Can someone explain some of these new posts?

[52 Bill]

There seem to be a number of new posts from new "members" that almost make sense in English, but not quite. Is this some new form of computer generated replies that are coming in here?

I really don't understand, what is the purpose of these posts? Some of them have links, but they don't really even ask for you to click them. Does somebody get paid by the number of links that are posted to forum sites? Or is this some sort of search engine ploy to get better listing hits?

[big_teee]

There seem to be a number of new posts from new "members" that almost make sense in English, but not quite. Is this some new form of computer generated replies that are coming in here?

I really don't understand, what is the purpose of these posts? Some of them have links, but they don't really even ask for you to click them. Does somebody get paid by the number of links that are posted to forum sites? Or is this some sort of search engine ploy to get better listing hits?

Can you give an example?
Don't guess I've seen them.
T

[52 Bill]

Can you give an example?
Don't guess I've seen them.
T

http://music-electronics-forum.com/t28606/

Post 4 of this thread. Maybe Tboy deletes them before they're up for too long.

[tedmich]

once you ban robots from SS amp threads they pretty much die!

seriously though the bots get through every once in a while

[Steve A.]

There seem to be a number of new posts from new "members" that almost make sense in English, but not quite. Is this some new form of computer generated replies that are coming in here? I really don't understand, what is the purpose of these posts?

I think it is like a hacker's game to see how many forums they can fool into thinking that they are human by generating replies that fit many situations.

IMO the best way to filter out that shit is to charge a nominal fee to join AMPAGE, maybe even as low as a dollar. PayPal had made it very easy to collect small amounts. If someone really can't afford that they can send a message to staff to review their application for membership. (Current members have already been vetted so they wouldn't have to jump through that hoop.)

I know that sounds elitist but anybody can view the forums without joining if they are looking for information. But if they want to post they need to join.

Steve Ahola

P.S. Actually on second thought the policy could be for prospective members to send their request to staff for approval, with an option for immediate action if they PayPal $5 to support the site.

P.P.S. I get email notification whenever someone reports spam so it is a lot more common than many people might think. Almost always one of the mods deletes it right away along with any other posts they have made and usually blocks the IP address.

At this time we are being reactive, responding to a spam report concerning a new member or spambot. I think that we need to be proactive and prevent them from joining in the first place. Another solution might be to use a captcha to sort out the men from the boys, er, bots. (There are some captchas that are way too difficult- I like the audio alternatives which have you identify a few words in a stream of garbled nonsense.)

[Chuck H]

I'm not mean it. I see forum it's fine. Thank you for this posting. Maybe if you don't this can help.

http://www.condomdepot.com/?gclid=CI...FRIzhwodJBQ2dA

[Steve A.]

I'm not mean it. I see forum it's fine. Thank you for this posting. Maybe if you don't this can help.

Condoms - Read Condom Reviews at The Condom Depot

That is an interesting point that you bring up. <click>

[Chuck H]

You probably have a blocker for browsing. Since it's a condom link it may have sent up a flag.

[big_teee]

I think it is like a hacker's game to see how many forums they can fool into thinking that they are human by generating replies that fit many situations.

IMO the best way to filter out that shit is to charge a nominal fee to join AMPAGE, maybe even as low as a dollar. PayPal had made it very easy to collect small amounts. If someone really can't afford that they can send a message to staff to review their application for membership. (Current members have already been vetted so they wouldn't have to jump through that hoop.)

I know that sounds elitist but anybody can view the forums without joining if they are looking for information. But if they want to post they need to join.

Steve Ahola

P.S. Actually on second thought the policy could be for prospective members to send their request to staff for approval, with an option for immediate action if they PayPal $5 to support the site.

P.P.S. I get email notification whenever someone reports spam so it is a lot more common than many people might think. Almost always one of the mods deletes it right away along with any other posts they have made and usually blocks the IP address.

At this time we are being reactive, responding to a spam report concerning a new member or spambot. I think that we need to be proactive and prevent them from joining in the first place. Another solution might be to use a captcha to sort out the men from the boys, er, bots. (There are some captchas that are way too difficult- I like the audio alternatives which have you identify a few words in a stream of garbled nonsense.)

Your right it does sound elitist!
T

[Steve A.]

Your right it does sound elitist!
T

I think that we should be elitist and allow only human beings to join.
Another solution would be to prevent new members from including links in their posts until they have proven that they are not spambots, spammers or trolls.
I believe that it is a serious problem and these spambots (or jerks) could post links to very malicious sites. Even if you don't click on the link intentionally accidents do happen.

You probably have a blocker for browsing. Since it's a condom link it may have sent up a flag.

No- I have my browser set up to encourage malicious sites. The link displayed fine in my reply so it was some bug with the BBS software or Firefox. Speaking of which FF 10.0.0 and 10.0.1 were very buggy- I'd be typing away in FaceBook and then the browser would "wink" out like switching off a light. When I'd restart FF all of the windows would come right back up, usually with the contents in open text boxes intact (except for FB!)

Speaking of which Facebook has got to go! We all want an open forum where we can post and reply to topics and exchange PM's (just like FB) but without all of the bullshit. Like mining our data and selling it to the highest bidder. Although I was never a member, I heard that the WELL was a really cool forum back in the days of dial-up BBS's, and I think that we need a second generation Facebook that is more interested in its users than in making a huge profit. I can see them earning enough money from ads to pay all of the expenses and even give the owner and staff a good salary. But not make him the richest youngster in Silicon Valley. Something like the Music Electronics Forum, but expanded to include all interests.

Steve Ahola

[g1]

Your right it does sound elitist!
T

Perhaps a new definition of "humanist" would be better here, as in "biased against non-human posters" .

[Steve A.]

Perhaps a new definition of "humanist" would be better here, as in "biased against non-human posters" .

I believe that the proper word would be "racist" as we would allow only members of the human race to join.

BTW if anyone spots anything that looks like spam please report it. This isn't like the government and we actually do follow up on spam reports.

Steve

[Enzo]

Or we can accept the fact that occasional spambots will get through and tboy will shoo them away. DO we really need to change our entire way of doing things just to service this one kind of interrupt?

Imagine someone cuts in line in front of you at the bank/store/whatever, do we then start requiring appontments, or take-a-number machines? Or do we just accept that now and then some rude asshole will assert himself?

[Steve A.]

Or we can accept the fact that occasional spambots will get through and tboy will shoo them away. DO we really need to change our entire way of doing things just to service this one kind of interrupt?

The only change I suggest would be how new members would join our forum. I threw out some ideas which certainly have their flaws (as is usually the case with brainstorming.) Perhaps we could do what many forums do and have a human being review each application. (I'll do it if no one else wants to.)

I think that things are serious when Google labels us as a Malicious Site as they did last November (although it turned out that it wasn't spambots that were at fault.) I just checked and we had 52 spam reports in the past 6 months. Not horrendously high, but IMO enough to be concerned about. Here is a link to the discussion about Google reporting us as a Malicious Site:

http://music-electronics-forum.com/t27340/

BTW I just tried visiting the old AMPAGE archives and got a Malicious Site warning from Firefox.

Steve Ahola

P.S. Back at the old AMPAGE forum there was a quite a controversy over the suggestion that people must register and log in to be able to post and reply. Spambots weren't the problem- it was human spammers, trolls and anonymous posters. Many people threatened to leave if registration was required. As I recall (never a good bet!) it became too much of a hassle for tboy to maintain the BBS program he had written and when it crashed the last time he let it die a natural death, with the Music Electronics Forum rising up from its ashes... and with registrations and logons that did not doom the endeavor. (BTW when tboy started writing the AMPAGE BBS software there really wasn't anything like it- it was head and shoulders above all of the other forums. But the canned BBS software finally did catch up with him.)

[tedmich]

there is a scene in "Bladerunner" where the detective has to interview the suspected android for HOURS in order to determine if they are, in fact human. A mini "Turing test " exists every time you engage a spambot, but I know of several "people" over at HC who would fail such a test regularly.

Human or not?
http://music-electronics-forum.com/s...?searchid=8389