Remlin
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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.

There's a story told to me by a Google employee that when wikis were first becoming popular on the web, one of the earliest wiki software packages had all its pages generated with "delete this page" links on them. The next time the Googlebot went a crawlin', cheerfully following all the links on the pages it indexed, it completely deleted every one of those wikis it found.

mrimer
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Mattcrampy wrote:

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.

link straight from everyone else's mouth

____________________________
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Gandalf the Grey. That was my name.
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And I come back to you now at the turn of the tide.

---

[Last edited by mrimer at 12-07-2006 05:05 PM]

coppro
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Well, I decided that this was the best place to put it. I was submitting a bug report for metakit (about that Ubuntu package, because I noticed today that it is also 3 versions behind), and it said "In order to continue, you must show that you're human. What's 5 + 2 (Hint: 7)?"

Mattcrampy
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I've always wondered how effective an animated captcha would be. What if you had some frames with different letters with them, some letters spread out over several frames (taking advantage of the human eye's persistence of vision) and a couple of other tricks.

I've also been wondering what it would be like if an MMO implemented captcha minigames when you used abilities to frustrate bots and make the game a tad more interesting.

____________________________
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UrAvgAzn
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coppro wrote:
What's 5 + 2 (Hint: 7)?"

Can I have another hint?

Keep posting,

____________________________
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Such grief, such joy, to live at all."
- T.A. Barron, The Lost Years of Merlin

Kevin_P86
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UrAvgAzn wrote:

coppro wrote:
What's 5 + 2 (Hint: 7)?"

Can I have another hint?

Keep posting,

Sure! The answer is not Quahog, Rhode Island...

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Niccus
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Considering how some spammers are starting to hire people to break CAPTCHAs in one way or another... well...
CAPTCHAs might not be able to do anything with people breaking them.

I know of only one MMOG with a quirky way to prevent botting (namely Dofus), but the last time I saw it, it needs a bit of work to be more fair to regular people.
Its battle system already prevented botting in the conventional, overnight-exp-to-level-your-character-up though.

---

[Last edited by Niccus at 12-08-2006 02:28 AM]

NiroZ
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not sure if this one is blog spam or just another user, but I think I ought to mention it.

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

Briareos
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NiroZ wrote:
not sure if this one is blog spam or just another user, but I think I ought to mention it.

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

I dunno, doesn't look much like a spammer to me...

You know, there's some benefits to registering an account even if you don't mean to post right away, like getting the newsletter, setting time options, changing the skin and the like.

Yeah, I'm also regularily following the "newest member link", but let's not get overly paranoid...

____________________________
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Schik
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Yeah, I don't assume that's a spammer.

But notice that we haven't had any new spammers lately? Yeah, that's right.

____________________________
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Briareos
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Schik wrote:
But notice that we haven't had any new spammers lately? Yeah, that's right.

Aaah, I knew I was missing something, but couldn't put my hands around their neckfinger on it...

np: Autechre - The Egg (Artificial Intelligence)

____________________________
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R.I.P. Robert Feldhoff (1962-2009)

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

It may look like a user, it may post like a user, but call me roach bait if that's a user's homepage.

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Tombot
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The clue is in the name 'Newvista', Vista bieng the name for the newest form of microsoft windows. There is no logical reason why a human bieng should find a reason to call themselves such things.

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eytanz
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Well, you know, the word "vista" had a prefectly respectable meaning before Microsoft decided to attach it to their operating system. "New Vista" would not be my choice for a username, but it's not implausible either.

Since they made on legitimate post, I'm on the fence about this one. I didn't click the button on that webpage, for obvious reasons, so I don't know how bad it is. Maybe just ask that they remove the link?

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Tombot
Level: Delver
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I cannot think of a reason why anybody would find a reason to create a reason for any reason why anybody who is not a spammer to have a website with a title for that on their profile.

I'm bieng reasonable with reasoned reasons.

____________________________
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NiroZ
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having copied the link into the address bar on another tab, I can confirm that it is spam.

Also, seeing that people have gotten a bit upset about people noting instances of spam in this forum, I think from now on we should contact the Admin's privately.

Oneiromancer
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I noticed the odd homepage right away, mostly because I was intrigued by the poster's Arnold post. So I am conflicted because it seems to be a real person and not a bot. But maybe they will just post strange messages and hope that people do what I did, or do something else showing that they are not legit. Right now it's just wait-and-see for me, but if there are enough complaints we can remove the homepage link at least.

Game on,

____________________________
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Schik
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Actually, with things like SiteAdvisor that mark down sites for linking to spam sites, I'm not going to be very tolerant of homepages being set to spam sites. So I removed the link, and will PM the user.

____________________________
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--Mahatma Gandhi

UrAvgAzn
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Couple new spammers.

http://forum.caravelgames.com/member.php?Action=viewprofile&username=Moptop650
Some Runescape Client world switching/dual logging website.

http://forum.caravelgames.com/member.php?Action=viewprofile&username=nancy11
Media Mall Toolbar advertiser person.

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

Jatopian
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Am I the only one who finds it silly to mod down a soon-to-be-deleted spam post made by a soon-to-be-banned user? I mean, they deserve it and all, but it's really a waste of mod points.

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zex20913
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Nope. I find that silly too.

But, I suppose some people believe that spam should be modded down no matter what. As a mission.

____________________________

Schik
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UrAvgAzn wrote:
Couple new spammers.

http://forum.caravelgames.com/member.php?Action=viewprofile&username=Moptop650
Some Runescape Client world switching/dual logging website.

http://forum.caravelgames.com/member.php?Action=viewprofile&username=nancy11
Media Mall Toolbar advertiser person.

While the second one was obvious, and somebody removed the user, can I ask why the first person is necessarily a spammer? I guess I don't know what "Runescape Client world switching/dual logging" is, or what's wrong with it.

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

coppro
Level: Smitemaster
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Schik wrote:

UrAvgAzn wrote:
Couple new spammers.

http://forum.caravelgames.com/member.php?Action=viewprofile&username=Moptop650
Some Runescape Client world switching/dual logging website.

http://forum.caravelgames.com/member.php?Action=viewprofile&username=nancy11
Media Mall Toolbar advertiser person.

While the second one was obvious, and somebody removed the user, can I ask why the first person is necessarily a spammer? I guess I don't know what "Runescape Client world switching/dual logging" is, or what's wrong with it.

Runescape is an online MMORPG and servers are referred to as "worlds". While it's possible for that user to be legit, it's much more likely an advertisement for a site that likely has keyloggers in their programs.

schep
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Well, we can't just go around deleting accounts based on "possibly". At least, I can't. No access.