Topic: What the fudge?

This morning, I had to delete over a dozen spam accounts--and almost lost a real account in the shuffle; welcome "smartmonkey". smile

I have two questions:

1) How do they find us?

2) What do they get out of it?

Daniel Kast
Majestic Twelve Games
cricket@mj12games.com

Re: What the fudge?

cricket wrote:

This morning, I had to delete over a dozen spam accounts--and almost lost a real account in the shuffle; welcome "smartmonkey". smile

I have two questions:

1) How do they find us?

The same way roaches find food in a hermetically sealed environment. It's the nature of the vermin.  lol

cricket wrote:

2) What do they get out of it?

Well, considering they only have a single brain-cell, it must be one of those instant gratification things... :?

Re: What the fudge?

This is what they did over at Starship Combat News......

Quote:

Due to the massive number of phpBB forum spambots out there that create bogus memberships with links to their websites in order to get better ratings on search engines, I have installed some Anti-Spambot modifications to this forum's registration system.

These changes will not allow the entry of website url and other personal information fields in the initial registration process, but after you get the email and activate the account, you will have access to these fields by editing your profile at that point.

This mod should not effect any current members. Let me know if you have any questions or comments.

Star Ranger


They got 15 blocked in the first 36 hours..... I guess that there is a huge number of spambots running right now, and they are getting better at creating names to fit forums...........

John

Re: What the fudge?

Nahuris wrote:

This is what they did over at Starship Combat News......
These changes will not allow the entry of website url and other personal information fields in the initial registration process, but after you get the email and activate the account, you will have access to these fields by editing your profile at that point.

Well, I just installed a similar (if not the same) mod to our forum... we'll see if it has any effect.

Daniel Kast
Majestic Twelve Games
cricket@mj12games.com

Re: What the fudge?

Dan, was that the Anti-Spam ACP mod referenced here:
http://www.phpbb.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=399374 as that is the one I loaded and it has worked well so far for my forum.  28 registrations blocked so far and nothing bogus let through.

Re: What the fudge?

Star Ranger wrote:

Dan, was that the Anti-Spam ACP mod referenced here:
http://www.phpbb.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=399374 as that is the one I loaded and it has worked well so far for my forum.  28 registrations blocked so far and nothing bogus let through.

Apparently not... as I had three more bogus registrations this AM. I will try out this mod; thanks!

BTW, I did delete a valid registration a couple days ago... welcome back, Klaus! smile

Daniel Kast
Majestic Twelve Games
cricket@mj12games.com

Re: What the fudge?

Well, I installed the correct mod, and so far we've blocked four bogus registrations. Yaay!

Daniel Kast
Majestic Twelve Games
cricket@mj12games.com

Re: What the fudge?

cricket wrote:

Well, I installed the correct mod, and so far we've blocked four bogus registrations. Yaay!

Couple questions,

I'm a moderator  (of the Assault Corps forum.)  But I cannot make any post to the News Forum.  It says you need to be a moderator for that priviledge.  Is this an oversight, or am I just considered to volatile a personality to get keys to the place?

Also, Is the option to post files to the forum gone for good, or is it a work in progress due to the hacker incident?

JP

Re: What the fudge?

Some weird thing about meeting a girl got through to the Yahoo Digest that I just got...more a personal thing, than a spam about some dating site....

What was that?  big_smile

Re: What the fudge?

thedugan wrote:

Some weird thing about meeting a girl got through to the Yahoo Digest that I just got...more a personal thing, than a spam about some dating site....

What was that?  big_smile

Ignore that.

It was a mis-sent message for my brother.

I got a message from him, and one from the yahoo group at the same time, and replied to the wrong one.

JP

Re: What the fudge?

Heh...already deleted it.

Almost time to go home - an 18 hour shift is a bit....tedious.

Re: What the fudge?

thedugan wrote:

- an 18 hour shift is a bit....tedious.

That's not exactly what I'd call it.
wink
Kevin

Re: What the fudge?

Justin Crough wrote:

I'm a moderator  (of the Assault Corps forum.)  But I cannot make any post to the News Forum.  It says you need to be a moderator for that priviledge.  Is this an oversight, or am I just considered to volatile a personality to get keys to the place?

No, not an oversight. You need to be designated as a moderator of each forum separately -- as you weren't a mod for the News forum, you couldn't post. That has been changed.

Also, Is the option to post files to the forum gone for good, or is it a work in progress due to the hacker incident?

The option to post files is available; but I will only be granting it on a "need to use" basis.

Daniel Kast
Majestic Twelve Games
cricket@mj12games.com

Re: What the fudge?

cricket wrote:

The option to post files is available; but I will only be granting it on a "need to use" basis.

Excellent! I may be ready to post some mecha counters in a week or two.

Re: What the fudge?

I'm seriously considering banning users with gmail accounts... it seems to be the addy of choice for spambots lately.

Grr...

Daniel Kast
Majestic Twelve Games
cricket@mj12games.com

Re: What the fudge?

cricket wrote:

I'm seriously considering banning users with gmail accounts... it seems to be the addy of choice for spambots lately.

Grr...

That would explain the 'missing pages' I've gotten twice this morning.

Re: What the fudge?

Well, it seems that the new spambot-blocker I added to the forum is working as advertised. I haven't had to delete a false account in the week since I installed it.

That isn't to say they are going away, however -- the note at the bottom of the top index page says there were 112 "users" online on Monday. Considering we have 325 members, I find this claim ... dubious ...

Daniel Kast
Majestic Twelve Games
cricket@mj12games.com

Re: What the fudge?

Makes you wonder that Yahoo isn't offline more often.

I really don't understand the motivation - but then, considering how point-blank stupid some people are about personal information....

Anyone else join Facebook?
big_smile

Re: What the fudge?

Can i get "need to use" file upload to the Defiance area in order to upload virus-scanned and certified clean army lists?

I ask this as a valuable member of the MJ12 team, ya know.

I did a picture once!

Re: What the fudge?

smokingwreckage wrote:

Can i get "need to use" file upload to the Defiance area in order to upload virus-scanned and certified clean army lists?

I ask this as a valuable member of the MJ12 team, ya know.

I did a picture once!

Unfortunately, as part of the reinstall due to someone's negligence (*cough*) I haven't yet re-enabled file upload.

As soon as I do, you'll be the first to know.

Well, almost the first. smile

Daniel Kast
Majestic Twelve Games
cricket@mj12games.com

Re: What the fudge?

cricket wrote:
smokingwreckage wrote:

Can i get "need to use" file upload to the Defiance area in order to upload virus-scanned and certified clean army lists?

I ask this as a valuable member of the MJ12 team, ya know.

I did a picture once!

Unfortunately, as part of the reinstall due to someone's negligence (*cough*) I haven't yet re-enabled file upload.

As soon as I do, you'll be the first to know.

Well, almost the first. smile

Well, I'd like to post some pix in Bourbaki Basin.....
big_smile

Re: What the fudge?

Are we able to post pix yet?