went out this morning and it was yikes! By the time I came home it was all cleaned up! I had thought it would be a very lonely weekend without the site but way to go to the RS staff. Thanks so very much!

Adding another thank you to the webmaster and team. Darcy, I know just what you mean!

First of all...they could have sat at home and deleted the spam in their pajamas. Second of all... they could give us a website where spambots can't create accounts and continually spam the forum. Rick Steves has always been behind on technology whether it's recommendations for phones in Europe or this forums software. That they revamped the entire website but didn't make it secure from spammers is pretty lame. They probably figure it doesn't matter since the only forum that skews older with members that are not technologically astute is AARP.

So thanks for too little too late.

nice attitude, Richard.

Thanks Kate and Andrew.

(have you seen the craigslists ones that seem to have made it through the net?)

It may have been very nasty, and it was, and I was off line because of it for about 4 hours, but that's way faster than TA.... yay RS Team!

Actually, I think they stopped the attack and cleaned it up pretty quickly. It was going on at TA for at least 15-18 hours and then took longer to get things cleaned out over there. I am sure the TA IT department is many times larger than the RS department!

Another grateful forum member saying Thank You So Much to the webteam for keeping an eye on this and cleaning up so quickly!

Thanks, Webmaster and team.

Nothing to say about Mr. Grumpy.

Sheesh, Richard.

You can always be an expert with an unfounded opinion on the internet. Because you can hide behind a name, make any claim you like with no accountability. Some are best ignored but appreciate those who know how to do the job.

Well, Richard from LA, why don't you apply for the job? Only then we can judge that you are as good as you are hinting.

Thank you, thank you web staff! I was worried I was going to miss the forum all weekend.

Given the choice between snarky, ungrateful posts and the Korean spam, I'll take the spam.

Richard is just flexing his tech muscles. Made him feel good for a minute or two.

R. Steves once said "If things are not to your liking, then change your liking". We are not being charged anything (or being inundated with ads) to use this forum. Why must some always look a gift horse in the mouth? Personally I think they do an excellent job. Stuff happens. Live with it. TC

They're baaack! Hope the spam catcher is ready.

They are back!
Webmaster needs "SpamBusters" to the rescue!

Spam busters win again!

Was that soon enough for you, Richard?

Thank you from me too. :O)

Thank you, thank you! We appreciate the RS IT staff!

Most forums these days use a feature called "Captcha" that requires a human eye to complete and rules out spam bots. If the spammers are actually spending time creating email addresses and then manually creating accounts to spam it is a bit harder to stop. Many forums recruit volunteer moderators to police spam as the paid moderators can spend a lot of time reading through the posts and as it is, they require us to report offending posts.

If the RS forum decides to go with volunteers, I recommend they not consider people who ignored the established community policies to chastise me for having an opposing opinion.

I didn't see the offending posts, but would also like to extend a heartfelt "thanks" to the hard working web team!

I have seen the "captcha" feature on some foreign hotel websites, where one has to send a request for a reservation. And a few other situations, where one signs up for a newsletter or request information. But I have never seen that security device on a travel forum, and I visit quite a few. Not even in the registration process, where it might be useful in screening out bots.

And ... they're back!!

Spammers can get round captchas these days which is why their use if anything is on the decline because genuine users find them annoying.

Yep, they're back.

They are back unfortunately and they chose to infect Croatia.

And it is now horrible to use this site on my travel ipad. Webmaster, you've got to make changes to something that will work. Even if that means that new posters cannot initiate their first post until they respond to an e-mail, one that comes from someone at your end who has looked at this and physically sent it out, and not automated by the site. I know you don't want to slow down new people who are looking to get questions answered, but with this going on they will not find their info. I would bet that if this were done for a time the word would get around.

If a simplistic approach like this can be defeated by the Spammers, then wouldn't that indicate that your website is incredibly insecure?

Again, thanks for the quick clean up this morning!

I'm not sure continuous grousing about the spam is going to change anything anytime soon. The webmaster has already addressed the issue (I'm sure more times than he/she would like) and are taking whatever steps they deem necessary.

If the spam really gets to you, then stay off the forum for a few hours and it will most likely be gone when you come back.

I too miss the forum when it gets flooded with spam and I have to go do other things. But it's not the end of the world; worse things are happening.

Reddit spam is back:
https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/italy/me-is-his-chafing-at-his-fish

I'll take that reddit spam or the fake passport/drivers license spam over the Korean spam any day! At least those dont have bots that are posting every 30-45 seconds!

Hey I just wanted to pop in and say thank you again for the (mostly) kind and appreciative words. It really means a lot that you guys notice the hard work and difficulty that goes in to keeping our forums clean and usable. We're pretty proud of the fact that we were able to clean up the spam using the various technologies we only have at our disposal because of the forum redesign, and that instead of the forum being taken down completely, like Trip Advisor and the others, we have been able to rid the forum of spam within hours, if not immediately.

Nikky, our absolute rock-star developer who has remained vigilant all weekend and stopping so many waves of attacks before they start it's almost ridiculous, and I have been watching the forum all weekend and we will continue to do so as the attacks continue their course.

Thanks again for your appreciation, understanding, and kind words. What could have been an absolute disaster has only been a minor inconvenience. And the gushing would not be complete without specifically mentioning the person who clued us in and prepared us: Pam. Thank you, thank you, thank you. I'm looking for a tiara and a wand to send you. Thank you!!

Thank you so much for all your hard work, Kate and Nikky and Andrew, too. Kudos to Pam for seeing this coming! You guys do a fantastic job here cleaning up spam and keeping everything running smoothly!

Well, everybody who is now old was once young. And almost everybody who is now young will be once old (if (s)he lives that long). There is a reason why majority of people on R.S. (and other) tours are little older. Most people (in this country) get very short or no paid vacation and also retire later than in most other developed countries.

Oh, the post which made me to write my previous one is no longer there. About old people on tours AARP group and so on.

It's still there Ilja, posted by Richard on 2/28 at 10:48.

Thank you from me as well. I always seem to miss these spam attacks, but do get a nice chuckle at some of the subject lines for the spams when I get to see them every once in awhile. If they want folks to unknowingly click on them, they should try things like "planning ten countries in twelve days, good idea?". They'll be sure to get plenty of traffic then!

Maryam, you would not get any chuckle this time unless you read and understand Korean.