Spammers!

tstockton · Post by **tstockton** » Fri Dec 01, 2006 8:53 pm

Can someone get these guys off of here?

There are things that can be done...

Unfortunately, I would imagine that nearly all of them require (a) more human intervention, on a "24-7" basis, and/or (b) cost more money, such as "improved" or "enhanced" sign-up procedures. I've seen sites where, when you initially sign up, you have to read a "badly distorted" set of letters and numbers -- to the point where a human eye and brain combination can (with difficulty) read them, but where a computer-driven scanner (or somesuch) can not. I would imagine that such a set-up would come with a cost... and the more costs a small company has, the less it is able to do other things, such as expand product lines.

Someday, GHQ may well have to resort to such a system -- for all I know, they're already looking into it.

The bottom line -- it goes back to the topic of this thread... and I'll add an "expletive"...

!@#&$#! spammers!!

Regards,
Tom Stockton

Der Kommandeur · Post by **Der Kommandeur** » Sat Dec 02, 2006 12:11 am

cama wrote:Now we have some spammer about ** CENSORED **.

What the hell!?!?!

Perhaps they heard about our bendy barrels

tstockton · Post by **tstockton** » Sat Dec 02, 2006 2:30 am

Der Kommandeur,

Please take note -- if it takes your gun crews over four hours to "pull the trigger", they should immediately consult their physicans!!

Regards,
Tom Stockton

Post by **GHQ** » Sat Dec 02, 2006 3:15 am

For the record, we don't like the spammers any more than anyone else here. We do have a distorted set of letters/numbers that must be deciphered by human eyes when an account is registered. Apparently these are people who are manually registering for our forum, not a result of mass computer generated registrations. We take down the spammer posts as soon as we see them. Until a better solution comes up, please bear with us. If you see a spammer posting, just ignore and don't allow yourself to get worked up about it.

Thank you,
GHQ

Der Kommandeur · Post by **Der Kommandeur** » Sat Dec 02, 2006 3:28 pm

tstockton wrote:Der Kommandeur,

Please take note -- if it takes your gun crews over four hours to "pull the trigger", they should immediately consult their physicans!!

Regards,
Tom Stockton

Meantime ... they can shoot round corners!

Donald M. Scheef · Post by **Donald M. Scheef** » Sun Dec 03, 2006 5:16 am

I recall reading a Sci-Fi story in which spammers and telemarketers became extinct in the year 2020 when intelligent machines became aware that Asimov's First Law of Robotics applied only to human beings.

Mobius · Post by **Mobius** » Sun Dec 03, 2006 9:40 pm

="tstockton" quote Can someone get these guys off of here?

There are things that can be done...
Unfortunately, I would imagine that nearly all of them require (a) more human intervention, on a "24-7" basis, and/or (b) cost more money, such as "improved" or "enhanced" sign-up procedures. I've seen sites where, when you initially sign up, you have to read a "badly distorted" set of letters and numbers -- to the point where a human eye and brain combination can (with difficulty) read them, but where a computer-driven scanner (or somesuch) can not. I would imagine that such a set-up would come with a cost... and the more costs a small company has, the less it is able to do other things, such as expand product lines.

Someday, GHQ may well have to resort to such a system -- for all I know, they're already looking into it.
Regards,
Tom Stockton

I don't know Tom they haven't fixed the quote system here yet.

But my forums have been getting these scripted signins too. I don't have one of those distored password system either. The best I could do is not allow user names certain subwords like "viagr" or other adware names.

tstockton · Post by **tstockton** » Mon Dec 04, 2006 5:20 am

Mobius,

I did figure out the "quote" system... put in your quote like you normally would, then manually go back and replace the lower-case "q" in the "quote brackets" with an UPPER-CASE "Q". Works for me...

As for the spammers... I'm almost afraid it will require human intervention 24-7, since all appearances are the spammers are humans entering the "spam" messages. And from the amount of "spam" e-mails I get daily -- probably close to 200 -- the spammers have hundreds, if not thousands, of ways to spell various and sundry words. I seriously doubt one could write a "watchdog" program to get rid of them all. I suppose one could write one to only allow properly spelled words -- but then how many legitimate messages would never make it through, due to mis-spellings?

I ran my son's soccer club's website once, for about two years -- it's pretty much a thankless task. And to "do it right" takes lots and lots of "human intervention". So I feel for the folks at GHQ and/or for the company that's doing it.

Regards,
Tom Stockton

tstockton · Post by **tstockton** » Mon Dec 04, 2006 5:21 am

Mobius,

I did figure out the "quote" system... put in your quote like you normally would, then manually go back and replace the lower-case "q" in the "quote brackets" with an UPPER-CASE "Q". Works for me...

As for the spammers... I'm almost afraid it will require human intervention 24-7, since all appearances are the spammers are humans entering the "spam" messages. And from the amount of "spam" e-mails I get daily -- probably close to 200 -- the spammers have hundreds, if not thousands, of ways to spell various and sundry words. I seriously doubt one could write a "watchdog" program to get rid of them all. I suppose one could write one to only allow properly spelled words -- but then how many legitimate messages would never make it through, due to mis-spellings?

I ran my son's soccer club's website once, for about two years -- it's pretty much a thankless task. And to "do it right" takes lots and lots of "human intervention". So I feel for the folks at GHQ and/or for the company that's doing it.

Regards,
Tom Stockton

Mobius · Post by **Mobius** » Mon Dec 04, 2006 1:27 pm

="tstockton"

I did figure out the "quote" system... put in your quote like you normally would, then manually go back and replace the lower-case "q" in the "quote brackets" with an UPPER-CASE "Q". Works for me...
Tom Stockton

I meant they who wrote the software for this forum have messed up the quote system since the last update. Now we who use it had to figure a work around.

So far most of the spammers on my site have just been new members (about 6-10 a day) and not actually posting anything yet.

Mobius · Post by **Mobius** » Mon Dec 04, 2006 1:27 pm

"tstockton"

I did figure out the "quote" system... put in your quote like you normally would, then manually go back and replace the lower-case "q" in the "quote brackets" with an UPPER-CASE "Q". Works for me...
Tom Stockton

I meant they who wrote the software for this forum have messed up the quote system since the last update. Now we who use it had to figure a work around.

So far most of the spammers on my site have just been new members (about 6-10 a day) and not actually posting anything yet.

Mobius · Post by **Mobius** » Mon Dec 04, 2006 1:28 pm

"tstockton"

I did figure out the "quote" system... put in your quote like you normally would, then manually go back and replace the lower-case "q" in the "quote brackets" with an UPPER-CASE "Q". Works for me...
Tom Stockton

I meant they who wrote the software for this forum have messed up the quote system since the last update. Now we who use it had to figure a work around.

So far most of the spammers on my site have just been new members (about 6-10 a day) and not actually posting anything yet.

Mobius · Post by **Mobius** » Mon Dec 04, 2006 1:30 pm

Yet another bug.
Now posting gets some sort of error message so we try to post again and get duplicate messages.
Sorry 'bout that.