Attention ShackHosts

[Paula Carden]

What happened with the Shack? Was it the server?
Curious minds want to know?:confused:

[ccstampin12]

Yup!
Please communicate with us.
We just want to know what's happening!
Joanie

[Patty]

We sure do. We probably would have been more patient if we knew what was going on. Thank you for restoring us!!

[Paula Carden]

Yes - It is good to be back online!

[Artyfarty]

It is only in the last couple of months I am pondering over whether to actaully renew this year and just stay as a junior member, not because of the fee but due to the fact the hosts are not forthcomming or as active as our previous host fairy.I have concerns as to why the shack is down so often and whether in fact we are having our comfy rug pulled from under our feet.
I have made some fab friends, well with exception to one ! but again I feel the promises made were just red herrings and my gut instinct says something is amiss lately esp with all the down time the shack has had.

[Lori]

Does the site go down often? I don't want to suscribe if I can't get on.

[tesschap]

It is only in the last couple of months I am pondering over whether to actaully renew this year and just stay as a junior member, not because of the fee but due to the fact the hosts are not forthcomming or as active as our previous host fairy.I have concerns as to why the shack is down so often and whether in fact we are having our comfy rug pulled from under our feet.
I have made some fab friends, well with exception to one ! but again I feel the promises made were just red herrings and my gut instinct says something is amiss lately esp with all the down time the shack has had.

This is exactly why I have chosen not to renew my membership. I also have a gut instinct and the lack of communication has tipped me over the edge!

[ccstampin12]

I'm so sad that so many of my GOOD Shackie friends are not renewing memberships!
I guess, at this time, I'll just ride it out and hope for the best!
HUGS
Joanie

[hutchink]

I have to say it is for the same reason I will not be renewing my member as well!

[Patty]

C'mon girls--please don't leave. We have such a bond. It's easy to be enthusiastic when things are great. It's when the going gets rough that we really show ourselves. Like being a Yankee fan only when they win. We can do this--I'm sure the hosts don't want this to fail either. We all want the same thing--Let's give it another year. We know how to contact each other if it fails, and I think the hosts understand how we feel now. C'mon, $1 a month is worth it, isn't it??

[Paula Carden]

I am planning on renewing also. I think my date is in the next week or so. It certainly is worth it to me but I do understand that it is frustrating when it is down.
Maybe things will get better now that the server has new firewalls.

[maxiesmom]

Hi Hosts, let me add my thanks that you got us all fixed and back together. You can also count me among those planning on keeping my Plus membership, but who would like some further information on what's being done to prevent the frequent down times we've been experiencing.

I'm not doing any bashing here, but even though this is just a crafting website, we know aren't curing cancer here, we are still paying customers to your business. As such, a little communication goes a LONG way in easing people minds. I am quite sure I am not the only one the past few days who has wondered if the Shack was just going to disappear completely never to be heard from again.
A little straight talk from your end would be just what the doctor ordered.

Additionally, the little extras that made it special here, the membership raffle, Bingo and Survivor games seem to have disappeared. Frankly, it really seems as if we have absentee landlords, you don't do anything extra for our site anymore, including letting us know when things go awry.
thanks again

[limeyscrapper]

Hi Hosts, let me add my thanks that you got us all fixed and back together. You can also count me among those planning on keeping my Plus membership, but who would like some further information on what's being done to prevent the frequent down times we've been experiencing.

I'm not doing any bashing here, but even though this is just a crafting website, we know aren't curing cancer here, we are still paying customers to your business. As such, a little communication goes a LONG way in easing people minds. I am quite sure I am not the only one the past few days who has wondered if the Shack was just going to disappear completely never to be heard from again.
A little straight talk from your end would be just what the doctor ordered.
thanks again

I'm with you Kathy,
I got back from my vacation on Thursday night, and then on Friday morning I found that the Shack had vanished. I waited patiently all day on Friday, and most of Saturday, thinking that something catastrophic had happened while I was gone, and that you were all lost to me.
Or, that you had all been moved to some other place and someone had forgotten to tell me.
I am a member on some other sites, some for business and some for hobbies. Most of them have an email system whereby the managers of the site will let us know if there are any problems, and when we might expect to get back onto the site. We do not have to rely on communications from other paid members. I think a little more communication is needed here.

[HeatherJ]

I will renew mine as well in April, even though I unchecked the automatic Subscription box on my PayPal. I enjoy you gals too much not to hang around! And my hope is to be able to swap again this fall, after my masters is completed!

[workin4stamps]

My opinion is probably not going to be very popular, but I'm going to say it anyway. I think we need to give the Shack Host the benefit of the doubt here. While I agree 100% that a little more communication would be nice, I think we should all remember that we are only paying $12 a YEAR here. Not $12 a month! I have NO CLUE what it costs to run a sight such as this, but I can't imagine it's cheap. And now knowing what is going on with the spammers, it's about to get more expensive I'm guessing. I think that we get a lot for $1 a month.

I don't even know how long the sight was down, but I know that people were posting on Wednesday----and on Friday night we had a message from the Shack Host of what was going on. I really don't think that's an extraordinary amount of time. I imagine he has a life other than running this website.

Maybe if we knew more about the Shack Host, we would all feel a little more at ease. What are his intentions here? Why did he buy this website? Exactly how much does it cost to operate this site on a monthly basis, and how much money is it really making?? Do we need to figure out a way to make some more money so we can upgrade some things to prevent this from happening in the future?? Maybe I'm naive, but I imagine that there is not much money being made here, and I don't think anyone is getting rich off of us or anything. I honestly feel like at times, this sight is probably more trouble to him than it's worth! So we might just be lucky that anybody wants to run it at all!

I think there is just so much "unknown" that it makes us all a bit nervous. We all knew Sherry, and we knew why she wanted The Stamp Shack, but the Shack Host is just so mysterious!!! Does he care if we are all left hanging without someplace to go??

I too worry that one day this sight will be no longer. I would miss it if it were gone. I wish the Shack Host would give us a little more insight on things, but at the same time I am grateful for what we have here.

Now---don't even get me started on what suggestions I would make if I could. I think there are a lot of things going wrong here lately--and most of it doesn't have to do with the techical aspect of the sight at all. I think our swapping system needs a major overhaul, and I don't understand why people who are suspended are allowed to post, etc etc.

But those are problems for another day. First things first, let's just try and get this place to stay running for a while. I also wish the Shack Host would tell us if there is anything we can do to help. I think we all feel like we're a little community here (and we are!), and we would like to feel a little more community with our keeper.

[maxiesmom]

Maybe if we knew more about the Shack Host, we would all feel a little more at ease. What are his intentions here? Why did he buy this website? Exactly how much does it cost to operate this site on a monthly basis, and how much money is it really making?? Do we need to figure out a way to make some more money so we can upgrade some things to prevent this from happening in the future?? Maybe I'm naive, but I imagine that there is not much money being made here, and I don't think anyone is getting rich off of us or anything. I honestly feel like at times, this sight is probably more trouble to him than it's worth! So we might just be lucky that anybody wants to run it at all!

I think there is just so much "unknown" that it makes us all a bit nervous. We all knew Sherry, and we knew why she wanted The Stamp Shack, but the Shack Host is just so mysterious!!! Does he care if we are all left hanging without someplace to go??

I too worry that one day this sight will be no longer. I would miss it if it were gone. I wish the Shack Host would give us a little more insight on things, but at the same time I am grateful for what we have here.

Now---don't even get me started on what suggestions I would make if I could. I think there are a lot of things going wrong here lately--and most of it doesn't have to do with the techical aspect of the sight at all. I think our swapping system needs a major overhaul, and I don't understand why people who are suspended are allowed to post, etc etc.

But those are problems for another day. First things first, let's just try and get this place to stay running for a while. I also wish the Shack Host would tell us if there is anything we can do to help. I think we all feel like we're a little community here (and we are!), and we would like to feel a little more community with our keeper.


What she said!! I think we'd all like to be able to help keep this great website and make it even better.

[Kreative Dryve]

Very well said Traci! I am one that will be re-newing my subscription when the time comes. I like what I get for a dollar a month. I too wish there was more communication from the shack hosts. I was just wondering if we look at the big picture, how many times in the last year was the shack down. If it was only a few times, we are still getting a great crafting site in my mind. I love this place, and the many ladies I have met over the last few years and those I knew from PCMB. If we were to have another site then I would follow (anyone wanna take on that headache). I just wanna say I am happy to have this place to call home.

[Paula Carden]

Traci, Kathy, Chris and others -well said. We did know Sherry- she shared our love for stamping and friendship so we knew she would communicate with us. If our new owners would tell us what to do to make it better, etc..I bet we are all willing.
I would be missing the shack for sure if it disappeared and have made some great friends that enjoy the same things I do. I get so much here and you are right 1.00 per month isn't anything compared to the enjoyment I get here.
Perhaps the new hosts will talk to us since they know we are not angry just wanting to know what to do to help etc....
The Shack is our home away from home!!

[Merry4003]

I agree with Traci too !

[shadoob]

Traci,
Could you copy and paste that in an email to the host? I think it is well said and shares some of the concerns...

[mydogstinks2]

Traci are you reading my mind!! LOL You said it all well. I'm sticking around as long as the shack is here!

[limeyscrapper]

BTW - Traci mentioned getting a message from the Shack Hosts.
I didn't receive any message - did I miss something ?

[workin4stamps]

Chris--the Shack Host posted this on the yahoo group. I thought it was late Friday night, but it was really like 1:00 in the morning on Saturday..........but anywho.....here it is:

On Sat, 2/13/10, shackhost <[email protected]> wrote:


From: shackhost <[email protected]>
Subject: [shackieupdates] Shack Update on server issue
To: [email protected]
Date: Saturday, February 13, 2010, 1:25 AM



Well, once again we are working through a server issue. This time our server has been overloaded by spammers to the point where it shutdown the system. We are working to update firewall settings to block these attempts.

For quick background, many spammers use automated programs that go through the web and target sites with repeated attempts to post spam messages. The Shack has security to prevent the spam messages, but when the spammers automated programs make repeated attempts it overloads the server. This is similar to when you are trying to run too many programs on your computer and your computer starts running very slowly and/or freezes.

We hope to have this resolved quickly and upgrade our firewall protection to keep more of these spam attempts away from The Stamp Shack.

[cindi]

Traci hit the nail right on the head. I will be renewing and I hope all my shackie sistahs will still be here
:)

[dancing queen]

I'm hanging in too... but I will change the auto-renewal part of my paypal account. I've met so many friends here that it's well worth the $. But it would be nice if we could all have gotten an email. There must be a lot of spamming going on because I just got an email from Gina K indicating that StampTV has also had some serious spamming problems (but notice that I said "I got an email from Gina K..."

[shadoob]

I'm hanging in too... but I will change the auto-renewal part of my paypal account. I've met so many friends here that it's well worth the $. But it would be nice if we could all have gotten an email. There must be a lot of spamming going on because I just got an email from Gina K indicating that StampTV has also had some serious spamming problems (but notice that I said "I got an email from Gina K..."

I'v esuggested this to the hosts in the past--perhaps they may consider it. I owuld, if it was my business.

[ccstampin12]

Well said, Traci!
I totally agree with you!
HUGS
Joanie

[ngreek]

I will more then likely extending my membership. I agree with what Traci and others have said.

I understand the need for communication.. With working in a managment position I also know that people do not like the I Don't know or questions that can not be answered. I hope we all can take those as answers when an email is sent.

I know I come on and read the message board and do get involved in swaps. I do not do more then that.. I am wondering if we are wanting more from this site as what can we do? Yes Sherry went above and beyond to do things that people wanted... We may need to take more of an initiative to have things added or things planned. If we are a true community it is others doing more to create it versus just select few.I am guessing the current hosts have more then this site going on in there lives and culd use some of us stepping up to help.

[Seaside Rose]

<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><meta name="ProgId" content="Word.Document"><meta name="Generator" content="Microsoft Word 11"><meta name="Originator" content="Microsoft Word 11"><link rel="File-List" href="file:///C:%5CUsers%5CDABOSS%7E1%5CAppData%5CLocal%5CTemp%5 Cmsohtml1%5C01%5Cclip_filelist.xml"><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:WordDocument> <w:View>Normal</w:View> <w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:PunctuationKerning/> <w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/> <w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:Compatibility> <w:BreakWrappedTables/> <w:SnapToGridInCell/> <w:WrapTextWithPunct/> <w:UseAsianBreakRules/> <w:DontGrowAutofit/> </w:Compatibility> <w:BrowserLevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</w:BrowserLevel> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" LatentStyleCount="156"> </w:LatentStyles> </xml><![endif]--><style> <!-- /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:""; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";} @page Section1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} --> </style><!--[if gte mso 10]> <style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language:#0400; mso-fareast-language:#0400; mso-bidi-language:#0400;} </style> <![endif]--> I’m another member who is also staying and will renew my membership when its up because I care a lot about the friends that I have made here and I'm invested in seeing the Shack continue. I share a lot of Traci’s and Kathy’s thoughts and so while some of this may seem redundant, these are my thoughts:<o:p></o:p>
<u3:p> </u3:p><o:p></o:p>
Personally, I think there is more to this outage than a simple spamming mess. Having just lived though a four and a half day outage of our own with our personal network, I have more insight into this kind of stuff than I ever wanted to, but I also have managed to acquire a fairly accurate internal BS meter when it comes to this kind of stuff and my warning meter has been off the charts on this one. A spammer jam might have started or finished it, but I am having a great deal of trouble understanding how that could have kept us off-line for so many consecutive days, with rare, brief blips where we were up, unless the Shack owner simply had no idea that the site was down. That would almost make me feel better on the one hand, but if that is the case, then we have to have a way to let him or someone who can fix things know that we're down! <o:p></o:p>
<o:p> </o:p>
Since this recent series of outages first began, I have been concerned that there has been more going on behind the scenes than we are aware of and that our landlord is willing to be up front with us about. The fact that these outages are happening with such frequency and seem to be lasting longer and longer is a troubling pattern. And Chris, this latest outage lasted for many more days than I think you are aware – most of the week, I think, with a couple if brief periods where folks were able to get on to the site but not do much else. I honestly don’t recall what day I first became aware of it “this” time and that’s just it – it’s been a frequent and annoying problem. Over the past several weeks, every time I have logged onto the Shack we had either just experienced an outage or we were in the midst of one. <o:p></o:p>
<u3:p> </u3:p><o:p></o:p>
I am concerned that there may be financial problems with the site – I can’t see how it is generating any income for the new owner – but I wonder if he is even aware when the site is down (they can’t fix it if they are unaware if it’s broken). Not having our owner as an active, participating member means that they really don’t have a vested interest in seeing that this site operates at its most optimal, because if it doesn’t, it doesn’t affect them. And if they aren't spending time on Shack, they truly may not know it's down. <o:p></o:p>
<u3:p> </u3:p><o:p></o:p>
Someone used the phrase “absentee landlord”. I couldn’t have said it better. The lack of communication – and the totally impersonal and really, perfunctory tone of his post when he did reply to the Yahoo list didn’t inspire confidence in me that he was at all concerned about the down time, the length of it, nor about how upset everyone had been and that multiple members were abandoning ship. One thing that leads me to think that our host might not have even known we were down was the extraordinary length of time it took to hear from him. A more attentive, communicative host would have been one of the first posters on the Yahoo site and would have been giving us regular updates. <o:p></o:p>
<u3:p> </u3:p><o:p></o:p>
All of this leaves me feeling very uneasy about the future of Shack. It’s such an important place, whatever our misgivings might be about the current ownership/administration, we can’t confuse him with Shack and let it diminish our enthusiasm and concern for the Shack. I wish that everyone who has decided to quit would step back for a moment and see that.
<o:p> </o:p>
So I’m here to stay. I won’t toss the baby out with the bath water. I plan to stay and see if there is some way to work with the anonymous person who controls our “space”, and with the mods who try to find new and fun ways to stimulate our creativity, hoping that in some small way I can help it to limp along until maybe he will decide to sell it to someone who loves the site, loves the craft, who will be emotionally invested in it as well as financially invested in it, and who will be an active and participatory member. I have no idea how much it costs to purchase or to run a web site like this, but it’s something I would be interested in learning more about after my kids are finished with college. <o:p></o:p>
<u3:p> </u3:p><o:p></o:p>
I would ask my fellow Shackies who are clamoring to leave, please, please reconsider. Please don’t rush to judgment. Your feelings are eminently justified, but please don't confuse your frustration with the administration with the Shack. Please stay and lets all hang together until we can find a way to get the Shack back on more stable footing, with participatory ownership, and with a solid financial base so that we are being hosted on a server with the appropriate technology, attentive, responsive technical support, and adequate band width to meet our needs.<o:p></o:p>
<u3:p> </u3:p><o:p></o:p>
As for the challenges, the marathon days, the games, raffles, prizes, etc….. who decides who can run what? I would be delighted to host something, but have no idea who to even contact to set it up.<o:p></o:p>

[milmogando]

I would ask my fellow Shackies who are clamoring to leave, please, please reconsider. Please don’t rush to judgment. Your feelings are eminently justified, but please don't confuse your frustration with the administration with the Shack. Please stay and lets all hang together until we can find a way to get the Shack back on more stable footing, with participatory ownership, and with a solid financial base so that we are being hosted on a server with the appropriate technology, attentive, responsive technical support, and adequate band width to meet our needs.

This is an excellent point to make and a very significant distinction. I too urge the 'jumpers'! please reconsider.

[Seaside Rose]

......I just got an email from Gina K indicating that StampTV has also had some serious spamming problems (but notice that I said "I got an email from Gina K..."

Right, and her site wasn't down for a week because of it either.

[maxiesmom]

I am guessing the current hosts have more then this site going on in there lives and culd use some of us stepping up to help.

The phrase 'ask and you shall receive' comes to mind! I would think many of us would be willing to help if only they would tell us what the needs are.
-------
And Rose, when I logged back on it said I had been away for 2 days which is about what I experienced. I have not had any of the longer lasting problems you seem to have encountered.

[Far North]

Regarding-spammers at GinaK

We have banned the recent spammers here at StampTV.

Right, and her site wasn't down for a week because of it either.

GinaK wrote: "We realize that from time to time, we have to deal with spammers joining our site. They usually send the other members of our site some sort of sales pitch message. We are trying to stay on top of these spammers by banning them from our site as soon as we are made aware of the problem."

I have not heard of this type of spammer here. Perhaps a troll from time to time but not this. This does not sound the same as what our hosts were describing.

[stampinmom3]

I will be renewing my membership also.

[Desert Stamper]

You all have summarized the various possible issues so well, so I won't restate them. I am annoyed that the only notification was on a Yahoo group; I'm a Shackie and I don't want to also have to join a Yahoo group to be informed about Shack stuff. Note that we are on the fourth page of this "Attention Shack Host" thread, and still the Shack Host is ominously silent as to our concerns. That says it all, as far as I'm concerned.

[loobylou]

Regarding-spammers at GinaK

We have banned the recent spammers here at StampTV.


GinaK wrote: "We realize that from time to time, we have to deal with spammers joining our site. They usually send the other members of our site some sort of sales pitch message. We are trying to stay on top of these spammers by banning them from our site as soon as we are made aware of the problem."

I have not heard of this type of spammer here. Perhaps a troll from time to time but not this. This does not sound the same as what our hosts were describing.
Jan, we do get those types of spammers here. You don't see them because the Moderators deal with them. That is the reason why junior members have their posts moderated if they include a link to another site in their message. They don't get published to the general public until a moderator approves them. We have NOT had an abundance of this type of spammer recently, but we do get them several times a week. (Another job that the moderators do, but is unseen by the members here).

[Far North]

A Big shout of Thanks
to all the Moderators
for taking such good care of us!

Sarah thanks for letting us know about this important work you do!! I am sure you must have a few other more hidden duties you handle in taking care of us!...Thanks bunches!

[Seaside Rose]

And Rose, when I logged back on it said I had been away for 2 days which is about what I experienced. I have not had any of the longer lasting problems you seem to have encountered.

Maybe it just seemed longer than it was, but I can't tell for sure. I can't remember when it first went down, but I was actually on it and had just started to scroll through new posts when it froze. At first, I thought it might have been my browser so I rebooted, but I couldn't get back in - tried several times and got server error messages. It was quite a while after that, at least a day, maybe two or more, that I got the first email from the yahoo group.

Since the holidays, I have had a lot of problems getting onto the Shack. When I do manage to get on, sometimes there will be a post or I'll have had an email from a member about the site being down, but many times not. FWIW, the indicator that tells how long it's been since you last logged in is not always accurate either and I have no clue what's up with that but I have been puzzled by it.

[Seaside Rose]

I am annoyed that the only notification was on a Yahoo group; I'm a Shackie and I don't want to also have to join a Yahoo group to be informed about Shack stuff.

Joan, I'd urge you to reconsider... if the site goes down, especially for an extended period of time, there may not be any other way for you to get info about what's going on.

The idea behind the Yahoo group is not to have "something else" to belong to and to have to post to while the Shack is running normally, but to have a back-up plan in place that gives us an easy way to communicate things of an urgent or emergency nature to members and to provide a place for members to chat when the main site is down. Several groups I belong to have a back-up plan like this.

If the Shack goes down, this is a very easy way to communicate that to members. Having someone send out group emails to convey this kind of information is just not practical. It's a headache and a lot of work to maintain an email list - no matter how hard you try, someone's address changes or you simply miss one. But most importantly, because of spam problems, most personal email services lock your account if you suddenly start sending out large numbers of emails or multiple emails to more than 25 addresses at a time. They do this until they can verify if your email has been hijacked by a spammer. But it can shut you out of your email for several hours or even a full day and that is a real nuisance.

Here is the location of the site: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/shackieupdates/

Sister Shackies, please make sure you are registered on this site. It's the one thing you can do re: shack notifications that will ultimately make life easier for the mods, because this is where they go to tell us about trouble with the Shack site. And it's user friendly.

I also want to acknowledge that there is a Facebook page as well but I am totally incompetent when it comes to Facebook and not all of us have Facebook accounts, so I'm not sure how that works. But with the yahoo group, all you need to do is join the group and forget about it... if there is a problem and someone from Shack wants to let everyone know, they can do it with one message and you'll get an email letting you know what's going on.

[Seaside Rose]

GinaK wrote: "We realize that from time to time, we have to deal with spammers joining our site. They usually send the other members of our site some sort of sales pitch message. We are trying to stay on top of these spammers by banning them from our site as soon as we are made aware of the problem."

I have not heard of this type of spammer here. Perhaps a troll from time to time but not this. This does not sound the same as what our hosts were describing.

This is a MAJOR problem everywhere and that is why virtually every group I belong to, both for crafting, gardening, and dog nutrition and health is moderated. Some groups review every post before it goes live. Others go in and cull out the riff raff and delete it. What I see most is that regular members get to post un-moderated after a short period of time and only new members stay on moderation. That way, anyone who joins simply to spam the group usually gets identified and tossed before they can cause too many problems.

But I have experienced it everywhere - every group I belong to has had problems and while I know the most about the ones I help moderate, it's the same everywhere. And my own blog, web site, and store have been hit by the occasional spammer, but it has been an annoyance that we've had to be diligent about, nothing more. Bot spammers, which the hosts are saying shut the Shack down, are thwarted by a simple sign in security measure and so this is not making much sense to me.

GinaK's Stamp TV is on the Ning network and I get about 2-3 spam messages monthly from spammers trying to penetrate one of the two groups I belong to on that network. I always forward them to her or the other group owner so she can deal with them from the top.

There are some pretty strongly written anti-spam laws now, but the spammers seem to be a very narcissistic bunch who flagrantly ignore the laws. It's a real headache.