Bandit Alley
GENERAL MOTORCYCLE FORUMS => GENERAL MOTORCYCLE => Topic started by: solman on January 18, 2007, 10:46:58 PM
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What is going on? I got 4 replies in my email and when I clicked on them, I got the no topic exists message!
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Solman.... we got spammed pretty hard tonight. Some 'hole posted over 20 messages in various forums. They have been deleted... in several cases just the offending post was removed if it was part of an ongoing thread.
Sorry for the inconvenience.
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[ :monkeymoon:
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Shouldn't be too hard if you were online in the last couple of hours otherwise you have about a 1 in 50 shot at being right. This one really messed things up though. :rant2:
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Shouldn't be too hard if you were online in the last couple of hours otherwise you have about a 1 in 50 shot at being right. This one really messed things up though. :rant2:
Geez,.. that after I killed about 20 from another spammer at about 3pm this aft. It was kinda cool to get them in real time though. The idiot made the mistake of responding to one of the posts I'd posted in, so I got notice of his handywork right away.
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And I thought it was you who sent me that e-mail :shock:
Solman Some 'hole posted over 20 messages in various forums.
Lemme guess? :motorsmile:
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:beers: :
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Geez,.. that after I killed about 20 from another spammer at about 3pm this aft. It was kinda cool to get them in real time though. The idiot made the mistake of responding to one of the posts I'd posted in, so I got notice of his handywork right away.
Before you killed the message (and assuming you had server access), did you manage to snag the IP and DNS where the spammer was broadcasting from? :stickpoke:
I don't usually bother, because 1. we don't ban IPs. 2. Even if we did ban IPs, it's only a temporary and very flawed solution, because the large majority of people use internet connections that have Dynamic IP addresses. What that means is that when their IP changes, they can suddently get back on here, and some potentially innocent person can't get on.
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Thainks for the info and for the anti-spamming work. :thanks:
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FWIW... We CAN ban IPs (at least Paul and I can.). It's really not worth it for the reasons Storm mentioned plus it's time consuming and most of the MFers are one hit wonders - the barrage us one night and never come back.
Thanks for the help, TX and Storm! :bigok:
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Can't you just set it up that new registries have to be approved? For example, at the bottom of the page right now it says that FreeWebCam is the newest user.
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I'm sure that they can, however its another issue for the Admin's to deal with.
To do that it would require an admin to be sat at the machine 24/7 if it were to be run effectively / effeciently. Now for obvious reasons thats just not possible, which means there will be time delays and large collections of users to accept which still wont necessarily stop the hackers / spammers from accessing the site.
The best thing that might be possible is using the IP address track back to the ISP and inform them of the issue, they may be able to do something for you, however this is a long shot unless what is being done is strictly illegal.
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:monkeymoon:
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:monkeymoon:
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Can't you just set it up that new registries have to be approved? For example, at the bottom of the page right now it says that FreeWebCam is the newest user.
We can and we've discussed it. The issues are what was stated above. That's time consuming, too. Plus legitimate new members often join specifically to ask a question. It seems unfair to make them wait because of these a-holes.
Ranger - that's an interesting suggestion but Paul and I are "limited" admins. We don't have access to the tables and stuff. Pete keeps that access himself. The only way we have to ban an address is to find the post, look up the IP addresses for the post, then go into the admin panel and paste them into the "Ban Box" in there.
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We can and we've discussed it. The issues are what was stated above. That's time consuming, too. Plus legitimate new members often join specifically to ask a question. It seems unfair to make them wait because of these a-holes.
I wonder if it would be worth sending this one to poll nowadays.
less spam for a little more hassle on sign up?
Are we losing any members because of the spam yet? That's a step that may happen down the road.
I assume that when it was discussed before, we weren't getting spam bots injecting between 10 and 25 messages into the database at a time
(yes, I've been reading about phpBB and it's current various security issues.... )
I would hope that new users would understand a small delay in order to not be inundated once they're members.
In the end though, it's not my choice, just a thought.
The ones signing up and never posting are still getting their way, when we don't prune the list. What they're looking for is higher ratings on search engines like Google. The more places their crap ends up and is indexed on google and friends, the higher the rating.
There are modules that can be downloaded for phpBB that will allow admins to prune groups of users at a time, or to not have to search for a particular user, then ban them. The modules streamline the process making it easier to admin the MFers.
Ranger - that's an interesting suggestion but Paul and I are "limited" admins. We don't have access to the tables and stuff. Pete keeps that access himself. The only way we have to ban an address is to find the post, look up the IP addresses for the post, then go into the admin panel and paste them into the "Ban Box" in there.
Ranger is actually refering to the apache log files, and -Pete- may not have access to those. One of the pitfalls of hosting with a company. Limited control. That said, I think phpBB also has a module to retain this info as well.
As mentioned though, banning whole blocks of the population is counter productive. I suspect that one spammer from Washington getting Paul, and various others on the list from the area, banned by doing that, would make for an unhappy Rob, as the sole acting admin, as well as several of the users that were blocked for no reason.
Really, it's a case of one person ( or a few) ruining it for the rest of us.
Do we let them continue with their business because we don't want to limit the rest of the population, or do we tighten up the rules, at the risk of inconveniencing a few, for the enjoyment of the majority?
Tough question.
p.s. - sorry if this doesn't make a lot of sense. I spent an "all nighter" being an obsessive admin on my own server.
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The latest round of multiple spam posts just got killed off - at least they had the courtesy of adding to existing threads so there are fewer non-existent threads. However, those monitoring for new posts are going to be inconvenienced.
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The latest round of multiple spam posts just got killed off - at least they had the courtesy of adding to existing threads so there are fewer non-existent threads. However, those monitoring for new posts are going to be inconvenienced.
well lools like they are back about 4:35pm today about 23 worth...OH well
Brent
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well lools like they are back about 4:35pm today about 23 worth...OH well
Brent
Handled......
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:monkeymoon:
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Grrrrr..... 45 more deleted today and it's only 4 pm. :rant2:
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I got 20+ myself... looks like one of us was working on the same spammer, cuz a few times I went to delete the spam & it was already gone. :bigok:
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Trying to keep up with ya!!!!! :banana:
Finally.... Eredpotedder3 has left the building!!! 'Hole!!
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Shit - I got 24 today!
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Can't you just delete the spammer's profile?
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:monkeymoon:
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[quote="Dragbike
88 GSX600F Katana w/1127 :)
Pics, must post pics :stickpoke:[/quote]
Hello the pic to the left (avitar) is one pic. The other ones
came up missing from my "free" web site a few weeks back. I will post some in a few when I have time.
See Ya
Brent
PS the Busa guys :shock: hate me when I blast buy them on the Drag strip :grin: and always come up to me and ask me "That is a 600 Katana right" I say yes it is, but I only weigh 150 in full gear,,, then I grin again. :bigok: .... Sorry I just turn 50 last month and I am really having fun with the kids!
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"Sigh".... another dozen set to cyber coffins. Rob - I told ya so.... :stickpoke: :stickpoke: :duh:
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Geez! I go out for an afternoon, and all hell breaks loose!
I punted a couple early this morning (like 2am ish) but it looks like it got bad this aft!
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Can't you just delete the spammer's profile?
Can and should, based on my reading on the phpBB site, but it's a PITA without the plugins installed.
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Another 25 from a 4am blitz..... same type posts as the others. Are these actually generated by a human?
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I have my doubts... some of the ones from yesterday were digging up some old threads. I wouldn't think a human would bother with going back a few pages to revive old threads.
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They're not. They're spam bots. They're using vulnerabilities in phpBB to do this.