Go Back   EN World D&D / RPG News > Meta - Forums About Forums > Meta

Meta Post comments and questions about the messageboards and other parts of EN World. If you have a problem, this is where to go. Moderator email addresses are posted here.

 
Share LinkBack Thread Tools Display Modes
Old 22nd February 2005, 11:54 AM   #1 (permalink)
Lost in the Machine
 
Michael Morris's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jan 2002
Location: Knoxville TN
Posts: 7,902
Michael Morris Goblin Sharpshooter (Lvl 2)
Send a message via ICQ to Michael Morris Send a message via AIM to Michael Morris Send a message via MSN to Michael Morris Send a message via Yahoo to Michael Morris
First Blood - Let the Antispam War Begin

This morning the first spammer account was killed by a new extension for the boards. The only testament to his existance was a single report thread in staff area. And thus our first victory has occured.

Over the last couple of days comment spammers have struck ENWorld serveral times. What used to be a once a month thing has become a once every other week thing, maybe even weekly. Comment spam posts are at their least annoying, and at worst can provide links to sites which have malicious code waiting to attempt to attack your computer (and if you use IE they're likely to succeed).

While the moderators with your help have been able to knock these things down within an hour of their posting, the resultant mess is still a pain. It takes time away from the moderators to manually delete the 5 or so posts spammers make before their accounts are closed - time that could be better spent doing other things.

In response to this problem I've developed a system that compares the posts of relatively new posters against a list of known spam sites. Spammers can spoof their email, their IP's, but if customers are to reach them they must leave a valid URL, and therein lies the key curtailing their activities. If the system finds one of the blacklisted sites in their message it will immediatly ban them and post a message for the moderators to review.

It is possible, though unlikely, that a legitimate user could get banned this way. If this does occur the ban will be lifted once the post is reviewed. It is also possible that spammers will occasionally get through this system. When this happens we'll ban them manually and adjust the system. However, each time we force spammers to register a new DNS we cost them money. Eventually they'll go under or leave us alone.
Michael Morris is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 22nd February 2005, 12:04 PM   #2 (permalink)
Hand and Eye of Piratecat [Moderator]
 
Darkness's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jan 2002
Location: Vienna
Posts: 12,430
Darkness has disabled Experience Points
Seeing that first (i.e., first outside of tests) autoban report brightened my day.
__________________
"The best gnomes were in Dark Sun." --GRAOUH !!! (WotC boards)
Darkness is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 22nd February 2005, 12:55 PM   #3 (permalink)
(Trace)
 
Hand of Evil's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jan 2002
Location: Cookie Jar
Posts: 10,567
Hand of Evil Goblin Sharpshooter (Lvl 2)
Mmmmm, autoban sound so german!
__________________
Signature:
All I need is minions and I would rule the world.

Links updated: 200.Oct.7
Threads to reference:

DM ADVICE ---Maps and Other Campaign Resources ---Programs to organize campaigns ---
Phineas Crow Maps!
Hand of Evil is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 22nd February 2005, 03:19 PM   #4 (permalink)
Lost in the Stacks
 
Cthulhu's Librarian's Avatar
 
Join Date: Mar 2003
Location: Charlottesville, VA
Posts: 6,780
Cthulhu's Librarian Goblin Sharpshooter (Lvl 2)
Send a message via AIM to Cthulhu's Librarian
Cool!
__________________
My EBAY Auctions

My RPG Book Sale

My D&D Minis Sale

What happens at GenCon, Never happened...
Rich, you are an instigator. -- Piratecat
Magnae clunes mihi placent, nec possum de hac re mentiri.
Cthulhu's Librarian is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 22nd February 2005, 03:43 PM   #5 (permalink)
Rule Lawyer Groupie
 
andargor's Avatar
 
Join Date: Sep 2002
Location: Location: Location:
Posts: 1,623
andargor Goblin Sharpshooter (Lvl 2)
Quote:
Originally Posted by Rambo: First Blood
You don't seem to want to accept the fact that you're dealing with an expert in guerrila warfare. With a man who's the best-with guns, with knives, with his bare hands. A man who's been trained to ignore pain, ignore weather, to live off the land, to eat things that would make a billy goat puke. In Vietnam his job was to dispose of enemy personnel, to kill, period! Win by attrition. Well, Rambo was the best!


Andargor
__________________
It is by will alone I set my die in motion.
It is by gaming that thoughts acquire speed, the hands acquire shaking, the shaking becomes a warning.
It is by will alone I set my die in motion.


Shameless Plug from an Old-Timer:
A Walk Down Memory Lane - 30 years of Gaming

andargor is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 22nd February 2005, 04:23 PM   #6 (permalink)
Sniper o' the Shrouds-Mod
 
Dinkeldog's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jan 2002
Location: An apartment
Posts: 4,957
Dinkeldog Goblin Sharpshooter (Lvl 2)
Send a message via AIM to Dinkeldog
Great job, Michael!
__________________
Prepare to repel boarders...

Looking for a game in the Denver area
Dinkeldog is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 22nd February 2005, 04:31 PM   #7 (permalink)
grammatically correct
 
der_kluge's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jan 2002
Location: Tulsa, OK
Posts: 7,548
der_kluge Goblin Sharpshooter (Lvl 2)
Michael, can we get a list of the "banned" sites so that we know not to inadvertantly post a link to any of them?










*waits to see if Michael bites, and then ends up banning himself!*
__________________
Curtis
__________________

My Blog
der_kluge is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 22nd February 2005, 05:24 PM   #8 (permalink)
(Trace)
 
Hand of Evil's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jan 2002
Location: Cookie Jar
Posts: 10,567
Hand of Evil Goblin Sharpshooter (Lvl 2)
Quote:
Originally Posted by die_kluge
*waits to see if Michael bites, and then ends up banning himself!*
waits to see if die_kluge gets wacked with ban hammer
__________________
Signature:
All I need is minions and I would rule the world.

Links updated: 200.Oct.7
Threads to reference:

DM ADVICE ---Maps and Other Campaign Resources ---Programs to organize campaigns ---
Phineas Crow Maps!
Hand of Evil is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 22nd February 2005, 05:44 PM   #9 (permalink)
SCI FI NewsFinder at CM
 
Truth Seeker's Avatar
 
Join Date: May 2003
Location: Jamaica (Queens) New York. Work in Manhattan, sees the world on the Internet/Now Poket PC.
Posts: 4,673
Truth Seeker Goblin Sharpshooter (Lvl 2)
Send a message via AIM to Truth Seeker Send a message via MSN to Truth Seeker Send a message via Yahoo to Truth Seeker
I heard that Spam is good with fried eggs....
__________________
'New Signature coming soon...'


Truth Seeker is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 22nd February 2005, 06:05 PM   #10 (permalink)
Registered User
 
diaglo's Avatar
 
Join Date: Feb 2002
Location: Stoned Mountain, GA
Posts: 16,722
diaglo Hobgoblin Soldier (Lvl 3)
Send a message via Yahoo to diaglo
Quote:
Originally Posted by Truth Seeker
I heard that Spam is good with fried eggs....
and lots of catsup
__________________
Story Hour

OMG! The SKY IS FALLING! --JoeGKushner
Myself, I plan to masturbate less -- der_kluge
I know that I've never really liked d20. I think it was designed by a bunch of hacks --- Monte Cook
I am sickened beyond belief. The half-orc wizard is obviously the best possible PC, and I only had to read 10 pages of the book to figure it out. D&D is dead to me! -- Mike Mearls
FWIW, I'm on the design team and I pretty much find WoW as fun and interesting as banging my head against a brick wall. -- Mike Mearls
you happen to say that 4E reminds you of the reasons you decided against a career as a special-Ed teacher--noted rpg author Darrin Drader
diaglo is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 22nd February 2005, 06:36 PM   #11 (permalink)
CreativeMountainGames.com
 
Mark's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jan 2002
Location: Mt Prospect, IL
Posts: 14,423
Mark Snaketongue Initiate (Lvl 7)Mark Snaketongue Initiate (Lvl 7)
Three cheers for a mighty blow struck against the Axis of Annoying: Politics, Religion, and Spam! Hip, Hip...?


__________________


The CMG eBay Store

Also, some excellent books on Miniatures Painting at my ebay store . . . and some classic Sci-Fi Journals

Join the Creative Mountain Gamers Group and Forum - Go to CMG - eBay Store - Creative Mountain Store
Mark is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 22nd February 2005, 07:14 PM   #12 (permalink)
Lost in the Machine
 
Michael Morris's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jan 2002
Location: Knoxville TN
Posts: 7,902
Michael Morris Goblin Sharpshooter (Lvl 2)
Send a message via ICQ to Michael Morris Send a message via AIM to Michael Morris Send a message via MSN to Michael Morris Send a message via Yahoo to Michael Morris
Quote:
Originally Posted by die_kluge
Michael, can we get a list of the "banned" sites so that we know not to inadvertantly post a link to any of them?
Once a user clears a certain number of posts the system stops scanning their posts, primarily cause scanning that list is pretty processor intensive. I won't say what the number is exactly, but it's high enough to deter spammers and low enough not to bother regular users.

Besides, the whole list is seven pages long and has a lot of words the censor system would wack.
Michael Morris is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 22nd February 2005, 10:40 PM   #13 (permalink)
Registered User
 
Cyberzombie's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jan 2002
Location: Aurora CO
Posts: 1,705
Cyberzombie Goblin Sharpshooter (Lvl 2)
Good job playing whack-a-mole with the spammers.
__________________
http://www.cyberzombie23.com/
Cyberzombie is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 23rd February 2005, 12:49 AM   #14 (permalink)
SCI FI NewsFinder at CM
 
Truth Seeker's Avatar
 
Join Date: May 2003
Location: Jamaica (Queens) New York. Work in Manhattan, sees the world on the Internet/Now Poket PC.
Posts: 4,673
Truth Seeker Goblin Sharpshooter (Lvl 2)
Send a message via AIM to Truth Seeker Send a message via MSN to Truth Seeker Send a message via Yahoo to Truth Seeker
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mark
Three cheers for a mighty blow struck against the Axis of Annoying: Politics, Religion, and Spam! Hip, Hip...?


HORRAY!
__________________
'New Signature coming soon...'


Truth Seeker is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 23rd February 2005, 01:07 AM   #15 (permalink)
resu deretsiger
 
weiknarf's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jan 2002
Location: SE TN
Posts: 181
weiknarf Goblin Sharpshooter (Lvl 2)
Send a message via Yahoo to weiknarf
awesome
__________________
Weasling out of work is important to learn; it is what separates humans from animals. Except for weasels.

-Homer Simpson
weiknarf is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 23rd February 2005, 03:44 AM   #16 (permalink)
Frog blast the vent core
 
Steve Jung's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jan 2002
Location: New Jersey
Posts: 3,445
Steve Jung Goblin Sharpshooter (Lvl 2)
Send a message via AIM to Steve Jung
That's great, Michael. Thanks.
Steve Jung is offline   Reply With Quote


Bookmarks

Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Trackbacks are On
Pingbacks are On
Refbacks are On


And yet another word from our sponsors
Visit Our Sponsors
Visit Our Sponsors... Again
Powered by vBadvanced CMPS v3.0.1

All times are GMT +1. The time now is 04:07 AM.


Site Contents © 2008 ENWorld
PHP Ajax Multimedia Web Framework © 2008 Digital Media Graphix
Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.0 Beta 1
Copyright ©2000 - 2009, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.
Search Engine Optimization by vBSEO 3.2.0

"Vault Data" powered by VaultWiki v2.5.1.
Copyright © 2008 - 2009, Cracked Egg Studios.