"Not authorized to read this forum" message

[apistomaster]

I have received this messages several times in the past after clicking on the link within the email notifications. Not often but several times a year.
I am presently having the same problem when trying to click on:
http://www.planetcatfish.com/forum/view ... 3&e=208343" within the most recent email notification.
There is no pattern to the problem except that it is rare, intermittent and no matter how many times I try I can't get through.
I don't have any problem with the link to the thread itself.
I am properly logged in; it even shows that on the denial of access page that comes up.
Any thoughts on why this happens?

[MatsP]

That's because the post was moved to the Spam forum before you got round to reading it. Since it's spam, I suspect you're not really interested in it anyways.

When spam is "spotted", we move it to a "secret" spam container, where it eventually gets destroyed [but we recycle the bits, so no waste! ;)]. The reason for not just deleting it is so that if someone objects to the removal, we can resurrect it [this rarely happens - I know of one instance in the last several months]. Spammers are also, normally, banned immediately.

To avoid the search-bots and regular users reading these posts, the spam container is a hidden forum that only moderators can see - which is why you get the "not authorized" message.

Aside from being quicker than the moderators in reading the posts, I think there is nothing that can be done to fix this.

--
Mats

[Jools]

I'm glad you asked this as it draws attention to the "under the bonnet" work that the mods do in the fight against human generated spam.

This will happen from time to time as part of the strategy of signature line spamming is to target the more popular topics.

The only other way to "fix" this would be to slow down how quickly the forum sends out notification emails - not good either. As this post has been intelligently titled by Larry, anyone now searching the site on the error message will also find this explanation.

I will move it to resolved.

Jools

[apistomaster]

Jools and Mats,
I appreciate your explanation but was this automatically triggered because my computer is infected with malware?
I has happened very infrequently over the years but I guess I don't understand why a link to a post would be blocked unless there was deleterious content hidden from me which resides in my computers. It has happened with all 3 machines at some time or another but I do have what are considered to be pretty good anti-malware programs on each machine and they are kept "patched".

[Jools]

Larry,

Sorry, we've maybe not explained it well. This happens when a post is moved to an area that you (or any other non-moderator) is not authorized to view. It has nothing to do with your computer. Bear in mind that the email telling you links to a specific post within a topic. That is important as it's the post not the topic you are not authorised to view.

Timeline:

1. Spammer posts in a thread you're subscribed to, time passes.
2. Forum sends out notification emails, time passes.
3. A moderator identifies the spam and moves the post, time passes.
4. You try to view the post but it's where you can't see it and so you get the "not authorised" message.

Hope that makes sense. In summary, this is working as it should.

Jools

[apistomaster]

Jools,
Thank you for helping me understand the process and it is always nice hear that one's computers are not the source of the ubiquitous problem of netbots facilitating spamming.