Member List Found

[Shapley]

I had, for a long time, thought that we were double counted. In fact, I'm sure that if you open the bulletin board and then log in, you will be counted as yourself and a guest for a few minutes. However, as I show above, there are a lot more 'posting messages' than there are messages posted, unless it counts PM's. I have no idea how many PM's are posted in a given day.

I think BigJon may be right, they are bots or spammers, and Chris and Sarge are keeping their messages off the board, either automatically or manually. In any case I have to wonder why the sudden upsurge in their numbers. We hovered around a dozen or so members at a time for so long, and suddenly we're nearing a hundred? Seems odd. Is it because the kids are out of school?

V/R
Shapley

[Catmando]

BBB Members List

I'll try and bump the link to the Members Listing at the top of each page.

[BigJon@Work]

Would you guess that member +++Pornoguru+++ is a spammer?

On the board that I adminster, there is one determined spammer who hand registers every evening. So every morning we delete his membership. Weird.

[Shapley]

You have to wonder why they are so determined. I would think that, after a while, they would realize they aren't welcome there, and go to someplace that is willing to put up with their garbage. That seems to go beyond the desire to make money by increasing the number of 'hits' to their site, and extends into the realm of a crusade to spread garbage and pollute the internet.

[jamiebk]

On the board that I adminster, there is one determined spammer who hand registers every evening. So every morning we delete his membership. Weird.

HA Ha Ha!!! He's probably too dumb to figure out why his registration isn't registering! You'd think he owuld give up after a while.

[BigJon@Work]

Google drives a lot of this crap. They count the number of sites that link to a site and use it to rank the sites when they display them after a search request. There are a class of scammers who make money off Google by creating web pages that contain nothing more substantial than links to other pages. They get a little cash for each dumb user who clicks their links instead of backing up and going directly to another site that Google recommends. You may have seen these sites show up when you use Google and been confused how you got directed to this, when you were looking for real content.

The first thing these scammers do is craft the headers of their page so the terms in it match popular and lucrative search terms on Google. Then they write a few paragraphs that sound attractive and on-topic to the searcher’s terms. These form the brief snippets of the site content you find under every Google link. This still isn’t enough to be anywhere close to the top 10 in sites for that search, where everyone wants to be on Google. You need a bunch of sites linking back to yours to achieve that. These scammers found a vulnerability in forum sign-ups that permitted them to register using a robot without going though the regular registration screens. Thus each registration, which includes a listing of the scammers money site in it, counts as a link back to the site. Do this on a thousand forums and you might get in the top ten.

Thankfully Google recently changed the rules on site popularity to try to weed out these scammers. They haven’t revealed the algorithm, but it sounds like they are attempted to judge the “quality” of the links to see if they were created just to game the Google system. I’m hopeful that it will cut down on the scammy registrations. We have noticed a fall-off in registration rates, but we don’t know if it is related or will be permanent.

There are other things that Google does that helps the problems along. One is ignoring the no-crawlers-allowed signs at the door to our site. If Google did what we asked and didn’t crawl our forum, the scammers registrations would have no value to them.

Darn it, Google! You are like Homer’s beer. The cause of and solution to all of life’s problems.

[Shapley]

I'm afraid the bots are winning. The last page of new members, with a couple of exceptions, appear to all be bots. The last six have website links of, well, questionable content. These would include members TimoDass, Binicleden, MeverikcNils, Amoumuhmum, homesven, & MeverikcVil.

I appreciate the work Chris and Sarge (if he's still there) are doing to keep the content clean. Looking at the traffic level, it's must be quite a job. I think a portal to Hell has opened up somewhere with a link to B.com at the threshold.

[Trumpetmaster]

Do you have some sort of "Restrictive" words that would not allow
these creeps to be setting up repulsive user ids?

I realize you can't police everything but.... the last group of new
users.........

[Catmando]

We finally have a new, legitimate member on the board, "esther".

I'm still amazed how almost no new users post.

[GreatCarouser]

Many forums I'm on have a randomly generated pattern of letters and numbers the registrant must duplicate at the end of the registration process. A few even have an audio file that will state the content of that frame for those who can't read it. This seems to effectively bar most, if not all, bots.

It wouldn't surprise me to find that whatever program generates that filter costs lots of money. Which is cheaper? The B.com system or using the software filter?

[Haggis@wk]

"tipatepon" is the latest and his "website" appears to be pornographic in nature it the words in the link are any indicator

[Serenity]

Welcome to the BBB, Google[bot]!

[Serenity]

Welcome to the BBB, Yahoo[bot]

[Serenity]

Welcome MSN[bot}

[Selma in Sandy Eggo]

I'm afraid the bots are winning... I think a portal to Hell has opened up somewhere with a link to B.com at the threshold.

Dunno about winning, but they're certainly in the game. I wonder if the bots enjoy the music?

About that portal to Hell, it's in the basement of a B&B in Toronto. This is not all bad, as the warm air currents save significantly on heating expenses.

[piqaboo]

I thought they wedged that door shut. Do I misremember?

[piqaboo]

Selma,
are you saying that the Canadians are responsible for the bots? Should we be checking their passports?

[Selma in Sandy Eggo]

Selma,
are you saying that the Canadians are responsible for the bots? Should we be checking their passports?

I'm willing to blame anyone, and anything, for bots. Canada, India, China, France - I'm not all that particular.

I wouldn't mind a nice, warm Hell portal myself. My cube is chillier than usual today. :shiver:

[Shapley]

I have to be in Toronto Thursday morning. If you'll give me the address for the B&B, I'll swing by and check out the portal, if I have the time.

I'm pretty sure some of my friends are down there. At the very least, I can shout down a hearty "Hell o" to them.

V/R
Shapley

[jamiebk]

I must plead ignorance to this matter of "bots". How do they get to be registered users, log on, and what the heck are they interested in? I guess they must monitor the board in some fashion, but why?