Spam

My apologies. I’m unable to access the internet as frequently as usual for the next few days, so spam might stay up longer than usual.

This one is spam: https://www.riscosopen.org/forum/forums/5/topics/2456?page=1#posts-36024

This one is spam

Yes, 26 minutes fresh when I saw it this morning – more cunning than usual.

Gone.

I used a really simple method on my website. On a unrelated page I posted a small table with 5 numbered lines and 5 words per line (all random words). On the forum sign-up page it asks for word x on line y and there is a the http text of the link to the page with the words on it (it’s not a hyperlink though, so a bot cannot easily follow it):

“Go to ”http://www.domain.com/aboutPage">http://www.domain.com/aboutPage – and read anti-spam line 2 word 1:"

The spam dropped from unbearable to just a message every few months (800K-1M hits/month site). There are some people who don’t seem to be able to figure it out(!) but I guess it’s a useful filter in that respect :)

It’s implemented using the Q&A feature built into the forum sign-up software, but by making the questions a link with different line numbers and word numbers, even a human drone needs to work a little harder to figure it out. Simply asking simple questions directly didn’t really work for me.

it’s not a hyperlink though, so a bot cannot easily follow it

these aren’t bots. They are real people paid to click and post.
I think we have more volunteers to keep things clean than spammers with time to post. The small obstacle is that very few of the volunteers have the access level required to do the clean up.

Understood Steve; only the change I made to my website got rid of both – which is why I shared it here.

Understood Steve; only the change I made to my website got rid of both

Hmm, useful. It probably demonstrates the IQ match of the paid click spammers and the bots – most of the former strike me as just about capable of tying shoelaces (and probably happy watching YouTube.:)

Bed.

It probably demonstrates the IQ match of the paid click spammers and the bots – most of the former strike me as just about capable of tying shoelaces

Quite high so, because a majority of people can not tie their shoelaces properly. Most people tie their shoes with an “granny knot”.

Gah. Wasted twenty minutes of my life, checking my shoe lace knot against Wikipedia.

Wasted twenty minutes of my life, checking my shoe lace knot

The kind of people I was talking about use slip-ons or velcro fastening.

I see spammers work Sundays too.
Google search indicates their ID was created across many forums today, same spam.

I see the Koreans have given us more than just Gangnam Style…

??? I missed something?
That’s the trouble with work, it gets in the way of doing stuff

I missed something?

Yes, it was only up for just over 40 minutes.

You know those spams that repeat the same line of rubbish over and over? It was that with added Korean. Pretty much the entire first page of the Recent Posts.

You know those spams that repeat the same line of rubbish over and over? It was that with added Korean. Pretty much the entire first page of the Recent Posts.

Gee. Déjà vu. Only this time it’s nearly three pages of it.

Dear spammer: 근계, 꺼지다. 고맙습니다.

Sorry, I’ve been away from computers for several hours.

All gone now.

Congratulations to the super-user who deleted the spam about timekeepers so fast that many users will not have even seen it! It was in my RSS feed this morning, but had actually already gone by the time I read it.

What do we have today? The lyrics to Gangnam Style?
It amuses me that it never seems to occur to these spammers that posting Korean (etc) to a place where everybody speaks English is….pointless. I guess they’re paid per spam or something.

I guess they’re paid per spam or something.

Yup, from what I’ve read that’s the normal arrangement. If you do a quick google search for that username it will probably show on web forums all over.

Our moderator must be on hols or something, 6 hours on and its still there.

When I was at work, of course I was tied to a computer, so I could look frequently. Now I’m retired, I don’t spend nearly so much time with access to the web. Sorry.

Anway, all gone now.

I don’t spend nearly so much time with access to the web. Sorry.

So I was half right – having a small amount of “me time” while it’s sunny rather than tied to a computer.

Many thanks.

I’m tied to a computer at work too, unfortunately actual paid work interferes with my proper use of time.

I’m looking at the Korean spam and the 1007 posts, a number slowly going down. Is Beast so backwards that each must be deleted one by one, you can’t just nuke the user account?
Maybe new users should be limited to five posts maximum in their first day?

you can’t just nuke the user account?

Nuking the user’s account was the first thing I did, but all that does is to prevent a user from logging in again. It doesn’t delete the user’s posts (nor should it), but unfortunately it doesn’t kick a logged-in user out, so the spam continued to come in.

That number slowly going down was me versus the spambot.