Spammers

When things don't work the way they should.

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bob_32_116
Posts: 395
Joined: Sun Aug 07, 2005 12:51 pm
Location: Perth, Western Australia

Spammers

Post by bob_32_116 »

Mr webmonkey, I fear the time may have come when you close off posting on the board to anyone not registered as a guest. Withess the latest 4 postings in the Rambling Conversation thread, which all appear to be from Russia and are either advertising something or just talking nonsense.

I have a photo gallery on my web page that is hosted by the university where I am studying - just happy snaps of travels to a conference and other miscellaneous things... and the administrator discovered that the spaces for people to leave comments had literally hundreds of these spammers from sites advertsising everything from sex toys to baby strollers. Needless to say I removed them post haste and disabled the comments facility.

A couple of talk forums that I belong to have also had to close off posts to anyone who is not registered. It's a pity that this is necessary, but I think that a person will take the trouble to register if they have something worthwhile to contribute to the group.
Last edited by bob_32_116 on Wed Feb 09, 2022 1:26 pm, edited 1 time in total.
grant
Admonkeystrator
Posts: 336
Joined: Wed Aug 18, 2004 10:28 am
Location: peninsular america
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Post by grant »

Yep, you're right - the only forums on here that *were* open to unregistered posting were the Ramblin' Catch-all and the tech help one we're in right now.

Now it's just the tech help - so's people what have problems logging in can still ask about it.

Let's see if this cuts down on info pollution.
Last edited by grant on Wed Feb 09, 2022 1:26 pm, edited 1 time in total.
grant
Admonkeystrator
Posts: 336
Joined: Wed Aug 18, 2004 10:28 am
Location: peninsular america
Contact:

Post by grant »

You MAY have noticed some OFF-COLOR private messages being sent by a user on this board. It's not a real user; it's a robot.

A robot programmed to hustle porn. A robot that I have disintegrated.

Sorry about that - I think I'll be upgrading the board software to get rid of this stuff sooner rather than later.
Last edited by grant on Wed Feb 09, 2022 1:26 pm, edited 1 time in total.
bob_32_116
Posts: 395
Joined: Sun Aug 07, 2005 12:51 pm
Location: Perth, Western Australia

Registered pseudo-users

Post by bob_32_116 »

I had occasion just now to search for details of a particular user, and was horrified to see how many usernames there are that are clearly not for real. Names consisting of meaningless jumbles of letters, names with "porn" or "viagra" in the string, place of origin "Antarctica" - that sort of thing.

Fortunately most of them appear to have made zero posts, but I cannot understand how they manage to register in the first place, given that I thought registering required some kind of character recognition test to prevent spam bots from registering. Is it worth going through the list and pruning them? I think it's a fair bet that someone who joined a month ago and has made no posts is probably not intending to do so,
Last edited by bob_32_116 on Wed Feb 09, 2022 1:26 pm, edited 1 time in total.
grant
Admonkeystrator
Posts: 336
Joined: Wed Aug 18, 2004 10:28 am
Location: peninsular america
Contact:

Post by grant »

Yeah, it's a problem. I do try to prune the list by hand - but the more safeguards I've put up, the more the spammers seem to get around them. Usually there are a few hundred showing up in a month, so, over time, a few slip through that add up to a lot.

I'm planning on upgrading the board to a new version of the software that *should* make this superfluous... they've just released a new, stable version that should make the transition relatively seamless. Once installed, it should cut back the level of fake accounts.

I just deleted about 600 or so (maybe 800), but I doubt that's half of it.... Although I'm still hoping we really *do* have members from Antarctica.
Last edited by grant on Wed Feb 09, 2022 1:26 pm, edited 1 time in total.
jeffbenton

Wha Hoppen to my user id?

Post by jeffbenton »

Grant---

Is it possible I was accidentally deleted/modified during the cleanup process?

I can't sign on! Also, can't find my entry in the Memberlist.

Should I reregister, or what?

Thanks--- Jeff Benton
Last edited by jeffbenton on Wed Feb 09, 2022 1:26 pm, edited 1 time in total.
grant
Admonkeystrator
Posts: 336
Joined: Wed Aug 18, 2004 10:28 am
Location: peninsular america
Contact:

Post by grant »

Oh, good Lord, it's possible. I'm not sure how, but it's definitely possible.

Simply register again, and you should be as good as gold.

If you need to holler, I'm also available in my mailbox:

grantimatter
[at]
yahoo
[dot]
com
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