Briareos
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 3516
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Is it just me, or is there a recent influx of new accounts that all have some spammy site as their homepage?

http://forum.caravelgames.com/member.php?Action=viewprofile&username=disg34gento
http://forum.caravelgames.com/member.php?Action=viewprofile&username=aline1ne
http://forum.caravelgames.com/member.php?Action=viewprofile&username=longlife4u
http://forum.caravelgames.com/member.php?Action=viewprofile&username=simki4total
http://forum.caravelgames.com/member.php?Action=viewprofile&username=lans45uage
http://forum.caravelgames.com/member.php?Action=viewprofile&username=amyangel
http://forum.caravelgames.com/member.php?Action=viewprofile&username=italianomy12

I wonder if someone is doing all this by hand, and what it is they're hoping to achieve - linkfarming via profile pages?

Just my .02 EYPO...

np: Kettel - Afwezig (My Dogan)

____________________________
"I'm not anti-anything, I'm anti-everything, it fits better." - Sole
R.I.P. Robert Feldhoff (1962-2009)

Schik
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Rank Points: 5419
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Bah. Yeah, I cleaned up a bunch of these a while ago, looks like it's time to do it again... *sigh*

____________________________
The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way it treats its animals.
--Mahatma Gandhi

Briareos
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*sigh*

http://forum.caravelgames.com/member.php?Action=viewprofile&username=san4uzel

Aren't those accounts being registered from a constant IP? If so, blocking that might help...

____________________________
"I'm not anti-anything, I'm anti-everything, it fits better." - Sole
R.I.P. Robert Feldhoff (1962-2009)

Pilchard VIII
Level: Smiter
Rank Points: 392
Registered: 01-21-2006
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Blocking IP may help, or we could do it the old fashioned way. Spam-Laser!!!1!

____________________________
The DROD Dragon

NiroZ
Level: Smitemaster
Rank Points: 1302
Registered: 02-12-2006
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and yet another one
http://forum.caravelgames.com/member.php?Action=viewprofile&username=cruelintentionmovie.org

Looks as if this little forum is growing up, for better or for worse.

Briareos
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http://forum.caravelgames.com/member.php?Action=viewprofile&username=medic7tota

____________________________
"I'm not anti-anything, I'm anti-everything, it fits better." - Sole
R.I.P. Robert Feldhoff (1962-2009)

trick
Level: Legendary Smitemaster
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Might be worth thinking about making the homepage, chat id, avatar and signature fields invisible on the registration page. If they're filled out, you're probably dealing with a bot, so autoban the IP. Registered users could set the fields in their profile later.

~ Gerry

Jatopian
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trick wrote:
Might be worth thinking about making the homepage, chat id, avatar and signature fields invisible on the registration page. If they're filled out, you're probably dealing with a bot, so autoban the IP. Registered users could set the fields in their profile later.

That's just a temporary solution, though. Perhaps one of those things wherein the human can see the characters in the pic but the bot can't.

____________________________
DROD has some really great music.
Make your pressure plates 3.0 style!
DROD architecture idea generator

Kevin_P86
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Jatopian wrote:

trick wrote:
Might be worth thinking about making the homepage, chat id, avatar and signature fields invisible on the registration page. If they're filled out, you're probably dealing with a bot, so autoban the IP. Registered users could set the fields in their profile later.

That's just a temporary solution, though. Perhaps one of those things wherein the human can see the characters in the pic but the bot can't.

The point of those isn't that the bot can't see the characters (as it can certainly obtain the picture the same way a web browser can). The point is to make it very difficult for the bot to extract the distorted characters from the image.

But I agree, that is a good solution if bot-created accounts become too much of a problem.

____________________________
+++++[>+++++<-]>[>+++>++++>+++++<<<-]>.>+.>-------.<++++.+++++.

trick
Level: Legendary Smitemaster
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That's just a temporary solution, though.

Well, making the registration process less general means the spammers' bots need more special cases to handle. I guess it depends on how important it is for them to spam this forum.

Perhaps one of those things wherein the human can see the characters in the pic but the bot can't.

Captcha ? It's not as effective as it once was, unfortunately. Bots can read the characters in many cases, it pisses off text-browsing and blind people, and spammers have other ways to get around it anyway.

~ Gerry

Pilchard VIII
Level: Smiter
Rank Points: 392
Registered: 01-21-2006
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PROFANITY!!!

____________________________
The DROD Dragon

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[Last edited by Pilchard VIII at 11-17-2006 05:12 PM]

UrAvgAzn
Level: Smiter

Rank Points: 468
Registered: 04-15-2006
IP: Logged

I dunno about this one, but he's a newer member.

http://forum.caravelgames.com/member.php?Action=viewprofile&username=afvesaq.org

Keep posting,

____________________________
"The leaf, still green, must someday fall.
Such grief, such joy, to live at all."
- T.A. Barron, The Lost Years of Merlin

Briareos
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UrAvgAzn wrote:
I dunno about this one, but he's a newer member.

http://forum.caravelgames.com/member.php?Action=viewprofile&username=afvesaq.org

Well, at least the domain isn't registered, so it's either a spammer that already has been LARTed by the admin on the registration/hosting side, or it's, uh, something else...

np: Underworld - Winjer (Beaucoup Fish)

____________________________
"I'm not anti-anything, I'm anti-everything, it fits better." - Sole
R.I.P. Robert Feldhoff (1962-2009)

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[Last edited by Briareos at 11-19-2006 11:21 AM]

Beef Row
Level: Smiter
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Registered: 12-28-2005
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Briareos wrote:

UrAvgAzn wrote:
I dunno about this one, but he's a newer member.

http://forum.caravelgames.com/member.php?Action=viewprofile&username=afvesaq.org

Well, at least the domain isn't registered, so it's either a spammer that already has been LARTed by the admin on the registration/hosting side, or it's, uh, something else...

np: Underworld - Winjer (Beaucoup Fish)

Ah, but in ROT-13 it is nsirfnd.bet.

This is short for the Goblin phrase "No sirzz findzit, I betzz", refering to the original domain name being non-locatable. This is clearly not a spammer, but a truly dedicated DROD player and puzzle fan who is testing us with his devious name!

I look forward to many more devious challenges in the future from his profile, signature and post count.

____________________________
"Now I will repeatedly apply the happy-face rule"

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[Last edited by Beef Row at 11-21-2006 06:46 AM : corrected placement of ""]

Schik
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Beef Row wrote:
Ah, but in ROT-13 it is nsirfnd.bet.

This is short for the Goblin phrase "No sirzz findzit, I betzz", refering to the original domain name being non-locatable. This is clearly not a spammer, but a truly dedicated DROD player and puzzle fan who is testing us with his devious name!

I look forward to many more devious challenges in the future from his profile, signature and post count.

Oh dear. I'm afraid I've made a grave error.

____________________________
The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way it treats its animals.
--Mahatma Gandhi

Briareos
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 3516
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Spiced pork and ham, anyone?

http://forum.caravelgames.com/member.php?Action=viewprofile&username=akogg.org

(It even had the nerve to add "soma buy carisoprodol soma 350mg" as a signature...)

____________________________
"I'm not anti-anything, I'm anti-everything, it fits better." - Sole
R.I.P. Robert Feldhoff (1962-2009)

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[Last edited by Briareos at 11-22-2006 09:04 PM]

NiroZ
Level: Smitemaster
Rank Points: 1302
Registered: 02-12-2006
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sigh, they don't relent to do they
http://forum.caravelgames.com/member.php?Action=viewprofile&username=medrprev

NiroZ
Level: Smitemaster
Rank Points: 1302
Registered: 02-12-2006
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oh, look, they love us again!
http://forum.caravelgames.com/member.php?Action=viewprofile&username=sinkgadr

Briareos
Level: Smitemaster

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NiroZ wrote:
oh, look, they love us again!

Waaay to much of that...

http://forum.caravelgames.com/member.php?Action=viewprofile&username=tesmskru

____________________________
"I'm not anti-anything, I'm anti-everything, it fits better." - Sole
R.I.P. Robert Feldhoff (1962-2009)

eytanz
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Rank Points: 2708
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And another:

http://forum.caravelgames.com/member.php?Action=viewprofile&username=vnaturepip

(Its post: http://forum.caravelgames.com/viewtopic.php?TopicID=12995)

____________________________
I got my avatar back! Yay!

Jatopian
Level: Smitemaster
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Another's post: http://forum.caravelgames.com/viewtopic.php?TopicID=12996&page=0#150429

____________________________
DROD has some really great music.
Make your pressure plates 3.0 style!
DROD architecture idea generator

Tombot
Level: Delver
Rank Points: 58
Registered: 11-24-2006
IP: Logged

all for one
and 1gift4all

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How dare you call me a paranoid schizophrenic, I'll kill you. ALL OF YOU!!!

silver
Level: Smitemaster
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trick wrote:
Captcha ? It's not as effective as it once was, unfortunately. Bots can read the characters in many cases, it pisses off text-browsing and blind people, and spammers have other ways to get around it anyway.

while your other reasons are strong, I do have a question:

in what way is drod a blind-accessible game?


____________________________

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[Last edited by silver at 12-04-2006 06:28 PM]

trick
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silver wrote:
in what way is drod a blind-accessible game?

In the imaginary way! Obviously.

Nah, those were meant more as general reasons, as opposed to just for this forum in particular. Still, should the fact that DROD the game isn't accessible for the blind mean that this forum should be inaccessible as well ? Does the forum have no value unless you're a DROD player ?

~ Gerry

Mattcrampy
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Remember that the Google index bot is the most prolific blind user on the Internet.

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Schik
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Mattcrampy wrote:
Remember that the Google index bot is the most prolific blind user on the Internet.

And just like all other bots, we don't really want the Google bot to register accounts here either.

____________________________
The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way it treats its animals.
--Mahatma Gandhi

Briareos
Level: Smitemaster

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Schik wrote:

Mattcrampy wrote:
Remember that the Google index bot is the most prolific blind user on the Internet.

And just like all other bots, we don't really want the Google bot to register accounts here either.

Well, at least the Google bot shouldn't randomly fill out form fields and click buttons like the spambots do...

np: Yppah - In Two, The Weakly (You Are Beautiful At All Times)

____________________________
"I'm not anti-anything, I'm anti-everything, it fits better." - Sole
R.I.P. Robert Feldhoff (1962-2009)

trick
Level: Legendary Smitemaster
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Briareos wrote:
Well, at least the Google bot shouldn't randomly fill out form fields and click buttons like the spambots do...

I wouldn't be so sure. I remember this one time, Google like totally flipped out and killed the whole town.

~ Gerry

Briareos
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trick wrote:

Briareos wrote:
Well, at least the Google bot shouldn't randomly fill out form fields and click buttons like the spambots do...

I wouldn't be so sure. I remember this one time, Google like totally flipped out and killed the whole town.

Gives a whole new meaning to the term "googlebombing", don't you think?

____________________________
"I'm not anti-anything, I'm anti-everything, it fits better." - Sole
R.I.P. Robert Feldhoff (1962-2009)

Mattcrampy
Level: Smitemaster

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Schik wrote:

Mattcrampy wrote:
Remember that the Google index bot is the most prolific blind user on the Internet.

And just like all other bots, we don't really want the Google bot to register accounts here either.

but it's Google! They're not evil! We know this because they say they're not.

____________________________
What do you call an elephant at the North Pole?