Dunkelstrom calling... Adam Qadamon

[mkaufman]

Well, the spammers are back...

[phpbb]

spammers aren't going away, we can only reduce the chances of people getting through, and put in efficient tools to remove them once they are found. From what I can tell, however, this is a real person promoting themselves.

[strumminsix]

Not to sound like a broke record but there's not much of a need to talk and post and reply to/about spam.

Just flag it. There are hundreds of posts ABOUT spam on this board and hundreds of replies to spam alerting to spam.

[JonnyBoy]

just sick RiverRat on them...

[strumminsix]

just sick RiverRat on them...

+1

[mkaufman]

Not to sound like a broke record but there's not much of a need to talk and post and reply to/about spam.

Just flag it. There are hundreds of posts ABOUT spam on this board and hundreds of replies to spam alerting to spam.

I felt it was worthwhile mentioning because this was the 1st post since changes were made. It has been much better....

mk

[RiverRat]

Code Monkey get up get coffee
Code Monkey go to job
Code Monkey have boring meeting
With boring manager Rob
Rob say Code Monkey very diligent
But his output stink
His code not "functional" or "elegant"
What do Code Monkey think?
Code Monkey think maybe manager want to write god damned login page himself
Code Monkey not say it out loud
Code Monkey not crazy, just proud

Code Monkey like Fritos
Code Monkey like Tab and Mountain Dew
Code Monkey very simple man
With big warm fuzzy secret heart:
Code Monkey like you

Code Monkey hang around at front desk
Tell you sweater look nice
Code Monkey offer buy you soda
Bring you cup, bring you ice
You say no thank you for the soda cause
Soda make you fat
Anyway you busy with the telephone
No time for chat
Code Monkey have long walk back to cubicle he sit down pretend to work
Code Monkey not thinking so straight
Code Monkey not feeling so great

Code Monkey like Fritos
Code Monkey like Tab and Mountain Dew
Code Monkey very simple man
With big warm fuzzy secret heart:
Code Monkey like you
Code Monkey like you a lot

Code Monkey have every reason
To get out this place
Code Monkey just keep on working
See your soft pretty face
Much rather wake up, eat a coffee cake
Take bath, take nap
This job "fulfilling in creative way"
Such a load of crap
Code Monkey think someday he have everything even pretty girl like you
Code Monkey just waiting for now
Code Monkey say someday, somehow

Code Monkey like Fritos
Code Monkey like Tab and Mountain Dew
Code Monkey very simple man
With big warm fuzzy secret heart:
Code Monkey like you

[RiverRat]

The initial setting for controlling spam are conservative, it's better to see a few false negatives at first than it would be to turn one new legitimate user away.

As time goes by, the setting will be adjusted to be more aggressive.

EDIT: This is one of today's top story on the Boston Herald website:
Harvard websites turning into porn playground

It looks like "the richest" and "the smartest" universities in the world are having a difficult time fighting the spam trend too.

And a link to the original article on Steve Chapman's SEO Whistleblower Blog

Even the birthplace of the browser, UIUC, isn't vulnerable to this epidemic. The home of W3C, MIT, isn't either.

So now for the technical side, getting more aggressive means potentially blocking people that shouldn't be blocked. We're only blocking in the upper half of the LAMP stack. Going full coverage presents challenges, IP blocking sounds good but you have no idea what the IP address really is. It could be a broadband connection, open proxy, Tor endpoint or an infected botnet computer. And the way DHCP leases go, blocking an IP in generally an ineffective solution since the spammers are just going to rotate through and come at you from a new block of addresses the next day. Blocking entire network blocks leaves you with a site that is inaccessible to a portion of the Internet.

So it's a balancing act of providing security while not compromising usability and performance.

[RiverRat]

Hold to the course, though the storms are about you;
Stick to the road where the banner still flies;
Fate and his legions are ready to rout you--
Give 'em both barrels--and aim for their eyes.

Life's not a rose bed, a dream or a bubble,
A living in clover beneath cloudless skies;
And Fate hates a fighter who's looking for trouble,
So give 'im both barrels--and shoot for the eyes.

Fame never comes to the loafers and sitters,
Life's full of knots in a shifting disguise;
Fate only picks on the cowards and quitters,
So give 'em both barrels--and aim for the eyes.

On Down The Road - Grantland Rice.