[Janichsan]

What joyful day! A non-spambot new member! Welcome in our little madhouse we like to call "forum".

PMing is simple: if you take a close look at the lefthand column of this forum, you can see a little button marked "PM". Click it and thou shalt be PMed. Or click on the member's name and look for "Send personal Message".

[Eric5h5]

Janichsan, on November 26th 2006, 10:04 PM, said:

What joyful day! A non-spambot new member!

You're being sarcastic, I hope? Of course that's a spambot.

--Eric

[Janichsan]

Eric5h5, on November 27th 2006, 08:58 AM, said:

You're being sarcastic, I hope? Of course that's a spambot.

--Eric

It is? It's not even offering a link to some dubious porn or pharmacy site.

Powerpoint seems to affect my brain.*

*I'm having to prepare a presentation at the moment.

[Tesseract]

Yup. You can practically see the <insert "relevant" phrase here> marks. Observe:

Hello all!
This is my first time on this site.
I would like to tell what I really like this project <page title>.
I've been reading it for a while, and I have learned so much here.
So, I decided to try my luck asking a few questions...
How can you IM, PM or whatever you call it to certain members? .
I'd like to ask more questions about <page title>.
By the way, nice domain name <site domain name>.

[Janichsan]

Makes sense. But what the heck is it spamming for???

Not enough that is does spam, it spams stupidly.

[Frigidman]

Basically a 'testing the waters', or one of the 'social uplifting' type bots. Not all bots have to be used for spam, some people use them just to spread good faith, or just be stupid and muck around with toys they shouldn't.



Oh, and to prove my point... this is an image shot from another IPB website.

 spammerbot.jpg (80.75K)
Number of downloads: 57


The bot's IP is: 212.150.97.114

[the Battle Cat]

Janichsan, on November 27th 2006, 01:10 AM, said:

Makes sense. But what the heck is it spamming for???

Not enough that is does spam, it spams stupidly.

This is a drug spambot. I don't know why they do that unless it is to post enough times to be promoted. Our forum has a system in place (that we don't use) that can keep newbies away from the general population until they've reached such and such a post count and then they are promoted to a new member group. Each group advanced to can have more lenient conditions for posters. This bot might be biding it's time until it becomes visible to the public on such a forum.

Just a guess. I can't think of any other reason it would act this way. There is nothing invisible in the post that I can find.

[Edit - Bah, Frigidman beat me to the bust but at least I beat him to the ban!]

[Eric5h5]

Janichsan, on November 27th 2006, 02:02 AM, said:

Powerpoint seems to affect my brain.

Yes. And so the wait continues for a real non-spambot new member....

--Eric

[Frigidman]

Eric5h5, on November 27th 2006, 11:00 AM, said:

Yes. And so the wait continues for a real non-spambot new member....

Hehehe, aint that the truth. Also one who isn't a complete moron whose first post is inflamatory or trolling. Maybe we ought to just shut off new user signups

[the Battle Cat]

I've got more faith in the new people who register here than that. Most of them are interested gamers who are seeking out kindred spirits and want to talk about the games that interest them. I've never been to a better game forum than this here joint.

[Janichsan]

the Battle Cat, on November 27th 2006, 10:46 PM, said:

I've never been to a better game forum than this here joint.

I totally agree. Now if we could find a way to get rid of all those spambots...

[Frigidman]

Janichsan, on November 27th 2006, 07:06 PM, said:

I totally agree. Now if we could find a way to get rid of all those spambots...

I know of a way, unfortunately the weezheads over at IPS ignore any ideas that people come up with to stop them on IPB boards. I see the same boards hit the same day, by the same named users... and they are all IPB based. I don't see those same spams on other forums I frequent that use something else.

Unfortunately the methods to stop them requires some intimate knowledge and messy coding of the innerworks, that its not something I want to 'perform' on the IPB code, because it would make updates a headache.

[the Battle Cat]

This same spam appeared today in the Forerunners.org forums. If there was a central database of known spammers names, IP's and email addresses that is checked during the registration process then it would help stop a spambot it it's tracks. An admin could have a button to click that would automatically enter a spambot's vitals into the central database. After a time the names and IPs could be purged from the databank allowing authentic users access to them.

Of course, I'd prefer it if we could just find out where they lived and we could go there to beat them with short lengths of rubber hoses filled with lead shot. We could form rotating teams of eager enthusiasts from our own forum ranks.

[Edit] In fact, now that I think about it. I'll bet I can charge good money to people who want to get on a bus and go to a spammers house to beat him with short lengths of rubber hoses filled with lead shot. I should start advertising in the other forums. I have a url to the bot program. First I'll spam a bounty on all spammers addresses with money out of pocket, then I'll clean up with the bus tours. (note to self: try not to be on the spammer list)

[dojoboy]

We should contact the NSA. This could be an early test by sentient droids. I saw something like this once in a show. Battlestar Galactica, I think it was.

[Tesseract]

Argh, the spambots have evolved! One has been posting without smiley face post icons.

(Nuclear strike authorised. Target: Princess Lulu. )

[Janichsan]

This must be the longest surviving spambot thread ever.

[the Battle Cat]

Janichsan, on November 28th 2006, 04:22 PM, said:

This must be the longest surviving spambot thread ever.

It is informational to us as a forum to see and discuss, plus there are no spam links. I want people to see this one, forewarned is forearmed.

[Tomatocow]

But what about people who spam in this spam thread?

[dojoboy]

Tomatocow, on November 28th 2006, 08:11 PM, said:

But what about people who spam in this spam thread?

This is exactly why a good human spammer will never be replaced by a bot. NEVER!

Relationships.

Psst! Bots can't love.