Spammers on This Site

Jill, I don't think (4.00 / 3)

you will delete me -- I'm just a nonentity from PA -- but I've seen you mention spammers before & so I'm curious:

WTF is going on?  Are you getting spammed by, say, Monsanto?

And if you are, well, shame on you. Monsanto!  Don't you have better things to do with your billions in ill-gotten gains?  Give Jill a break and go spam the FDA which will, I hope, soon put you out of business.

The most remarkable thing about my mother is that for thirty years she served the family nothing but leftovers. The original meal has never been found. -- Calvin Trillin

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by: Youffraita @ Fri Jan 15, 2010 at 09:27:46 AM UTC

The spam... (4.00 / 3)

...is mainly things like "Buy miracle tonics here!", and "Denver DUI attorneys are standing by!" and "Check out my website for a free estimate on beanie baby restoration!".  With links to scam sites, of course.

The diaries stopped for the most part once Jill began banning IP addresses.  Most probably never saw the diaries, because they were posted from halfway around the world, in the middle of the night here.  I'm usually up around 4:30 AM (Pacific) most days, and I would delete them early each morning.

As for the comments, lately they've also been posting comments on six-month old diaries with headings like "Thanks!", and the comment in its entirety consists of a link to "Dallas Roofers!", and shit like that.  Those didn't usually stay up long either, because I'd delete them as well.  Again, haven't seen many of them since Jill began blocking IPs.

Also, when you're in a diary and see someone post something like this -

Mmmm.. this is yummy foods.. i would try to make for food.. is good for me!

Notice punctuation and bad grammar.  They're "on the sly" spammers.  They work "behind the scenes", using the links they add to their profiles to push themselves to the tops of search engines.

"The essence of the independent mind lies not in what it thinks, but in how it thinks." - Christopher Hitchens

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by: JayinPortland @ Fri Jan 15, 2010 at 20:20:23 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Sweetie, I ALWAYS notice (4.00 / 1)

bad punctuation & grammar.  I was a proofreader (freelance) for a bunch of NY book publishers ages ago.

I'm willing to overlook bad punctuation & grammar in dKos diaries -- if I know the diarist -- & I'm well aware of how hard it is to proofread one's own writing.

Stuff like what you're quoting sounds like those come-ons from Africa:

Yu jst win one mill dollrs, pleaze too send too me one thousand dollar so I cn get the muny to yoo.

The most remarkable thing about my mother is that for thirty years she served the family nothing but leftovers. The original meal has never been found. -- Calvin Trillin

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by: Youffraita @ Sun Jan 17, 2010 at 08:36:52 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

hahaha (4.00 / 3)

no a lot of them are from overseas like India, Philippines, and Malaysia. Many are also from the US advertising bigger penises, Viagra, real estate, make money quick, and bigger boobs. You know... the usual crap.

"I can understand someone from Iowa promoting corn and soy, but we are not feeding the world, we are feeding animals and soft drink companies." - Jim Goodman

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by: Jill Richardson @ Fri Jan 15, 2010 at 22:42:58 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

geez i was hoping (4.00 / 4)

to buy a rolex watch or pic up some Cialis and now you are deleting those valuable links and offers.

aren't you worried about international laws which prohibit restricting international commerce from places like Nigeria or Russia?  

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by: bud dingler @ Fri Jan 15, 2010 at 17:46:58 PM UTC

mmgrmphahaha! (4.00 / 3)

♥~

come firefly-dreaming with me....

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by: RiaD @ Fri Jan 15, 2010 at 18:51:53 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

I use Drupal (4.00 / 4)

for my own crappy blog, and I've set up several blogs for clients. Just two days ago, I installed a Drupal module called Captcha. They describe it as a challenge-response test. You've probably seen them before. It shows a little picture of a word or some letters and numbers and asks you to type them in. Since most blog spam comes from automated spam computers, they're unable to fill in the letters correctly. Thus the spam gets stopped.

Maybe SoapBlox already has something like that available for you or can make it available!

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by: Crider @ Fri Jan 15, 2010 at 18:23:41 PM UTC

I think this blog (4.00 / 2)

already has something like that?

"I can understand someone from Iowa promoting corn and soy, but we are not feeding the world, we are feeding animals and soft drink companies." - Jim Goodman

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by: Jill Richardson @ Fri Jan 15, 2010 at 22:43:45 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Try asking them (4.00 / 2)

blog spam is getting ubiquitous.

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by: Crider @ Sat Jan 16, 2010 at 01:34:54 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

It's been so long (0.00 / 0)

since I joined (or since I last logged in) that I forget if I was presented with a test. In any case, such a test does nothing to deter registration by human beings, it only works against computer programs, right?

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by: count @ Sun Jan 17, 2010 at 23:47:37 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

If ever there was a good excuse to bring back crucifiction (4.00 / 1)

it's spammers and hackers.

At least can we bring back the stocks? Please, please, please????? I got some ripe manure we could all lob at them. I'll even provide gloves for us to wear.....

Regarding locavores as elitists - explain to me how supporting local business is elitist....

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by: Joanne Rigutto @ Sun Jan 17, 2010 at 22:23:22 PM UTC