gemreplica might have got confused over the meaning of the word watch... I don't think! http://www.terrypratchettbooks.org/discworld/watch-books/774-watch-book-make-movie-2.html and here http://www.terrypratchettbooks.org/discworld/boardania/183-joke-thread-24.html and here??? http://www.terrypratchettbooks.org/discworld/boardania/19-members-news-270.html A little bit of advertising in there. And again... http://www.terrypratchettbooks.org/discworld/watch-books/279-whats-your-favourite-watch-book-6.html
Banned and posts deleted. In fact he/she was banned while halfway through making their 12th post, a live banning!
@Maljonic. Hit and run tactics on spammers... I love it. Here's another one for you to have a look at... I notice that when making new posts in the threads 'gemreplica' had spammed, there are two URLs permanently displayed and marked as 'pinged', below the text area, in the Trackback box. eg. Already pinged: http://www.gemxxxxs.com http://www.gemxxxxca.com I don't know if they are being used to supply hidden hits to these sites or just the remnants of his/her posts. Whatever the reason, it is still giving them free advertising. The only threads affected are: which watch book to make a movie The Joke Thread Members' News What's Your Favourite Watch Book? You might need a bigger hammer for this one
Terry Pratchett Books Unseen Message Board - View Profile: mintumintu and Terry Pratchett Books Unseen Message Board - View Profile: saraya spam a lot.
These need to be banned: Terry Pratchett Books Unseen Message Board - View Profile: vijaya Terry Pratchett Books Unseen Message Board - View Profile: arunkumar Terry Pratchett Books Unseen Message Board - View Profile: tikki Terry Pratchett Books Unseen Message Board - View Profile: sirisha Terry Pratchett Books Unseen Message Board - View Profile: rikki Apart from that, may captcha be helpful? For when registering, and when making your first five posts? These "people" appear, make a few threads with posts containing spam links, and dissapear. I am not competent enough to know wether these are actual people or bots, but even if they were people, captcha would increase the workload a bit.
Add: Terry Pratchett Books Unseen Message Board - View Profile: kettu Terry Pratchett Books Unseen Message Board - View Profile: niru
So... Terry Pratchett Books Unseen Message Board - View Profile: SecuredOne Terry Pratchett Books Unseen Message Board - View Profile: draibiaSpeace Terry Pratchett Books Unseen Message Board - View Profile: tedy Terry Pratchett Books Unseen Message Board - View Profile: RamymeesseVax Terry Pratchett Books Unseen Message Board - View Profile: Hovaevoxy Terry Pratchett Books Unseen Message Board - View Profile: dhanu Terry Pratchett Books Unseen Message Board - View Profile: PerStoliTeert Terry Pratchett Books Unseen Message Board - View Profile: Azecywisekyxewim Terry Pratchett Books Unseen Message Board - View Profile: IdordGroutt Terry Pratchett Books Unseen Message Board - View Profile: lakshmi ...all spam!
Well the recaptcher thing doesn't seem to have worked that well so far. It's been on for the last 5 days, has there been a reduction in spammers? I might try going back to the random question, but use Discworld questions instead of 4 x 4 = etc... then, if that doesn't work, manually approve everyone and ask them to write why they want to join and ask them to say what their favourite Discworld scene/character is or something?
The Discworld question thing sounds nice, but then again, do we want to exclude "starters"? It would have to be a very obvious question. Do they have to give a valid email-adress, and is it somehow validated? That said, it could be me, but it does seem to have decreased a little bit. It's just that, when I am in a hurry, I just move spam to the Dungeon Dimensions and later come back to post the profiles here. Hence, the long list of spammers from my post above.
I've tried joining akismet to utilize a new function where new people's posts are scanned for spam' And you can add their IP address to a spam database when you delete posts.
You guys are doing a great job in keeping the board clear. Many congratulations for spending the time to do so. Can I add a couple of points? One small observation is that in most of the multiple posts I've seen and reported recently that some of the posters are simply copying Pratchett related text from other sources and adding the spam links to their signature line. Would a security question be as easily bypassed with a simple google search? Most of those people fill in the minimum details - would it be possible to make a few extra deatails (eg. email, which can remain hidden) compulsory on the initial form? It might make the process a bit longer and discourage them. Or simply have their membership held until approved by the Sweepers. Does akismet read the signature as part of the post or would it ignore it?
Emails are already a requirement, always have been. Most of the spam links are in the posts I think. I'm not sure what akismet does exactly regarding spam posts, it might have done it already?
Well whatever happened Mal, it seems to be working. I haven't seen anything to day at all. Well done that man!
Despite the best efforts of Mal and the Sweepers, we still seem to be getting the persistant 'little tinkers' that are posting threee to six times a day. I find a lot of these posts appear very early morning. Most of them are deleted/moved normally the same day, but the board isn't as busy at it used to be and I notice Rinku's post has been there for over a day with quite a few hits. I know most people are busy with other commitments so would it be an idea to to promote a couple of the, still regular, members to a level that could be called Watchman and give them limited powers to move these posts to the Dungeon Dimension as soon as they are spotted? A post could me made in the Temple to tell the Sweepers what thread has been moved and allow them to decide further action. It's just a thought and it might be a bigger discouragement if the posts were removed in a couple of hours or even as they are being made.
Actually, I'd say it has become a bit less now that the previous weeks. (This as a feedback to Mal, not as a reply to the idea to let more Sweepers sign up.)
We do seem to have bottomed out lately, but there have been about 40-50 new members who have signed up in the past few weeks using what look like random letters for user names. I've Googled some of these names as I find them and have discovered that a few are, or have been, active as spammers on several other boards. I'll just keep reporting stuff as it appears unless the sweepers get there first.
Someone mentioned having more Sweepers? I've been very busy in the last year or so and have hardly ever been on here...but now my schedule's a lot freer I think I could be up for that... Because I don't have a life I would be able to check this much more often than those of you who do...
I still want to be a sweeper... But that's ok. I probably haven't been here long enough. :sad: It would give me something to do, though This forum is not what you would call lively...
