Mark, where are you???

[An Enormous BB Fan]

Spammers are ruining your wonderful site now. Is there nothing you can do?

[mark]

Ha ha. I was on vacation! Sorry! It won't happen again! Honest!

[steveo_1965]

Mark,
Hope you had a nice vacation!Welcome back!(and thanks for fixing the site)
Steveo

[mark]

Thanks, Steveo. I need to install a spam prevention modification on the board, but I just haven't had the time to sit down and figure it out. It hasn't been a problem up until the last month or so, when somebody obviously designed a new spambot able to bypass the registration captcha. Since then I've just been deleting and banning, but that's getting to be a bigger job every day...

[An Enormous BB Fan]

Welcome back. Hope you had a great vacation!

Was the nonsense that was posted here posted by computer programs and not humans? How can a computer know where to go, register and either create new posts or add to others? It's so weird to me, if it wasn't a human being who was doing all of this.

[mark]

Yes, all the spam that was posted on this board (and other phpBB3 boards) was generated by computer programs, most of which originate in Russia. They work kind of like the spiders that Google and Yahoo use to crawl around the net and index content. In this case, the programs search out phpBB3 boards and then automatically register and post spam. Apparently, the programs have just recently gotten sophisticated enough to "read" the CAPTCHA images designed to distinguish between computers and humans. The solution is to use a customized mod that throws the program a curve ball when registering. For example, you can insert a question the program has to answer at a place where it doesn't expect it. On the old board, I had a question that was something like, "What is Burt Bacharach's first name?" That was enough to stop all the spam registrations. There are mods I can use for this board, but for somebody as technically challenged as me, it takes some time to figure out how to install them without crashing the board. But considering how bad the spam has become, I think I'll have to force myself to figure it out.

[An Enormous BB Fan]

Thanks for the reply. But I still have a very hard time trying to figure out how a computer program can find a site and then fill in a name, password, etc. I mean, how does the program even know these things exist? As I say, this is way beyond my technical knowledge at this point. It seems almost other-worldly to me, that a computer can go from site to site, register, and then post garbage all over the place.

When you say "there are mods that you can use for this board", what exactly do you mean? Do you mean there are programs (called "mods") that can ferret out these spammers and destroy their garbage? If so, that's even more other-worldly and futuristic. It's like computers doing battle against one another. Well, I certainly hope you can get the "mods" up and running (if that's what it is).

One other point: Are you saying that, in order to register here, you have to answer a question and that the programs (that the spammers use [from Russia yet?!?!] can read and answer the question now? If so, that's unbelievable.

The internet appears to be in great danger.