Author Topic: A Note on the Spam.  (Read 28528 times)

Heradel

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Reply #25 on: February 26, 2009, 06:25:30 PM
I am NOT a robot :)

You're already scheduled for accidental termination.

Hence my reluctance to hijack this thread. 

Besides the bots, are you guys working on the other forum issues?

We've been told that they are being worked on, but not by us.

My Forums-not-liking-Safari problem seems entirely fixed, but I went to the 4.0 beta, so that might have solved it.

I Twitter. I also occasionally blog on the Escape Pod blog, which if you're here you shouldn't have much trouble finding.


izzardfan

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Reply #26 on: February 27, 2009, 03:04:24 AM
I've found that when I make a post, I click AND HOLD the post button a couple of seconds before releasing it, and the post goes through without a hitch.  Otherwise it's a 95% chance I'll get the "you've already submitted this post" result.  Of course, I go to the page and check, and the post IS already there.

Also, if I get "this page is not available" when I change pages, I click back on my browser and SLOWLY (as above) try again.  It usually works.

In this impatient internet society of ours, there are times when it's advisable to slow down.



Raving_Lunatic

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Reply #27 on: February 27, 2009, 04:39:56 PM
I am NOT a robot :)

You're already scheduled for accidental termination.

Hmm... the freedom of inevitable death means that i can do what I like! *spams Gallimaufry with threads about my secret crush on Zathras*



Talia

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Reply #28 on: February 27, 2009, 04:47:01 PM
Not so secret. We all know about the shrine in your bedroom.



Raving_Lunatic

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Reply #29 on: February 27, 2009, 04:57:27 PM
Hah. Didn't know about the picture of him I carry in my wallet OR the one stapled to my forehead. Heck, I bet you don't even know about the nightly stake-outs of his house, or the R_L Loves Zathras I had tattooed where it hurt.



Russell Nash

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Reply #30 on: February 27, 2009, 09:25:36 PM
R_L, I took out over 650 bot accounts and you're still here.



Raving_Lunatic

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Reply #31 on: February 27, 2009, 09:45:47 PM
Someone is looking down on me with joy!



Russell Nash

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Reply #32 on: February 27, 2009, 10:00:17 PM
It's called dramatic tension.  You'll never know when we're going to get you.  I'm done for today, but Heradel and bdoomed will be starting soon.



Raving_Lunatic

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Reply #33 on: February 27, 2009, 10:02:47 PM
I can't keep an all night vigil just to work on American time >:(



Russell Nash

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Reply #34 on: February 27, 2009, 10:10:31 PM
Will you be able to sleep not knowing what will happen?  Will you still be here in the morning?  What is really after death?  Oh, wait, that was a little far.



Raving_Lunatic

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Reply #35 on: February 27, 2009, 10:17:00 PM
Angelene. says (21:44):
i'm not afraid of the truth
Thomas says (21:44):
I'm a forty-eight year old female plumber from brixton and i'm outside your house now 
Angelene. says (21:46):
 :lol:
Angelene. says (21:46):
just knock man
Thomas says (21:46):
you mean woman
Angelene. says (21:46):
hot
Angelene. says (21:46):
man is just an expression from americaland
Thomas says (21:46):
fine
Thomas says (21:47):
anyway I can't knock
Thomas says (21:47):
I lost my arms in a plumbing accident
Angelene. says (21:47):
 :lol:

Edit: I hit copy and paste to some quote I found from somewhere but evidently it didn't work and this is still on the Ctrl + V. But ah well, it's vaguely amusing.

Edit2: OK, could be seen as spam and I don't want any trigger-happy mods *cough, cough* gunning me down over it. So I'll type out the initial response, which was going to be


Russell, you have power of life or death now. Use the gift wisely. By which I mean preserve my sorry ass.
« Last Edit: February 27, 2009, 10:22:34 PM by Raving_Lunatic »



Zathras

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Reply #36 on: February 27, 2009, 11:15:43 PM
Watch out for the Pod People!  If anyone starts acting strange, or in some of our cases, normal, STAKE THEM!



Talia

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Reply #37 on: February 28, 2009, 12:15:51 AM
aren't we all Pod people of a sort? :P



Zathras

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Reply #38 on: February 28, 2009, 05:32:48 AM
::drops a flying elbow on Talia::



Heradel

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Reply #39 on: March 03, 2009, 08:37:07 AM
Returning to seriousness (well, as much as this place ever does), we've done some things that seem to have cut down on the spam getting through.

First off, as you've probably seen at the top, we have an email address (eaforumadmins (at) gmail (dot) com) for the forum admins in case you need to contact us. I've got mine going through my Mail client, so you should get a pretty quick response from one or all of us.

Secondly, we've begun a long, slow process of deleting bot accounts. We've deleted a lot over the last two days, there are probably at least a thousand left to delete. There will probably be some unfortunate externs that haven't posted that get caught up in this and are deleted. We're sorry if we do, but if you're reading this and have register but not posted, well, post. We are mostly friendly and rarely bite, and posting is the easiest way for us to identify you as human. Or mostly human, as it usually turns out.

Thirdly, we've begun IP Bans for any account that posts spam. We'll ban the last octet if there are more than a few different IPs in that range spamming us. If you get caught up in this, please email us immediately with your email address or account name and we'll fix it. We try to check for real users in the range, but there's a lot of IP's to ban.

Fourthly, we've banned anyone with a .ru email address or anyone from a Russian ISP from creating an account. This shouldn't affect existing users who are traveling or live in Russia, and will hopefully prevent a range of spam we've been dealing with. If you're in Russia and want an account here, email us and we'll create one for you.

Fifthly, don't reply to spam threads, hit the report button. I know it's frustrating, but your response will be killed along with the thread and the spam will be gone all the quicker for hitting the report button (once). We all get the emails, and one of us will jump on it. We've even got a moderator in Berlin and college students on the East Coast, so one of us is usually up.

And I think that's about it. We're still working out the kinks, and it will be a while before the member list is purged to our satisfaction. We're working on some more preventative measures like the Russian ban, but we've got a limited set of triggers to do the fine detail work with. No one's emailed us complaining, so hopefully we haven't stepped on any toes yet. I'll answer any questions you have, and suggestions are welcome.

Your Sanguinary Moderator (an appropriate title for the non-PP moderator for once),
—Heradel
« Last Edit: March 03, 2009, 08:42:14 AM by Heradel »

I Twitter. I also occasionally blog on the Escape Pod blog, which if you're here you shouldn't have much trouble finding.


Zathras

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Reply #40 on: March 03, 2009, 12:38:26 PM
Thanks for the hard work.



eytanz

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Reply #41 on: March 03, 2009, 12:43:26 PM
Thanks for the hard work.

Seconded.



Talia

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Reply #42 on: March 03, 2009, 03:39:00 PM
rarely bite

Except for me. I bite all the time. *bites eytanz and Zathras*



Zathras

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Reply #43 on: March 03, 2009, 04:32:54 PM
Oh yeah?!?  Well, you just got tagged, Talia!  You're it!



Russell Nash

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Reply #44 on: March 03, 2009, 06:16:37 PM
rarely bite

Except for me. I bite all the time. *bites eytanz and Zathras*

When she does that, you need to slap her on the nose.



eytanz

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Reply #45 on: March 03, 2009, 06:35:26 PM
*Is curious as to whether he's now a werewolf*



MacArthurBug

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Reply #46 on: March 04, 2009, 01:58:56 AM
Oooh bite me bite me..

wait.. never mind.. I'd like it waaaay too much.

Oh, great and mighty Alasdair, Orator Maleficent, He of the Silvered Tongue, guide this humble fangirl past jumping up and down and squeeing upon hearing the greatness of Thy voice.
Oh mighty Mur the Magnificent. I am not worthy.


Russell Nash

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Reply #47 on: March 04, 2009, 10:23:19 AM
R_L, I took out over 650 bot accounts and you're still here.

We're up to 1400 bots.



oddpod

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Reply #48 on: August 23, 2009, 08:44:07 PM
so when is judgment day?  :)

card carying dislexic and  gramatical revolushonery


Bdoomed

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Reply #49 on: August 23, 2009, 08:53:02 PM
when Vegeta crushes his scouter

I'd like to hear my options, so I could weigh them, what do you say?
Five pounds?  Six pounds? Seven pounds?