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| --Tech & Moderator Notes |
| A plea from the moderators |
| 2010-03-15 |
| To those of you using Fred's really, really cool nym generator: Please stick to one nym per day for the next little while. Rantburg is being hit extremely hard by spam right now. Fred and badanov have been working madly under the hood to control it, including banning entire IP thingies that appear to be connected to bot thingies (you technical people already know what I mean, and the rest of you care as little as I about the actual details, so hush about the non-technical language). Unfortunately, constant nym changing looks like spamming at first glance, and so needs to be checked out. When it's only you making use of the facilities Fred so nicely provided, that takes time away from checking out the bad guys. Someone who appeared to be Black Bart -- but wasn't, apologies to you both -- was banned yesterday because he refused to heed the message. And as Black Bart posted very nicely this morning, we have solid proof that it wasn't him, and that he wasn't the one banned. As for the nym jumper, he's going to have to email Fred to request being unbanned, and promise to be more controlled in the future (see link in the right margin of the front page). Please don't be the next to be banned during this challenging situation. Thank you, trailing wife for the moderators P.S. Check out our Terms of Use, which I just learned we had filed somewhere obvious that I didn't notice. |
| Posted by:trailing wife |
| #8 bad, Too bad there's not a digital equivalent to the anti-junk mail technique of putting their post-paid reply permit on a box of rocks. |
| Posted by: Glenmore 2010-03-15 20:24 |
| #7 In TW's defense, the TOS page was written more than a year ago, but was just never linked to in the front page. Fred has developed his own antispam solution which is unique and is a journey, not a destination. My theory about this last attack is that we got hit by two large spam networks consecutively judging by the server/client signatures, as well as the message signatures. Spammers act like locusts. They attack and overwhelm and when they are done there is little to do but move on. My own limited experience is that these spammers won't give up until they are given good reason to move on, and we haven't done that yet. Make no mistake about spam. It is online crime; a criminal act whether it supports Russian criminal activity, Barak McDreamy and his Dreamettes or terrorism, it is still a crime to steal eyes and bandwidth for advertising. |
| Posted by: badanov 2010-03-15 19:01 |
| #6 Halliburton is still ok -- him we know and love. :-) No, of course I didn't know about that spam blocker, tipper, I'm the one who refers to bot thingies. Is that for the little laptop my family got me, or for Fred? I'm not aware that I had a spam problem, which does not mean that I don't... What say you knowledgeable Rantburgers? |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2010-03-15 16:03 |
| #5 trailing wife, just wondering if you've looked at this free spam blocker? I've heard good reports about it. |
| Posted by: tipper 2010-03-15 13:27 |
| #4 The spam/hack/dos attacks are a backhanded compliment to Fred and the mods for providing the truth to all of us about terrorism in the world today, and other important things. It shouldn't happen, and if we could ever find out who is behind it, I'll gladly authorize the use of deadly force against them. I'm ashamed I'm not a good enough programmer to build a counter-bot that would toast someone's attack computer. I'm glad that Fred and Badanov stand between us and this sewage. Thank you, all, for all you do. |
| Posted by: Old Patriot 2010-03-15 13:14 |
| #3 Halliburton X X Division still possible, no? |
| Posted by: twobyfour 2010-03-15 12:53 |
| #2 Be careful not to toss your cookies. |
| Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305 2010-03-15 11:39 |
| #1 Thanks for the "heads up" TW. |
| Posted by: tipover 2010-03-15 11:20 |