ADMIN: Account creation disabled / Future of WAN?

For several months now I have seen nothing on here but spam.

I have blocked the creation of new accounts because I am getting sick and tired of doing nothing but deleting it.

Existing users can still log in and post as normal.

Is anyone still out there?

I'm thinking that the time may have come to admit that WAN has served its purpose and should be laid to rest.

Waves hands

I'm still out here, but I've had similar thoughts over the last few months. Even the reappearance of Dagg failed to kindle more sparks. (Sad to admit.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VScSEXRwUqQ

Like Bigmal out of hell I'll be gone when the morning comes...

- WANloaf

I still check once a week... to find nothing much.

Always time for a quick LOL though.

>Always time for a quick LOL though.

>Published by Silent Rob at 6:03am on Tue 6th July 2021.

L. O. L

Poor ol' WAN.

This reply represents 20% of all my responses made in the 11 years since I joined.

Can we start a thread on Cambridge bands of the 90's again, or memories of the cement works?

Or "What Arbury is really like" that seemed popular.

There's lots of new bits of Cambridge I've never been to, don't even know their names - what are they like? Will I get mugged in any of them?

its a bit warm. i wonder if the Jesus Green lilo will be overrun if they open up on July 19th (currently booking only)

It's coming up to my annual post about the Wantasy Football League. Not that anyone new ever joins; anyone that was in it from before just rolls over into the new one. There were 4 people in it last season. I think two of us were actively playing.

Maybe there's life in the old dog yet.

I also considered a technically trickier but less restrictive way to combat the spam, which is to forbid newly created accounts from posting links. Newcomers would have to actually contribute to threads for a while, at which point link posting can be manually enabled. Existing accounts would gain this ability automatically; maybe there are a few "sleeper" accounts in there, but all of the spam I've seen this year has come from new accounts.

What do people think of this idea?

You’re the webmaster WF, I will bow down to your view. Make new users crawl through barbed wire and jump through hoops of fire before they can post if you think that is best. Maybe just do that to spammers?

Maybe just do that to spammers?

The only way to find out who the spammers are is to wait until they post their spam, at which point I have to delete it.

its probably heresy to mention but i post on a Cambridge discord and lurk in another. not sure if anyone else is there. obv there's no name and shame but a bit more chat, the occasional lol

WAN very much has a purpose for anyone who's hoping to rent property in Cambridge and curious about the reputation of a certain letting agent.

Russells is now Leaders, I think, who are just as shit.

Do you think they changed their name because everyone in Cambridge associates Russells with terrible service? Because if you search for them google shows them being lying scumbags? :]

LOL

Oh, that makes sense - there was a Nextdoor thread recently where someone wanted recommendations for a letting agency. Leaders came up several times as one to avoid; I did wonder why no-one mentioned Russells!

Oh I saw that thread. That site is dreadful though. I can only bear to be on it for short periods.

I thought we'd disappeared again!

I quite like it, it is just like modern times, locked down, it opens, you go to the pub, then it shuts again.

Yup. For some reason the database server sometimes decides to self-isolate. When this happens I need to do a PCR test to convince it that it's safe to keep going outside. ;)