Hello, I’m Mark and I am currently involved in re-starting the bbProtection project.

Many of you will know me by my username MarkTheDaemon both on phpBB.com and other related fora. I’ve been involved with phpBB since mid 2005 when I set up my first phpBB2 forum. In 2006 I joined the phpBB MOD Team and to date I am still on the phpBB team.

I was also involved in the first beta of bbProtection, mainly in a support and documentation role. This time around I am more involved with the PR side of the project, bringing delights such as this blog so you are able to read about and comment on our progress.

The main reason why I originally got involved with the project was to fight the spam problem that we had then, and even more so now. A service such as bbProtection can go a long way to stopping spam that continually angers board owners, due to the time it takes to filter out, edit and remove the offending posts and users.

My nick on IRC is also MarkTheDaemon and I look forward to talking with you about the bbProtection service .

I’m known either as drathbun (on phpBB.com and some boards) or Dave Rathbun (on other boards). I started my first phpBB board in 2002 soon after the initial release of the 2.x line. I think I got my first spammer a few months later. I have been writing MODs and testing strategies to combat spam ever since.

I joined the moderator team at phpBB.com about two and a half years ago. During my time on the team I have seen spammer attacks on the board as well as major improvements that phpBB3 has provided. But I don’t think that phpBB3 and its new features will be enough. I have seen some very creative spammer techniques that a service like bbProtection can help prevent. As such, I am quite excited to have been invited to join the team here.

In real life I work as a database consultant and have been working in that area for over 18 years. I don’t do DBA work anymore, but I do enjoy applying my skills at design and optimization to phpBB MODs. I am still running the first board I started which now has over 32K users and 440K posts… running a highly modified version of phpBB2 at this point and still going strong. I blog about phpBB (and other things occasionally) at the phpBBDoctor blog, and I have a few other phpBB-related sites that you can probably find with a little help from google. In my spare time I wonder what I would do if I had any spare time.

Most of you probably know me as Noxwizard.  I’m a member of the phpBB.com Support Team, and now a developer for bbProtection.  I joined the project soon after it launched, but only as a user.  Now I’m here to help in its revival.

Some background about myself.  I’m a student at Texas A&M University, and am working on my computer science degree.  When I’m not doing phpBB related stuff, I’m either coding something, or playing a game.

It’s time to find out who is actually turning this idea into a reality . Over the next series of blog posts various team members will be introducing themselves and letting you know a little bit about them and why they are involved in the project.

Remember that many of the people introduced will be located in our IRC channel, so feel free to pop in and chat to us about bbProtection .