The only ones I've seem online is Souleye and Terry (if he counts). I know the spamming days are over but someone could easily come in and start spamming and it could take a week before anything happens. We need mods, just in case.
agreed
Why did you create a new topic for this? This topic (http://distractionware.com/forum/index.php?topic=1154.0) isn't too old.
I don't know if it's possible, but if it would really take a week, then it would be a good idea to automatically delete a post if five different users used the report to moderator button. That would work, I guess, unless the forum gets slow.
Meh, it's still a problem that needs to be fixed and that topic is a bit unactive right now.
I've seen different spambots lately, which are trying to post a new topic in General Discussion (judging from Who's Online), but eventually nothing is posted. Is this because of an improved captcha feature, or something similar?
Maybe they're "weak" spambots that can't solve CAPTCHA and try to solve it many times. Some of them just stay looking at their profile. I noticed that those who are online now have the flower icon (I still don't know what that means...).
Quote from: blue626 on November 20, 2012, 07:03:22 PM
Maybe they're "weak" spambots that can't solve CAPTCHA and try to solve it many times. Some of them just stay looking at their profile. I noticed that those who are online now have the flower icon (I still don't know what that means...).
I think that's an ICQ number.
Why do some of the spambots have messed up personal texts and locations, like "Óêðàèíà" or "êíèãè íà òåëåôîí ñêà÷àòü" ??? ??? ???
Quote from: Dav999 on November 20, 2012, 08:33:21 PM
Quote from: blue626 on November 20, 2012, 07:03:22 PM
Maybe they're "weak" spambots that can't solve CAPTCHA and try to solve it many times. Some of them just stay looking at their profile. I noticed that those who are online now have the flower icon (I still don't know what that means...).
I think that's an ICQ number.
Why do some of the spambots have messed up personal texts and locations, like "Óêðàèíà" or "êíèãè íà òåëåôîí ñêà÷àòü" ??? ??? ???
aeiou
Because of failed charset.
Also, while more mods wouldn't hurt I guess, I don't think it's needed. Souleye lurks here a lot more than I actually expected, and Terry is... well, Terry.
Oh yeah guys, there's a bunch of users online nowadays.
A few of them are like us,
the others have names like jhsdhjwhs
see (http://distractionware.com/forum/index.php?action=profile;u=22538)
There are suspiciously many of those users online!
Quote from: ToasterApocalypse on November 21, 2012, 02:56:17 PM
Oh yeah guys, there's a bunch of users online nowadays.
A few of them are like us,
the others have names like jhsdhjwhs
see (http://distractionware.com/forum/index.php?action=profile;u=22538)
Yeah, I see a person registering for an account almost half the time I come on.
I'm sorry to tell you this, but...
(https://distractionware.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fbuffaloeats.files.wordpress.com%2F2011%2F12%2Fspambot.jpg&hash=87cd31f4bc0bccc92127642fad10837d843b0792)
IT'S SPAMBOT SEASON. GET THE GUNS
There are still a lot of spambots :(. Go to Members > Search For Members. Only put a checkmark next to 'Search by website'. (Remove the checkmarks from 'Search by name' and 'Search by email address') Then search for ".ru", and you'll get two pages full of spambots. Also look at the date: all of the spambots which have '.ru' in their website (all of the spambots on those two pages), have been registered between 16 november and today! A lot of them have their location set to Russia (shows up as 'Ðîññèÿ' with the wrong encoding). Also, one of them was from the USSR (:D)
Currently, I'm adding every spambot I find to my ignore list, so I can see which users are spambots. At least there's an option to hide all posts of people on your ignore list. That means you can at least hide posts from spambots until they're deleted by Terry or SoulEye (or another mod).
I checked the member list and sorted by posts. Went to the last page and checked each page before it. Here's what I found:
There are 1398 members. There are 30 members per page and 47 pages.
Almost all of the members (spambots) allow members to email them, most of them have a website, most of those who have a website have ICQ and MSN, some have AIM and YIM (always both at the same time!).
I noticed that when members have the same post count (0 in this case), it seems to be sorted by registration date. It's like that most of the times, but there are exceptions. ??? I noticed that the memebrs joined one day since 16 Nov. make various pages. Same thing when sorted by registration date. This is easily noticeable by looking at the table at the end of the stats page (which I saw later), at the # of members registered in each day. Normally it was <10. On 15 Nov. it was 26. On 16 Nov., as well as every day after that (besides today) it's >100. That's what happened at Dec. 2010 and from Dec. 2011 to June 2012, when the forum was inactive! :o
I noticed that at page 23, the date reaches 15 Nov. and there aren't many members with the same date anymore. There also aren't may members that allow members to email them. In that page there are various members with username ending in 1012 and one ending in 577. All of them haven't been online since minutes (sometimes seconds!) after registration.
Only in page 21 there are members with 1 post and there are only 2 in that page. That means that there are 20x30+2=602 members that have posted at least once out of 1392 members. 13092-602=790 spambots. Put them all in my ignore list? What do you think? :D
Maybe Terry should erase all the members with 0 posts again. Is forcing lurkers to register again a problem?
[edit]≈15 min. after I started posting this there are 1401 members! 9 more spambots in 15 minutes?![/edit]
Quote from: blue626 on November 22, 2012, 07:21:36 PM
Only in page 21 there are members with 1 post and there are only 2 in that page. That means that there are 20x30+2=602 members that have posted at least once out of 1392 members. 13092-602=790 spambots. Put them all in my ignore list? What do you think? :D
Maybe Terry should erase all the members with 0 posts again. Is forcing lurkers to register again a problem?
There should be a way to recognize spambots. Maybe it would be nice to warn new users that if they have a link in their profile in combination with 0 posts, that their account will be deleted? (I mean, why would anyone want to visit the website of someone who hasn't posted anything, if they just know the username?) Automatically disallowing users with 0 posts to edit their profile would also be a possibility, but then you still have the spambot accounts, just without the links. In other words: useless accounts.
If I counted them correctly, I now have 109 bots on my ignore list. What if we make a challenge topic on the forum to find as many spambots possible?
Proof of people mashing an account JUST to spam an account. : http://distractionware.com/forum/index.php?action=profile;u=22251
Code orange:
(https://distractionware.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fd2bm3ljpacyxu8.cloudfront.net%2Fwidth%2F908%2Fcrop%2F0%2C0%2C908x544%2Fafbeeldinge.webs.com%2Fbots.png&hash=b91eb47f6966571d2c0c365737e9142414b10c20)
Since 15-11-12, a lot of spambots started to sign up. I think that in the past few days, more than 1000 spambots signed up!
Today, the same number of users signed up as the total number of users who signed up in all days of October together! Most of them are spambots, of course :violet:
Just as I said:
Quote from: blue626 on November 22, 2012, 07:21:36 PM
I noticed that the memebrs joined one day since 16 Nov. make various pages. Same thing when sorted by registration date. This is easily noticeable by looking at the table at the end of the stats page (which I saw later), at the # of members registered in each day. Normally it was <10. On 15 Nov. it was 26. On 16 Nov., as well as every day after that (besides today) it's >100. That's what happened at Dec. 2010 and from Dec. 2011 to June 2012, when the forum was inactive! :o
Also:
Quote from: blue626 on November 22, 2012, 07:21:36 PM
[edit]≈15 min. after I started posting this there are 1401 members! 9 more spambots in 15 minutes?![/edit]
I find it curious that at the time you saw the table, the # was exactly 109 (which is the # of people registered in October).
Did you check the other dates I mentioned? It happened the same a those times. Why did it happen now? The forum isn't inactive. In fact, it's very active! In 23 days, 1310 posts have been posted, and that's more than in the whole September 2011! So, it's not related to being inactive... is it related to being very active? Or is it another thing? What happened at Nov. 15? ???
Also, when I sorted by registration date, only 2 users registered in that date. Were the other 24 deleted?
There's also a small difference in most online per day: it used to be 20-30, now it's 30-40. It's related, right?
[edit]
Quote from: Vex69 on November 23, 2012, 03:06:35 AM
Proof of people mashing an account JUST to spam an account. : http://distractionware.com/forum/index.php?action=profile;u=22251
What? I don't understand. ???
Off-topic: I'm going to start to use "[edit]" and "[/edit]" instead of "EDIT:" and "END EDIT".[/edit]
Quote from: blue626 on November 23, 2012, 11:11:17 PM
I find it curious that at the time you saw the table, the # was exactly 109 (which is the # of people registered in October).
Did you check the other dates I mentioned? It happened the same a those times. Why did it happen now? The forum isn't inactive. In fact, it's very active! In 23 days, 1310 posts have been posted, and that's more than in the whole September 2011! So, it's not related to being inactive... is it related to being very active? Or is it another thing? What happened at Nov. 15? ???
I think that at that time, the forum was inactive because of the spambots!
This post is from January 2010, but it's also about spambots, and apparently inactivity because of them:
Quote from: StephenM3 on January 22, 2010, 04:15:32 AM
Ugh. Terry, it looks about time this forum got some mods. I'm watching this guy post thread after thread, and I see there are at least a couple others online right now too, and there's nothing anyone can do about it! :victoria:
[...]
man, I hope Terry logs in soon. This forum is completely useless! I wanted to talk about an impressive speedrun I saw on youtube. :victoria:
That means that if there were a lot of spam posts at the dates you mentioned, people couldn't really use the forum because of the spam. That could explain the inactivity, because of course the spam threads got deleted, but there were less normal posts than usual.
Also, when I made the screenshot of the table, the number was 109. Now it's 115 (also a coincidence, that was the total number of new members from September)
And about the users online: yes, it is related, I also noticed that often there are 15 users online, instead of less than 5. The spambots really log in to look like real users, and to get attention.
Quote from: Dav999 on November 23, 2012, 11:39:00 PM
Quote from: blue626 on November 23, 2012, 11:11:17 PM
I find it curious that at the time you saw the table, the # was exactly 109 (which is the # of people registered in October).
Did you check the other dates I mentioned? It happened the same a those times. Why did it happen now? The forum isn't inactive. In fact, it's very active! In 23 days, 1310 posts have been posted, and that's more than in the whole September 2011! So, it's not related to being inactive... is it related to being very active? Or is it another thing? What happened at Nov. 15? ???
I think that at that time, the forum was inactive because of the spambots!
(face-palm) I meant 15 Nov. 2012!
Quote from: Dav999 on November 23, 2012, 11:39:00 PM
This post is from January 2010, but it's also about spambots, and apparently inactivity because of them:
Quote from: StephenM3 on January 22, 2010, 04:15:32 AM
Ugh. Terry, it looks about time this forum got some mods. I'm watching this guy post thread after thread, and I see there are at least a couple others online right now too, and there's nothing anyone can do about it! :victoria:
[...]
man, I hope Terry logs in soon. This forum is completely useless! I wanted to talk about an impressive speedrun I saw on youtube. :victoria:
That means that if there were a lot of spam posts at the dates you mentioned, people couldn't really use the forum because of the spam. That could explain the inactivity, because of course the spam threads got deleted, but there were less normal posts than usual.
Is it a problem to reply to a thread in which a spambot has replied, ignoring it? If no, then I don't see why it would become inactive, if yes, then yes it would become inactive... unless it's only one spam post.
Quote from: Dav999 on November 23, 2012, 11:39:00 PM
And about the users online: yes, it is related, I also noticed that often there are 15 users online, instead of less than 5. The spambots really log in to look like real users, and to get attention.
I, normally, only see 10 users online, never saw 15 (without counting with guests).
[edit]
Quote from: Vex69 on November 23, 2012, 03:06:35 AM
Proof of people mashing an account JUST to spam an account. : http://distractionware.com/forum/index.php?action=profile;u=22251
What? I don't understand. ???
Off-topic: I'm going to start to use "[edit]" and "[/edit]" instead of "EDIT:" and "END EDIT".[/edit]
[/quote]
That gut just put random letters in his username and literally hasn't done anything. Spam account.
Quote from: Vex69 on November 24, 2012, 01:02:30 AM
Quote from: blue626 on November 23, 2012, 11:11:17 PM
[edit]Quote from: Vex69 on November 23, 2012, 03:06:35 AM
Proof of people mashing an account JUST to spam an account. : http://distractionware.com/forum/index.php?action=profile;u=22251
What? I don't understand. ???
Off-topic: I'm going to start to use "[edit]" and "[/edit]" instead of "EDIT:" and "END EDIT".[/edit]
That gut just put random letters in his username and literally hasn't done anything. Spam account.
That is actually the worst example, there are around 1000 bots that have a link in their personal text, or a website. This could actually be a normal user.
A SPAMBOT MADE IT THROUGH! FIRE THE REPORT CANNONS!
Already done. ;)
Quote from: Dav999 on November 24, 2012, 10:34:34 AM
Quote from: Vex69 on November 24, 2012, 01:02:30 AM
Quote from: blue626 on November 23, 2012, 11:11:17 PM
[edit]Quote from: Vex69 on November 23, 2012, 03:06:35 AM
Proof of people mashing an account JUST to spam an account. : http://distractionware.com/forum/index.php?action=profile;u=22251
What? I don't understand. ???
Off-topic: I'm going to start to use "[edit]" and "[/edit]" instead of "EDIT:" and "END EDIT".[/edit]
That gut just put random letters in his username and literally hasn't done anything. Spam account.
That is actually the worst example, there are around 1000 bots that have a link in their personal text, or a website. This could actually be a normal user.
Yeah, I logged in and see three people with 0 posts and links to businesses and other website in their personal text.