Advertizing Bots

[Fondueset]

I could be wrong but I think the way to secure this site against the irritating advertizing bots that keep creating accounts is to add software that requires people to type in a series of characters which are displayed weirdly written on a screen during the registrations process. The programs that create the registrations are automated and if they cannot copy and paste the characters they fail to register.

[foxfish]

Well when I registered I had to make three attempts to decipher the characters. Maybe they have found a way around the software?

[Fondueset]

My bad - I didn't think they were doing that.

[trux]

Yes, it looks like spam bots have cracked this code verification (Captcha). Although at the beginning vBulletin developers claimed it was human spammers, users have shown on log records, that already the registration attempts come indeed from bots and not from human users. OCR programs that can be trimmed for specific Captcha's are known and documented for example in WikiPedia.

There is a nice thread about recent attack of spam bots on vBulletin forums in vBulletin's own corporate forum:

http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/showthread.php?t=185108

And there is more information on the web too. Updating to the version 3.6.x and/or using some of other tips from the mentioned thread is strongly advisable.

[pkotik]

Originally Posted by trux

Yes, it looks like spam bots have cracked this code verification (Captcha). Although at the beginning vBulletin developers claimed it was human spammers, users have shown on log records, that already the registration attempts come indeed from bots and not from human users. OCR programs that can be trimmed for specific Captcha's are known and documented for example in WikiPedia.

There is a nice thread about recent attack of spam bots on vBulletin forums in vBulletin's own corporate forum:

http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/showthread.php?t=185108

And there is more information on the web too. Updating to the version 3.6.x and/or using some of other tips from the mentioned thread is strongly advisable.

I guess the time has come for me to admit that 'Freediving Editor Paul Kotik' is , in fact, a prototype of a 4GB (fourth generation bot).

You guys have to admit it's a good product, having passed the Turing Test all these years by fooling you all !


Stephan Whelan
Publisher

[trux]

Originally Posted by pkotik

I guess the time has come for me to admit that 'Freediving Editor Paul Kotik' is , in fact, a prototype of a 4GB (fourth generation

Well, I had the suspicion since certain time , and although you spam us with politically biased news, you'll need to get a BIOS (Basic Input/Output System) upgrade before you manage this. You may get one if you participate on the Greek freediving festival BIOS ("life" in Greek).

[pkotik]

Originally Posted by trux

Well, I had the suspicion since certain time , and although you spam us with politically biased news, you'll need to get a BIOS (Basic Input/Output System) upgrade before you manage this. You may get one if you participate on the Greek freediving festival BIOS ("life" in Greek).

The assertion that the views expressed here are politically biased is, itself, politically biased ! I think what is meant by 'politically biased' is: "I don't want to hear it" .

Not so? I can't find my English-Newspeak dictionary this morning, so I'm a little lost in translation...

If anybody out there can offer a short (short !) briefing on how we DBniks can detect and defeat these Bots, that would be nice. Is there any response other than defensive software elements? What should wee expect going forward? Now that the gates are, apparently, opened - are there any limits to the scale of the advertising flood we should expect?

[Fondueset]

Originally Posted by pkotik

The assertion that the views expressed here are politically biased is, itself, politically biased ! I think what is meant by 'politically biased' is: "I don't want to hear it" .

You get the rocket science award.

[pkotik]

I stopped using that rocket science expression.

I was having a heated conversation with a couple up in Cambridge, MA - you know, pointy-headed Harvard types. They were pretending not to understand some very simple point, and so I came out with the usual exasperated "It's not rocket science !"

They looked at each other smugly, and then the woman sneered: "Actually, I am a rocket scientist."

Yup, in a sense. Turned out she'd got a bachelors degree in aerospace engineering from some backwater Whateverstan university.

A rocket scientist. What were the odds?

[Fondueset]

It's all about sex with those harvard types.

[Stephan Whelan]

Folks - I will be looking at upgrading to the latest version of vBulletin soon and also implementing other anti-spam devices - however it is an ongoing battle which is not an easy fight!

[pkotik]

Should we all exercise self-discipline and refrain from responding to any of the spam, no matter how tempting the offer? Does responding to them encourage them, make them smell blood in the water?

[Stephan Whelan]

Unfortunately that doesn't help. Spam is removed normally before any responses are made. Just seeing that they can post is normally enough for these automated bots.

[trux]

Originally Posted by pkotik

The assertion that the views expressed here are politically biased is, itself, politically biased ! I think what is meant by 'politically biased' is: "I don't want to hear it" .

Well, I do not mind hearing about it, or even discuss it as we did, but I do mind being spammed with (just like in this spam bot case), especially when it is off-topic for this forum, and when only selective (and frankly told rather extremist) news about the topic are being cherry-picked.

Originally Posted by pkotik

If anybody out there can offer a short (short !) briefing on how we DBniks can detect and defeat these Bots, that would be nice. Is there any response other than defensive software elements?

I think that defensive software measures are definitely better. Any need of human intervention is an unwanted hassle. However, if you prefer for some reason doing it yourself personally and manually, then certainly - in vBulletin, you can turn on manual moderation of registrations and carefully check out each new member before letting him post. I think though, that this is not the solution DB moderators would like to use.

[Oldsarge]

Rocket scientists are a dime a dozen. I even had a Special Forces, Airborne Major for a commander who also had a Ph.D in physics and was part of the design team for the Hubble telescope! Go figure . . .