Scheduled Forum Maintenance on 12/01/2006 - please read

[lamb]

Ladies and gentlemen,

As you know, our board has been experiencing a bit of a problem with spam. We’d like to re-assure you we’re fighting back – the game is on!! ;)

Overly simplified, I am what you would call a “computer guy”. I have a lot of experience working with networks, servers, web & database technologies. I am happy to try to help WCW / BWE.

We have already done several things to fight spam. More action is needed that may potentially impact you, so we would like to give you a heads up.

On 12/01/2006, the following maintenance will take place:

1. All accounts that have 0 posts (no posts) will be deleted.

BWE/WCW has nothing against “lurkers”, but about 99% of 3400+ accounts with 0 posts are spammers. We have no way to differentiate between the two.

If you never posted and would rather avoid the hassle of having to re-register on the board, just post something… Reply to this thread, say "nice fish" or "nice day" on any report, whatever. Otherwise, please be advised that you will have to re-register.

If you posted at least once, you have nothing to worry about. No action is required on your part – your account won’t be impacted.

2. The URL link for the board (forum) will be changing.

Web site URL stays the same, only the path to forum will be changing. The URL link change will impact everyone, regardless of number of posts.

If you have the direct URL bookmarked, you may not be able to access the board. All you will need to do is go to http://www.bigwatersedge.com , and then click on “Messages” button. You can than bookmark the new link.

Thanks for your patience, cooperation and understanding!!!

WCW/BWE Team & Lamb Tech Support Team :)

[Froman]

Thanks for the notice, and your help with my ghetto website!!! :D

[lamb]

Fro,

for you - it's always a pleasure... Now I don't know about basura pension reform... :lol:

[TORGY]

Happy New Year

[One Rev]

Thanks

[dgax65]

Can you change the registration process to make it harder for spammers to get access? I've noticed that some of the other kayak fishing websites have those visual recognition features that prevent automated registration. Is that being looked at, or is it cost-prohibitive? I'm in favor of anything that you can do to get rid of the spammers. Thanks.

[lamb]

That’s one of the original problems – for a long time, the board was configured NOT to require account activation + phpBB versions were not kept up to date. That’s how we got a ton of these spammers to hop on board. We do have that in place now, we’re running the latest and the greatest. We have to clean up the ones that "made it in". ;)

Thanks for the feedback, that is greatly appreciated.

PLease feel free to chip in if you have any suggestions.
:idea:

[Useful Idiot]

Thanks for the support Adi, you make the internet a better place for all of us :wink:

[madscientist]

http://www.bloodydecks.com/gallery/files/4/7/3/0/dilbert2006114659027.gif

[phughes]

Keep me on. Peter

[Peter Otto]

I passed all 34 levels of BrickBreaker on my BlackBerry.

[Zed]

Nice fish.

[kayakdude619]

I miss you Fro!!!

[GDDill]

Whatever you can do to block the spammers is fine by me :D

[Dennis]

Right on, Adi.

[lamb]

Final call... :cyclopsani:

12/01 is around the corner.

[madscientist]

Kill 'em all, let google sort 'em out! :bom:

[roboarj]

cooooooooooooooool

[tylerdurden]

Flush'em. :ncool:

[splitty]

Just in case... :roll:

[lamb]

We’re almost there…

As long as you have at least 1 post, you have nothing to worry about.

FYI - a few more modifications I made in the “nuke ‘em” script to fine tune it:

- since spammers started hitting BWE back in December 05, only the accounts that have 0 posts that registered after 12/01/05 will be deleted.

- people that have 0 posts but exchanged some PMs will be spared as well. It’s a pretty good indication these people are real, not spammers.

[kayak jack]

Does that mean no Hawaiians. They love spam. :D

[lamb]

There's Jack... :D

I saw you just registered; I was worried your account will be whacked before you realized what’s going on.

THANKS FOR POSTING!!!

Welcome on board!!! :D

[lamb]

Done!

The total of 3167 accounts have been deleted… :twisted:

Memberlist looks all nice and clean now...

Path to the forum has been modified and I see people on line checking it out - we must be in business.

Please do let us know if you notice anything weird.

Let me know if you need some of that cheap phentarmine, or whatever they were selling… :lol:

[Arne]

Nice job Adi! Thanks to all y'all who've worked on this site (Greg, Andy, Corey, etc.) over the years. Much appreciated.
Arne

[Peter Otto]

Good job Adi, down to 800+ users sounds more reasonable. Maybe your SQL script should run monthly.

Adi you have donated quite a bit of time, effort and money to the BWE crew. They are blessed to have u on their team. What are they getting u for Christmas?

[lamb]

Thank you guys!

Hey, we’re in this together… We’re the people that paddle, right?

It sucks to be whacking accounts with 0 posts, as some “legit” accounts have unfortunately gotten slashed. But we had it pretty bad, we had to go for a nuclear option.

Shaking these spammers off is the toughest part. Changing URL board link seemed to have done the trick – BWE board had an average of 20 new accounts registered daily. That seemed to have stopped, which is very cool. For the most part, these spammers are automated scripts that run, not the “live” person behind the keyboard. We should be safe till they “find” us again.

As far as Christmas – all I want is 50+ lbs YT… And maybe 80 lbs halibut, to make Brad sweat… :)

[Peter Otto]

As far as Christmas – all I want is 50+ lbs YT… And maybe 80 lbs halibut, to make Brad sweat… :)

I was going to say, they should add 225 points to your score for doing this.
It would only be fair.

[pimpthe805]

spamming is for the birds...

[fishinfreak]

HOLA!!

[lamb]

Hola fishinfreak! Go catch YT and tell us about it. :mrgreen:

People, relax.

No more account whacking. :)

We ran from where we were on the net, but it’s a crazy place.

These spam bots will find us

As you look more closely – you see them them on all phpBB boards, sooner or later. Camping… People that paddle, WE’RE UNDER ATTACK!!! :eye:

GAMEON. One word no spaces. :lol:

We put visual validation on the registration page. Thanks for that tip.

80% of spam bots will stumble on them.

http://img166.imageshack.us/img166/1008/1as3.png

But 20% is smart enough to hack that, and will pass through and get an account.

Impressive. :monkey:

[dgax65]

The Australian Kayak Fishing Forum had to resort to manual validation of registration requests due to spam problems. In addition to using visual validation in the registration process, the site administrators look at each request and make the decision to activate based on info in the profile. They will send the applicant a verification e-mail if they question the authenticity. This may be a little extreme, but it is, undoubtedly, effective. I haven't seen a single spam post in the entire time I've been a member. The predecessor to AKFF site had to be shut down due to rampant spam problems. The AKFF site administrators have decided that it is worth the extra time and effort to take the steps necessary to restrict all spammers. I would suggest a similar plan for BWE if the spam becomes a problem.

[Marlin Hawg]

Hi, I hope I am not too late to join. Here is my favorite site.



http://www.bigwatersedge.com/wcw/

[lamb]

80% of spam bots will stumble on them.

http://img166.imageshack.us/img166/1008/1as3.png

But 20% is smart enough to hack that, and will pass through and get an account.



OK, correction.

The built in visual string confirmation feature on registration page is the one that 80% of these spam bots already hacked.

What we put in place here (and all over the kayak place) is a different applet, rather new (came out in November 06).

It’s been a full week. There has not been a single spam bot account registration.

We’ll un-anchor this thread...

till they hack this mod as well… :shaking:

[linghunter]

I was wondering what happened to my old user I.D. < thanks for the update . Paddle on .

[cabojohn]

does this mean I need to find a new place online to find viagra, botox and porn? :shock:

Thanks for cleaning up the site!

[lamb]

Linghunter, I am sorry. We do apologize to you and anyone else who fell victim to our anti-spam offensive. But look at you chatting away now, 7 days 5 posts... It looks like that was exactly what you needed! 8)

John, on porn & viagra – yes, you're on your own now. :lol:

Now, I'd like to welcome GV, grosventrerm and bjm... the 3 new accounts that registered today. Profiles seem clean, no spam was posted, but I must say user names happen to look suspicious. You guys may want to consider dropping us a word, saying something, whatever... It would not hurt to convince us you're real people, not spam bots. :idea:

Everyone, please be advised – the accounts with 0 posts that registered after 12/01/06 may be be subject to deletion in any of our future counter-spam offensives. :!:

We hope you understand.

[vitob]

Adi,
Please do not drop me. Vito B.

[lamb]

Vito... Fratello Italiano… Is that you?! :D

I’d never intentionally whack your account! :) You registered 01 Mar 2005, your account made it through the 1st round of cleanup – you got nothing to worry about.

Only accounts that registered after 12/01/2006 that have 0 posts may be subject to deletion in the future. It all depends on how creative these spam bots turn out. It is easy to recognize them when they have those Viagra and porn links in their profile. But if their profile is blank, it is impossible to tell them apart from a real person.

Either way – be assured that starting as of 12/01/06, we are and will stay on the top of the problem.

We will be giving heads up if and when we were to do any of these clean up routines.

Good fishing and spam free web surfing to all… :pirat: