Against spammers

[musi]

It seems we are having quite a wave of spammers who feel comfortable posting stupidities here on the forum, so while admin is looking for a way to ban them, please, just ignore them. Moderators are deleting the threads as soon as they can, so just ignore the spammers - it is probably the best way to fight them :)

[yyz]

Captcha vBulletin plugin

[musi]

Captcha vBulletin plugin

I wish I knew what that means :)

[skye]

I was going to ask for a translation too. :D

[incka]

The problem with captcha is these spammers are real people, not 'bots'.

[Jez]

Incka, while you're here, do you mind checking out my suggestion about a book lists subforum? (http://www.literaturejunction.com/showthread.php?t=8762) Good to see you around :)

[yyz]

How about hiding posted URLs until a specified post-count has been reached? Theyd still create topics but maybe eventually they'd learn.

[Jez]

That sounds like a good idea. I didn't realize that could be done.

[musi]

Just so that you know, even though hatred is a bad feeling, I officially hate spammers. :mad::mad::mad::mad::mad:

[Jez]

Yeah, I hate them too. But thank you for all the work you're all putting into trying to keep up with them. It's much appreciated.

[margaine]

I know this spam conversation happened a while ago, but how do they get in? I don't understand it. Can't membership requests be screened in some way so that they don't get in?

[musi]

I know this spam conversation happened a while ago, but how do they get in? I don't understand it. Can't membership requests be screened in some way so that they don't get in?

I am not sure. You can ask Sean this question the next time you see him, but who knows when that'll happen. *thinking*

As far as I know, when a person registers, his email has to be confirmed and at some point in time it appeared that only the administrator can confirm the email, but I am not sure how that works exactly. I doubt the administrator looks through every email address, maybe it is still automated.

I am still wondering if it possible to make it impossible to post links in the first post, but then again, I cannot ask Sean about it.

:(

Spammers cause me and Star a lot of frustration and we are doing our best to get rid of them. Sorry, if at times you still have to see them - we cover only 2 sides of the world in time zones :)

[Star_Anise]

Spammers cause me and Star a lot of frustration and we are doing our best to get rid of them. Sorry, if at times you still have to see them - we cover only 2 sides of the world in time zones :)

Yes, it is true, without a little help we just have to keep on deleting those spammers every day...we do try our best, but just be grateful you guys don't have to click through every one of them before you can delete them! :( I'll send you all my counselling bill:p

[Jez]

Well, you guys are super appreciated :) Is there anything we can do to help?

[Star_Anise]

Just keep being the wonderful members that you are:) And, if you notice anything that seems to have slipped by us (ie, has been around more than 24 hours), send us a pm. Sometimes they can be devious...

[Jez]

Sure :)

[princess]

Just keep being the wonderful members that you are:) And, if you notice anything that seems to have slipped by us (ie, has been around more than 24 hours), send us a pm. Sometimes they can be devious...

is this an argument to avoid writing books ?

[margaine]

I don't understand the spam messages that don't have obvious links in them. What's the point of them (or, how do they work?). If we can't see the links, why do it at all? Or is that little notepad symbol the link? :rolleyes:

[musi]

I don't understand the spam messages that don't have obvious links in them. What's the point of them (or, how do they work?). If we can't see the links, why do it at all? Or is that little notepad symbol the link? :rolleyes:

I always consider such threads to be a stream of conciousness, so never take them seriously :D And the notepad symbol - I do not know why (maybe just what practice has shown) for me is the first sign of a suspicious thread. ;)

[musi]

Dear members,

if you stumble across a thread, that seems like spam to you or you are sure it is spam or you are not sure it is spam, but still like to let the others know about it, please, send a pm to any of mods (Star_Anise, musi or margaine) or all three about the matter and ignore the thread. I am really glad you are helping busy mods to identify spam, but it makes my heart bleed to delete threads that have posts by our regular members as well. ;) Seriously. I hate doing that, so don't post there :D

(To Moon_Shadow and KneD - sorry, I had to delete that thread).

Thank you,

Yours,

musi.

[KneD]

I won't do it again, sorry :)
But, why should I care that that post got lost? It wasn't my best work ever...

Plus, doesn't the 'report post' button better than PM's? Or is that a button in the 'public group' category, as in non-existent?

[musi]

I won't do it again, sorry :)
But, why should I care that that post got lost? It wasn't my best work ever...

Well, if you don't care, think of my bleeding heart that has to suffer while my hand presses the "delete" button... :D

[Moon Shadow]

Oh, I'm sorry musi! I won't do that again. At any rate, I wouldn't even think you were employing censorship deleting a spam thread. Delete away!! :D

[Winifred]

I think I just received my first spam pm. Anyone else receive two pm from someone never heard of today? I was afraid to open them, so if you were not a spammer, please introduce yourself and try again!

[musi]

I think I just received my first spam pm. Anyone else receive two pm from someone never heard of today? I was afraid to open them, so if you were not a spammer, please introduce yourself and try again!

I have been received 2 or 3 so far, I think. Don't worry, you can open it, but please, don't press on any links, just delete it. :) It seems to be a new way of spreading spam :rolleyes::mad:

[Katy Cox]

PM spam {sourceradix} 3 so far for me and I tried to open the link (didn't read musi's advice) but the link appeared broken

[padmar]

This is quite serious I sometimes write on this forum. Can you see what has happend and how can a forum protect itself from such activity?

Jolly Roger Great Books Forums - powered by vBulletin (http://jollyrogerwest.com/index.php?)

[Smirksome]

Its spam.

Its been happening a lot across loads of forums they have a new weapon they are more adept.

Forums just have to implement more protection for new sign ups or get a new platform for the forum.

[margaine]

This is quite serious I sometimes write on this forum. Can you see what has happend and how can a forum protect itself from such activity?


As you can see in this thread padmar, we are all concerned with spam and keeping our forum as spam-free as possible. I hope we have done a good job so far. The forum does have filters - there is lots of spam that never makes its way on to the forum but gets stopped in a holding bin of sorts to be deleted by moderators.

Members can help by alerting moderators to spam-like posts that get past that initial filter and that we may have missed. But, as I believe musi has indicated elsewhere in this thread, you may not want to reply directly to spam threads on the forum. Because if the moderators later decide to delete that thread, your message may get deleted as well, and we don't want to delete posts by legitimate members, even all the post says is "I think this is spam." :)

As for the other forum you mention, well, you will just have to contact the moderators and administrators over there and see what they are doing about the problem. I can only speak to anti-spam action on this forum. And maybe the rest of this thread will give you further insight into it as well that you might bring throughout your internet travels. ;)

[padmar]

Well Margaine I have never seen this activity to this extent before. My contributions on the forum are sparse. It just struck me as destructive as they have literally destroyed that forum.

[Moon Shadow]

I understand your frustration, Padmar. There are varying levels of spam protection which a site administrator may choose to implement. Some are more effective than others, but they are available to an administrator who wants to ramp up the protection. (I'm not referriong to margaine or musi or Star, they are moderators and do the best they can with what's been given them.)

[musi]

Well Margaine I have never seen this activity to this extent before. My contributions on the forum are sparse. It just struck me as destructive as they have literally destroyed that forum.

True, but since our admin added some protection to our forum, only mods can see the spam, so the forum's "face" remains nice and shiny, while mods make sure none of the spam threads survive at all :D

[Winifred]

Poor Jolly Roger :o

Although, I find I must quell a strong desire to wish CialisViagraBuyy a happy 30th birthday.....:rolleyes: :p :D So sad, at his age.....

[padmar]

I would die if it happend to us!

[Winifred]

I would die if it happend to us!

Thank incka and the ever vigilant moderators!:good: :good: :good: :good:

[padmar]

Forever indebted, Paddy

[Rachel]

I received one a couple of weeks ago right in my mail box. i was so surprised but I did not even open it. It made me feel very violated and angry, and the nice breezy way they put the title so if you are not vigilante you think it is from a friend or someone well meaning anyway. grrrrrrrr.

[Moon Shadow]

True, but since our admin added some protection to our forum, only mods can see the spam, so the forum's "face" remains nice and shiny, while mods make sure none of the spam threads survive at all :D


Thank incka and the ever vigilant moderators!:good: :good: :good: :good:

Unfortunately, once the spammers have breached security measures they can spam personal message boxes to their hearts content and leave before they're reported. That's why it's so important for a site administrator to be on top of all the new and and better ways to detect spammers before they gain access to a site, and to implement these measures on a regular basis. Some sites, especially the larger ones, have a neverending battle with this. :(

[markcool]

Thanks to the Admin for their efforts to fight against the spammers.Thanks again.:-)

[Winifred]

All right! The Lit Forum is running again, albeit with a different look!

Yay!! Thanks Incka, musi, Star, margaine!

[intellectualammo]

I managed to make it on this forum, just stopping by to say "Hey" before work! I was freaking out, thought I'd not get to talk to margaine, et al again!

[Winifred]

Soooo, what exactly happened, does anyone know?

[incka]

What happened seems to be this.

Forum was on outdated software with security issues. A hacker 'Pal-Li0n' found this out and used those security issues to hack us. I spent today from 8.30am to now which as just gone 11pm trying to fix this and other sites that had been hacked by him. This also involved updating the forum to the latest version to avoid further security issues. That cost me £109 :(. Design change is due to old template needing reworking for latest version, i havent had time to do this yet

[incka]

BTW title of this thread reminded me of a great song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dJYUz31i_Goed m

[margaine]

What happened seems to be this.

Forum was on outdated software with security issues. A hacker 'Pal-Li0n' found this out and used those security issues to hack us. I spent today from 8.30am to now which as just gone 11pm trying to fix this and other sites that had been hacked by him. This also involved updating the forum to the latest version to avoid further security issues. That cost me £109 :(. Design change is due to old template needing reworking for latest version, i havent had time to do this yet

Thank you very much for getting us back up and running Sean!

[Star_Anise]

Yay! Thank you Sean for all the hard work getting us back up. Not really sure what the hacker hoped to achieve. On with the books!

[intellectualammo]

I wonder if the Palestinian hacker(s) came across this thread http://www.literaturejunction.com/showthread.php?15752-Gaza and it set them off? Why'd they target us? I don't know, but when I saw a burning American Flag where this wonderful forum used to be, I soooo felt victimized because my precious words and photos - all gone behind that screen, not knowing what was being done to them, what happened to them, along with at least one person I think that I would miss, if this forum was down down. But I'm glad that people here like Inka (whomever that is) know what to do, or have this forum saved or something, I really don't know how it works. The cost you mentioned, there is a forum I am on, where I pay every two months or so to be a recognized patron there, and it supports the forum itself. I knew nothing about costs of forum and so forth, but one way to help with such costs, something like that could be considered, where we are specially recognized, like with our name being in a certain color or something like that. Just a thought. I'm glad to see margaine here, Win I saw first, Star, Paula. I wonder if Jez saw that page?

[incka]

I think they are targeting any sites they think are based in USA. We're not but we are hosted in Chicago

[incka]

Is anyone else having problems with quickreply typing very slowly?

[Katy Cox]

Thanks!

[Jez]

Quick reply seems ok for me, Sean. Thanks for getting the site back up and running.

Ammo, they're a group that goes around and does exactly the sort of thing you saw. They usually just look for sites they can do it on with less regard for what the actual site is. Oftentimes they load a virus or something similar on the page so it infects your computer when you try to access the forum during the attack. I checked the page source though, and it doesn't seem like there was anything added.

I notice a few posts made right before the attack are no longer there. I guess we lost them?

[margaine]

I notice a few posts made right before the attack are no longer there. I guess we lost them?

Yes, I noticed that as well. I honestly thought everything would be gone forever, not knowing much about this sort of stuff. Thank goodness we only lost a bit, assuming they can't be recovered.

This experience has taught me what I already should have known - if there is something you are keeping on here that you care about very much (a list, a particular post, etc), it would really be important to back it up somewhere else. That's for you Ammo - because I know you care a lot about your words. If I were you, I would save them somewhere else. For me, it was stuff that I didn't think was necessary to back up, but if the forum were gone, it wouldn't be there anymore! I've never compiled an off-forum list of people's addresses I have. They are, with one exception, only found in my PM's. I've realized I should really back up those addresses, because if the forum were destroyed, I would lose touch with several people, and that would be very sad.

[intellectualammo]

That's for you Ammo - because I know you care a lot about your words. If I were you, I would save them somewhere else. For me, it was stuff that I didn't think was necessary to back up, but if the forum were gone, it wouldn't be there anymore!

Yes, the main points of what I say here, the really good stuff, is usually elsewhere saved. I wonder if I have ever given you an email addy? If not, I'd like you to have it, just in case, margaine. Let me know. I'll send other ways of contacting me as well, just in case. I think that you guys'd be able to get in touch with me, if you join other forums I'm on, not sure if you guys look at those or not, but Jez has my real life address, so I wasn't scared of losing contact with her. :) Just you. :) I don't need your addy, just for you to have mine. I thnk I may have sent it to you, can't remember, sorry. Doesn't hurt to check. If you don't want it, that's cool. :)

[Jez]

I think that you guys'd be able to get in touch with me, if you join other forums I'm on, not sure if you guys look at those or not, but Jez has my real life address, so I wasn't scared of losing contact with her. :)

No! I don't! I just realized a few days ago when I was looking for it that I don't actually have it anymore! Or, if I do, I can't find it in my messes of papers. Do you mind re-messaging it to me?

[intellectualammo]

Hi Jez :) Yes, I'll re-message it to you. I know yours is somewhere buried underneath my writing and so forth here, but I'm not going to literally look for it, because then I would be ever more tempted to send you something, which is an ongoing battle I continually am fighting, and right now I am so f'ing winning. :) Yay for me! :) It's better that way.

[Star_Anise]

I am curious as to whether the forum wil remain this version, with all the new bells and whistles (have a look at member pages, for a start).

[incka]

I restored a pre-hack backup from a few days before the hack, that is why there is lost posts. Don't rely on my server backups though - it is possible, although much much harder, for a hacker to delete those too. Also things like fires might destroy both the server and the backup at same time. If you have anything on here important keep it on your hard drive as well as on here.

In a few weeks I'll take a look at what needs fixing on the forum. If someone would like to make a 'Bug report/Fix suggestion' style thread I'll take a look at it when I've got time and act upon the problems and suggestions listed in it.

[Winifred]

I've got one more question about our "visitors:" they had several email addresses listed. Were those laced with viruses? I wasn't about to open them, although I must say I was curious. Did anyone send them a message?

[Jez]

Hi Jez :) Yes, I'll re-message it to you. I know yours is somewhere buried underneath my writing and so forth here, but I'm not going to literally look for it, because then I would be ever more tempted to send you something, which is an ongoing battle I continually am fighting, and right now I am so f'ing winning. :) Yay for me! :) It's better that way.
:D Stay strong!



I am curious as to whether the forum wil remain this version, with all the new bells and whistles (have a look at member pages, for a start).
There are a lot of nice new features.


I've got one more question about our "visitors:" they had several email addresses listed. Were those laced with viruses? I wasn't about to open them, although I must say I was curious. Did anyone send them a message?
I didn't see anything anywhere. Usually they put up those email addresses to get both hate and fan mail. It gives them an idea of how many people they affected, which also in turn gives them an ego boost. It also gives them a new list of email addresses, which they could use for various things from selling them to sending spam, etc. It's good that you didn't send them mail, but had you clicked on it it just would have opened a mail document with their address in the "TO" location.

[intellectualammo]

While looking at Jez's profile, I noticed that there is a feature that says "visitor messages". I guess it's self-explanitory, but I haven't used it, I want to see what it's like, maybe I'll leave a message for Jez there, see what happens! :):):)

[jeremy]

It seems like we're getting smarter spammers - they're not allowed to post links until a certain post count is reached, so they've decided to attach it to their signature.

Is it possible to eliminate this feature for potential spammers (those with lets say, less than 15 posts)?

[Star_Anise]

It seems like we're getting smarter spammers - they're not allowed to post links until a certain post count is reached, so they've decided to attach it to their signature.

Is it possible to eliminate this feature for potential spammers (those with lets say, less than 15 posts)?

Spammers have been doing that for a while, so no, they're not getting smarter:) Even though we upgraded the forum build, this one has got that protection built in, that I can see:( So mods do it the long way round.

[Barton]

It seems we are having quite a wave of spammers who feel comfortable posting stupidities here on the forum, so while admin is looking for a way to ban them, please, just ignore them. Moderators are deleting the threads as soon as they can, so just ignore the spammers - it is probably the best way to fight them :)

I read somewhere on this ste that links could cause a thread to not get posted?? That is very disheartening to hear due to the fact that I went to post a long speel about Edgar Rice Burroughs, with a link to some of his work. If my post isn't going to be shown due to the single link, I would be rather put-off by the moderation here. :(

[Star_Anise]

I read somewhere on this ste that links could cause a thread to not get posted?? That is very disheartening to hear due to the fact that I went to post a long speel about Edgar Rice Burroughs, with a link to some of his work. If my post isn't going to be shown due to the single link, I would be rather put-off by the moderation here. :(

New member posts with links do get moderated, yes, but mods do check these posts, so when this happens, the post will be hidden until a mod approves it. Given that something like one in one hundred moderated posts is genuine (not spam), this is currently the best way we have to ensure we are not completely over run by spammers. So we hope you can wait just a little while to share that link, or share your thoughts link-free for a while:)

[Barton]

New member posts with links do get moderated, yes, but mods do check these posts, so when this happens, the post will be hidden until a mod approves it. Given that something like one in one hundred moderated posts is genuine (not spam), this is currently the best way we have to ensure we are not completely over run by spammers. So we hope you can wait just a little while to share that link, or share your thoughts link-free for a while:)

I understand the Anti-Spam here, but I had also meant to post a very detailed, very well thought-out, "Introduce Yourself" thread that never appeared. There was no link involved in this one...

[Star_Anise]

I understand the Anti-Spam here, but I had also meant to post a very detailed, very well thought-out, "Introduce Yourself" thread that never appeared. There was no link involved in this one...

I think you'll find that both threads are now on the forum. If it seems you had to wait longer than you'd have liked, I am sorry, but we have mods who live in three very different time zones so sometimes there may be a wait of a few hours before one is online. Would you like your Test thread modified in any way?

[Barton]

I think you'll find that both threads are now on the forum. If it seems you had to wait longer than you'd have liked, I am sorry, but we have mods who live in three very different time zones so sometimes there may be a wait of a few hours before one is online. Would you like your Test thread modified in any way?

Thank you, I was just very worried after spending so much time on the threads to find out that they werent there was quite demoralizing. And yes, could you please remove the "testing" thread? It's a little embarassing... I would also like to apologize for my aggressive attitude that I may have showed to you as a first-impression. I hope I can make it up in time as I continue to post here and develope my standing on Literature Junction. Again, sorry for being so aggressive in my first-hand appearance.

[Star_Anise]

That's ok, I do understand it can be frustrating, but even though we often have the perception that the internet is a very immediately reponsive medium, forums can be somewhat different. So a little patience sometimes goes a long way in international matters! Hopefully now you can get started on the forum for real:)

[Barton]

That's ok, I do understand it can be frustrating, but even though we often have the perception that the internet is a very immediately reponsive medium, forums can be somewhat different. So a little patience sometimes goes a long way in international matters! Hopefully now you can get started on the forum for real:)

Yes, thank you! Sometimes we DO forget that the whole world relies on the internet and that, coupled with a non-too-great day, can be the medium in which Frustration and Aggression molds it's form. Anway, thanks again for giving me a proper start! :D

[musi]

And yes, could you please remove the "testing" thread? It's a little embarassing...

Done. :) Welcome to the forum.
For argument's sake I can tell you that once one of my posts got moderated and I almost deleted it and I was very much surprised to see it in the "moderated" section, although it contained nothing that I think could qualify as spam, nor am I a new user :) Mods do try to check some spam, but if you ever again feel that some of your posts are missing, please, let us know.

[Barton]

Done. :) Welcome to the forum.
For argument's sake I can tell you that once one of my posts got moderated and I almost deleted it and I was very much surprised to see it in the "moderated" section, although it contained nothing that I think could qualify as spam, nor am I a new user :) Mods do try to check some spam, but if you ever again feel that some of your posts are missing, please, let us know.

Ma'am yes, ma'am. ;)

[musi]

New announcement in regards to spammers:

New forum protection system is automatically blocking spammers, that have a link in their post. However, the system does not automatically block spammers, who have links in their signature. That means the posts can be seen, but beware - if the new member has a link in his signature and by the link you can tell it is nothing literature related, please, do not reply to the thread. The thread will be deleted by one of 3 mods, depending on time of day or night and so will be your post.

In case you stumble upon a thread that is clearly a spam message and mods haven't noticed it, please, send mods a link to keep the forum clean and on the topic.

Thank you!!!

[tproll]

What if the signature is a link to a blog that is literature related? That's ok, right?

[Star_Anise]

What if the signature is a link to a blog that is literature related? That's ok, right?

This is usually left to the discretion of the moderator - who may often not click a suspicious link and delete as spam automatically. So, it's best to save links in signatures until you've been around a while and we know you can be trusted.

[Rachel]

Star, a question, and I am not being silly or flippant. Just what, if I may ask, causes you moderators to decide at some point that we can be trusted? I have always wondered at that.

[Star_Anise]

Star, a question, and I am not being silly or flippant. Just what, if I may ask, causes you moderators to decide at some point that we can be trusted? I have always wondered at that.

Well, it's more about trusting the posting of a link - and it can usually be judged by the nature of what someone has posted and their level of engagement with others. Someone who is only here to spam us won't usually be on topic or be responsive to others and so their links/posts are more likely to get deleted as they will definitely seem suspicious.

[Rachel]

ah, thank you for that information

[Nurkie]

What is with the massive spam posting today? It makes me feel discouraged from coming here.

[Star_Anise]

What is with the massive spam posting today? It makes me feel discouraged from coming here.

Well, it's not really massive...a couple of posts on the forum is pretty small compared to what it has been, and what it could be. I'm sorry you feel discouraged, but we do the best we can.

[Nurkie]

A couple? There was one posting every 15 minutes for the majority of the day....

[musi]

A couple? There was one posting every 15 minutes for the majority of the day....

Actually, most of the spam we get is not even visible to users :) And the mods are doing all they can about it, only, we don't really get notifications whenever there is a spam post on the forum, so we check the forum when we check the forum. And it gets cleaned up then. Our admin should increase the security, but he is traveling now far from his home, so it might take some time.

[Star_Anise]

A couple? There was one posting every 15 minutes for the majority of the day....

I find that preferable to the ones that post every minute:)

As I said, I'm sorry it makes your experience here unpleasant, but we really work very hard at it. Be glad you can't see the pages and pages of spam that we can, and that we frequently remove throughout our days.