Attack of the Spambots!

[Sizzle Montyjing]

That's right, those annoying little bastards we know as 'Spambots'.

There seem to have been a lot of them lately, so i'm going to use my god-like powers and call it an official attack.

So, what is with these spam-bots?
Why are they trying to sell us DRESSES!?
WHY IS THE GRAMMAR SO BAD!?

So basically i'm just asking, why spambots why?

 

[BabyRaptor]

Because they generate income for the bastards who use them?
Hell after hearing how much some of them make, if I knew how to set up large scale spam bot attacks I would probably join them...

Say, Sizzle, can I interest you in longer, harder erections and bigger boobs as you insure your car in minutes over the phone with Geico while SAVING YOU $683 *A YEAR* WITH OUR NEW AT&T SPECIAL OFFER JUST FOR YOU!!!

You forgot that he just won an iPad!

 

[Sizzle Montyjing]

Because they generate income for the bastards who use them?
Hell after hearing how much some of them make, if I knew how to set up large scale spam bot attacks I would probably join them...

Say, Sizzle, can I interest you in longer, harder erections and bigger boobs as you insure your car in minutes over the phone with Geico while SAVING YOU $683 *A YEAR* WITH OUR NEW AT&T SPECIAL OFFER JUST FOR YOU!!!

That sounds fantastic!
And i don't even have a car!
Sign me up!

What i was trying to get at was the fact that these spam-bots take us for idiots and try to sell us dresses.
Know your audience.

 

[SckizoBoy]

Because they generate income for the bastards who use them?
Hell after hearing how much some of them make, if I knew how to set up large scale spam bot attacks I would probably join them...

Say, Sizzle, can I interest you in longer, harder erections and bigger boobs as you insure your car in minutes over the phone with Geico while SAVING YOU $683 *A YEAR* WITH OUR NEW AT&T SPECIAL OFFER JUST FOR YOU!!!

You forgot that he just won an iPad!

Genuine and Made in China!

So, what is with these spam-bots?
Why are they trying to sell us DRESSES!?
WHY IS THE GRAMMAR SO BAD!?

So basically i'm just asking, why spambots why?

There was one just last week and it was in German (free music downloads). However, I just get a feeling that the spammers are Chinese... haven't the faintest idea why...

 

[Quaxar]

That's right, those annoying little bastards we know as 'Spambots'.

There seem to have been a lot of them lately, so i'm going to use my god-like powers and call it an official attack.

So, what is with these spam-bots?
Why are they trying to sell us DRESSES!?
WHY IS THE GRAMMAR SO BAD!?

So basically i'm just asking, why spambots why?

Because their prices are so <color=red>Insane!

Also, I haven't seen any spambots on here for ages. Or did you mean the internet for general? Because if so I also had not more than the usual spam lately.

 

[AndyFromMonday]

One thing the spambots do show is how well the captcha system is working.

 

[Crazy Zaul]

Its the 1 about the girl in the yellow dress all the time that says 'why won't my boyfriend let me wear this'. The challenge is to get as many insulting jokes in as u can before the thread gets locked.

And captchas don't work cos they are on 2nd and 20th post of the day, but spambots always create a new account so its 1st post.

 

[Staskala]

The aint trying to sell us anything, just get us to click the link. And yeah, saying "hey, do you think this ultra sexy dress is suitable for my 17 year old girlfriend is it a little tooo slutty" to a bunch of sex starved computer geeks... come on. They clearly do know their audience.

Sure they do, they get jack shit if you just click the link.
Those programs are (usually) commission based, i.e. whenever you buy something the spammer "business affiliate" gets 10% or so.
Nobody will pay them for bad traffic that doesn't buy anything and just wastes bandwidth.

The general logic behind spamming is "If you send the link to 1000 people, 100 will click it and 1 will buy something".

 

[Sizzle Montyjing]

Because their prices are so <color=red>Insane!

Also, I haven't seen any spambots on here for ages. Or did you mean the internet for general? Because if so I also had not more than the usual spam lately.

There have actually been quite a few round recently, should look for threads marked 'why will my boyfriend not let me buys this!?'
Except with worse grammar.
Been at least one today.

 

[funguy2121]

That's right, those annoying little bastards we know as 'Spambots'.

There seem to have been a lot of them lately, so i'm going to use my god-like powers and call it an official attack.

So, what is with these spam-bots?
Why are they trying to sell us DRESSES!?
WHY IS THE GRAMMAR SO BAD!?

So basically i'm just asking, why spambots why?

1. Visit a medium.

2. Use her/him to get in contact with the late Bill Hicks.

3. Ask him his opinion of marketing people.

Now you know everything you'll ever need to know about spam, product placement and commercials. Why did the Geico caveman sitcom fail so spectacularly? Why do the people behind BET commercials seem to think all black people are stupid? Why do tampon ads need to be so fucking ridiculous? Just ask Bill.

 

[Sizzle Montyjing]

...
Make that 2 spambot threads i've seen today.
This is getting bad...
We need tougher rules.

 

[Superior Mind]

Why not admin/moderator approved memberships? On sign up a new member would have to create a thread in a private forum explaining who they are and maybe why they want to join. Spambots don't have the ability to actually communicate or respond apropriately to questioning so it whould sort out the real people from the robots.

We did it at a forum I help operate, (although we used it to get rid of an annoying troll or two,) and we haven't seen a spam bot in years. Granted it's a much smaller website than this one.

Just a thought anyway. Since captcha isn't working I'd much rather prove my humanity once and be done with it. I don't think it'd be too much of a staffing concern either. Just get a couple of upstanding citizens from the forum community and give them the ability to see the aforementioned private thread and promote the human users to full membership status and filter out the bots, (i.e. ban the shit out of 'em.) I'm sure there'd be those willing to do it - and if not sweeten the deal with a Publishers Club membership or something.

 

[Sizzle Montyjing]

Why not admin/moderator approved memberships? On sign up a new member would have to create a thread in a private forum explaining who they are and maybe why they want to join. Spambots don't have the ability to actually communicate or respond apropriately to questioning so it whould sort out the real people from the robots.

We did it at a forum I help operate, (although we used it to get rid of an annoying troll or two,) and we haven't seen a spam bot in years. Granted it's a much smaller website than this one.

Just a thought anyway. Since captcha isn't working I'd much rather prove my humanity once and be done with it. I don't think it'd be too much of a staffing concern either. Just get a couple of upstanding citizens from the forum community and give them the ability to see the aforementioned private thread and promote the human users to full membership status and filter out the bots, (i.e. ban the shit out of 'em.) I'm sure there'd be those willing to do it - and if not sweeten the deal with a Publishers Club membership or something.

That may be a bit much, i think a minimum amount of posts before being able to post a thread would work.
I suggested 500 posts, but people said it was a bit much, so maybe 2 weeks memebership and 250 posts?

 

[Superior Mind]

Why not admin/moderator approved memberships? On sign up a new member would have to create a thread in a private forum explaining who they are and maybe why they want to join. Spambots don't have the ability to actually communicate or respond apropriately to questioning so it whould sort out the real people from the robots.

We did it at a forum I help operate, (although we used it to get rid of an annoying troll or two,) and we haven't seen a spam bot in years. Granted it's a much smaller website than this one.

Just a thought anyway. Since captcha isn't working I'd much rather prove my humanity once and be done with it. I don't think it'd be too much of a staffing concern either. Just get a couple of upstanding citizens from the forum community and give them the ability to see the aforementioned private thread and promote the human users to full membership status and filter out the bots, (i.e. ban the shit out of 'em.) I'm sure there'd be those willing to do it - and if not sweeten the deal with a Publishers Club membership or something.

That may be a bit much, i think a minimum amount of posts before being able to post a thread would work.
I suggested 500 posts, but people said it was a bit much, so maybe 2 weeks memebership and 250 posts?

I like that idea but the thing is many new members sign up, (possibly not so much here but on forums in general,) to ask specific questions that aren't covered in existing threads. Requiring a time limit and minimum post count would mean people would be unable to do that. Also considering a spam bot makes themselves obvious in 1-2 posts 250 is probably still too excessive.