Attack of the Bots

[Orioni]

Several people on the support forum have reported spambots on their forum. If you see anyone called johnstern registering, that means we have a spambot visiting. This bot also seems to be using the names PPlayer and Deckster1967. Admin has already taken some steps to make spambot posting very difficult, but you never know. In any case: if you see a newbee just posting a link without further information, click it at your own risk. Here is an example message.

I borrowed this from another forum. The purpose of this game is to make a statement about the person who will respond below you. The person must say whether it's true or false, then make a statement about the person who will reply below them. For instance:

 

Me: The person below me has blue eyes.

Next: False. The person below me loves sushi.

Next: True. The person below me..

 

 

I'll start:

 

The person below me likes soccer.

 

Continue...

 

 

 

 

Deckster1967 Posted: Jun 26 2006, 07:06 PM

 

 

Unregistered

 

 

false, false, false

 

The person below me likes sushi!!!

 

 

_____________________________________

 

 

[LINK REMOVED]

[Haken]

[Ide Jima]

What's a spambot. Haken's picture confused me even more

[Italgria]

its something i wanted to to create as i wrote yesterday Its like a "computer" posting random posts in threads...

[Tamurin]

I've seen spambots in several developer newsgroups. The "harmless" ones just post ad banners or links. The not-so-harmless ones post very nasty links...not so good clicking at them...

 

Question: What can an admin do about that? I'm an admin in my forum as well, so if you would please share what there is to do...my first guess would be sending an activation e-mail or manual activation of new accounts by the admin...

[Ide Jima]

ah right

[Orioni]

@ Ide Jima: If you're familiar with weblogs, you must have come across spam once.

 

@ Italgria: Haha, better not. Double accounts will be shot down on sight anyway.

 

Question: What can an admin do about that? I'm an admin in my forum as well, so if you would please share what there is to do...my first guess would be sending an activation e-mail or manual activation of new accounts by the admin...

Exactly. That was the first feature that was re-enabled after reading this news. When registering at a forum, a confirmation e-mail is sent to the e-mailadres this person has to provide. This message contains a link, which you need to click to activate your account before you can post. Spambots are (at the moment) too stupid to do something like that.

 

Also, when registering, one has to agree to our boardrules, etcetera. I'm not sure of captcha's are enabled, but those also slow-down spambots from registering. Unfortunately, some advanced spambots these days are able to read these captcha's. That's quite a difficult trick, for a robot.

 

What is a "captcha"?

[Italgria]

Well O the problem will arise when AI is created ^^ What do you do then? *evil laugh*

[Orioni]

Sit back, relax, and let them fight amongst eachother.

 

They day the bots take over will be a big day in spam-history.

[Tamurin]

Thanks for the info.

 

The day the bots take over people like me will be unemployed or very much asked for to regain control of the networks. That will be quite a battle...

 

**preparing for battle**

[Orioni]

 

"I am Locutus of Borg. You will be assimilated. Resistance is futile. You will disarm all your weapons and escort us to Sector Zero Zero One. If you attempt to intervene, we will destroy you."