Posted on Sunday, 8/09/2009 - 11:52 p.m. PDT — by 001
Awesome! 15 minutes ago there was approximately 100 new threads corrupting the forums, and presto they all just disappeared. Nice Work CC Times!
Update - The more recent spamming attacks have shown that the Times is up against a formidable opponent. I was just looking through the recent posts and it was spamming pretty much all night last night under a random set of screen names. Hopefully, justice will prevail and we'll have our forums back. 001 - edited 8-14-09
Joined: Jul 2006
Current Posts: 3156
YES, THANK YOU. WE APPRECIATE YOUR EFFORTS.
Joined: Sep 2006
Current Posts: 3048
That's 2 clean ups this week. Last night's was a quick precision strike that just eliminated the spammer before he got any traction. A lot of people may not have even noticed, but that guy put up about 100 threads in about 15 minutes that just got wiped out.
Joined: Jul 2006
Current Posts: 3156
As in any war though, there is collateral damage. BJ told me he had composed a rather long comment and attempted to post it when that missile hit its target and his post was lost. The casualties of war can indeed be tragic. Do I hear taps playing in the distance?
Joined: Sep 2006
Current Posts: 3048
Sorry to hear about BJ losing his post. I'm sure it was going to be a doozy. RIP. I guess the precision strike was not that precise. Hopefully that is one more post he will have before retirement sets in though.
Joined: Jul 2006
Current Posts: 3156
It's becoming more and more obvious that the Times is losing the battle against the spam attacks. These jerks keep coming up with ways to get around whatever filters the Times may have employed. Instead of just one username, they now use different ones randomly. And I hope no one falls for their latest tactic of using titles like "what is spam?", "spam online" or "spam information". You're just falling for their tricks.
I sent an e-mail to the forum moderator asking him to make a post explaining what they are doing to try to block this garbage. Maybe if we knew what they are up against and how difficult it is or how costly it is, it might at least quiet some of us who are losing our patience. I know that I'd sure like to know what the hell is going on. It's really gotten out of control and I'm ready to bag the whole thing if they can't get a handle on it.
Joined: Sep 2006
Current Posts: 4931
I think somebody is feeling guilty for being suckered into replying to that "aaaaaaaa" thread and unleashing the Wrath of SPAM that is still affecting the forums.
Joined: Jul 2006
Current Posts: 3156
Aaaaaaaaah, I doubt that had much effect. It probably would have happened eventually anyway.
Joined: Jul 2006
Current Posts: 3156
bump *&%@#$*&%^^ SPAM!!!!!!!
Joined: Sep 2006
Current Posts: 3048
It was that darn ccccccccccc reply that threw the whole ionosphere out of whack.
Joined: Sep 2006
Current Posts: 3048
I see they have now instituted a new rule. This is now at the bottom of the page when you are typing in your posts. It is really too bad we can longer post links. I hope the spammers are happy, as they have ruined a good thing.
"Due to spam, this forum no longer allows active links in posts except by forum administrators."
Joined: Sep 2006
Current Posts: 1158
The denial of active links seems unnecessary. At that point the website has already allowed registration of the spammer as a user. If they prevented registration in the first place, say by using captcha, it would force the spammer to hand-type every new user id.
I went thru and reported the 40+ userids that were obviously spammers. They were all registered in 3 - 4 time frames, which means an automated process was likely used. It had to try multiple userids until it found one available to confirm. By refusing to change the new user registration screens the webmaster is only inviting more of the same. Had the webmaster looked at the time frames and matched the IP traffic, he could have submitted the IP to the 'black hole' committee then gone after the spammers for financial damages.
RealAmerica
Joined: Dec 2005
Current Posts: 1247
@realamerica,
i am with you 100%.
i could have been handeled, if an admin would look at the board ones a day.
I will keep my GUNS, my FREEDOM, my MONEY, you can keep the CHANGE
Joined: Sep 2006
Current Posts: 1158
It seems it would be a simple thing to add a CAPTCHA function to the 'new login' page. It's interesting that the new names are created about 1 hour apart. That may indicate a phantom IP that appears just for the purpose of span and disappears right after so no one gets a lock on it. But if you have 100+ logins there should be a way to track the external IP(s) they're coming from.
RealAmerica
Joined: Jan 2009
Current Posts: 19
Sigh... Here we go again.