I don't like Spam. I don't like the potted meat nor do I like the dumping onto Peter's website much less mine. I spend almost an hour getting ride of over 1000 hits trying to get onto our web sites. There is no simple way to do this because of the way that these morons try to get around the various firewalls that have been set up to prevent the site from being flooded with non-relevant information. Unfortunately some other people who DID have legitimate comments to post got held up in the filter as well. I think I have sorted everything and everyone out. There has been no censoring of anyone comments but a cluster "f" that I hope has been flushed.
Posted by Kathleen David at March 31, 2006 11:43 AM | TrackBack | Other blogs commentingI have a suggestion. Switch the site over to Wordpress:
then install the ANTI-SPAM plugon called: "Did you pass math". My site was getting hit hard everyday by comment spammers and since I installed this thing it has stopped cold. See here for more details:
WebHobbit-
That's a great idea. I'll pass it onto our Web site Guru. I have noticed more sites using either this or you have to type in a sequence of bent numbers to post.
Colleen Doran just reported having the same problem on her blog. I don't visit many other blogs, but wouldn't be surprised to find out the problem is widespread. It hasn't hit my blog, but I'm a small-fry and may be flying under the radar. At least I hope so.
Ironically, this is happening because software for filtering out e-mail spam has gotten so good that spammers need to find another way to make money. So they've turned to blog spam among other despicable tactics.
Most e-mail spam filters use what's called a Bayesian filter that recognizes patterns and characteristics of spam, and learns over time as you tell it what you consider spam and what you don't. Those filters are pretty damn good in my experience. I hope that technology can be applied to blogs, and soon. Because I enjoy blogs like this, and I'd hate to see people shut them down because some bottom-feeders refuse to get real jobs.
If you don't like the meat, then it's because you just haven't had it prepared right! You have to try Spam musubi, or Spam fried rice.
Honestly, I'm not crazy. I'm just from Hawaii.
Makes one wish these bulletin board systems were more like the original BBS (FIDO and the like) which may not have had all the pretty graphics, but also didn't have the SPAM.
Yet again another example of the truism that it's typically a lot harder to create something than it is to destroy/screw it up.
The "Did you pass math" and more common images of letters and numbers are variations on what are known as Turing Tests. Basically tests that computers fail and humans can pass.
"Did you pass math" would be easy to code a computer to crack. Especially if it is always a sum. The computer would only have to read the sentence, find the two numbers, and total them. The computer could also search for words such as 'sum' 'product' etc. So it's not a great turing test, but since not too many people are using it right now, it will probably work for awhile.
I've read that computers have cracked the image of letters and numbers. Not because the computer can read the image - it can't - but because there are a limited number of permutations, and a computer can try repeatedly. But that's in testing...I'm not sure this is widely used in spamming as it's easier to find blogs that don't have the protection.
If one has a web-guru with enough skill...a personally designed turing test that is unique to a site might work well, Randomize questions with answers that should be obvious to all humans.
It's not just blogs that are getting targetted - message boards are getting hit too by random spammers, even on sites where you have to sign up to post.
Could you do the Spam musubi, or Spam fried rice without the spam then?
Ah, but what's the point?
Spam sushi. Good stuff. And I ain't even from da islands....
I've occasionally considered cross-forwarding spam that comes into my two e-mail accounts. I'll bet the bastards who keep sending me stock tips with random phrases in the subject line would really love getting their own messages back multiple times, along with the pitches for fake Rolexes and ED treatments...the problem is that I'm not tech-savvy enough to remove my own e-mail address from the return path.
Paul
Check that g-mail inbox you may have - they post Spam™ recipes in the non™Spam folder...
But... but... but...
But I *rely* on the helpful information I could find in message forums about where I can get the cheapest Hoodia prescriptions with the money I saved by refinancing with my new mortgage. They're putting it all in my Paypal account once they reopen it now that I've proved my identity by responding with the right email and password. (I should have asked them if there's a cap on Paypal -- that would be a great place for me to hold those funds for that Nigerian Prime Minister!)
Fried spam. Yummy. But then again I have a thing for salt.
I just want to know where they got the idea that I was in desperate need of cheap Viagra. Unless they were talking to my wife.
Posted by Paul1963 at March 31, 2006 03:00 PM
I've occasionally considered cross-forwarding spam that comes into my two e-mail accounts. I'll bet the bastards who keep sending me stock tips with random phrases in the subject line would really love getting their own messages back multiple times, along with the pitches for fake Rolexes and ED treatments...the problem is that I'm not tech-savvy enough to remove my own e-mail address from the return path.
Wouldn't do any good -- most of that stuff has falsified addresses, so that your forwards would just wind up in the inbox of some poor schmuck who had nothing to do with them.
Not that my email address is out there, but that's the only reason I use AOL, they'll pretty good and stopping spammers. Though most spammers are from AOL.
My wife worked for Talent Tree, out of TX, her email was all over sites like Monster. She got 1000's of emails, every two days her spam folder would fill up, many spams would pass through their spam filters.
We get snail mail, that we don't want, but not much because they have to pay for it. That's the slight problem with email, no cost. But it's no the big bussiness doing it. It's stupid loans, pills, incomplete scam letters, stupid chain letters about getting something for nothing from Disney or Microsoft.
Dang, there are so many things to worry about, people stealing you bandwidth, you content, spam, virses, hackers, and I know I'm missed other things webmasters worry about.
Hope you April fools isn't spent reading spam.
Peter and crew, awesome April Fool's Day joke! For a minute, I just stared and was like, "Huh?" Then I realized what day it is.
Of course, the last post has nothing to do with the entry in which it was made. Just to clarify.
I got one e-mail telling me they could help me "lose inches!" and another suggesting their product would cause me to "gain inches!" I wish they'd make up my mind!!
Wildcat
Nicely done, Peter.
Can't stop, on my way over to Lee Stans.com
:)
> the only reason I use AOL, they'll pretty good and stopping spammers.
And legitimate messages, too. A friend who made the mistake of going with them cannot recive messages from me because my legitimate mail server is blocked by AOL.