Spambots constantly on this forum

Rednog

New member
Nov 3, 2008
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Wrex Brogan said:
Personally I'm just confused as to who they're even targeted at - it's not like the Escapist has the most robust of membership or foot-traffic these days, and the threads aren't around long enough to really contribute to any google search metrics.

Just seems like a wasted effort, really. Unless it's a troll/disgruntled ex-member/someone just taking advantage of the lack of tech team.
Most bots are essentially set it and forget it.
Whether they're mining for data, spreading malware, or promoting some random shitty scam they're just set up initially and just continually run until someone turns them off. It's a shotgun approach to get what they desire.
Hell I have an email account that was compromised 15 years ago, I basically abandoned it shortly thereafter but once or twice I've logged in just to see. And without fail 15 years later it still gets a dozen or so failed login attempts from various places.
 

Evil Smurf

Admin of Catoholics Anonymous
Nov 11, 2011
11,597
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Throwing more mods and hiring coders to create a capture for non pub club memebers worked in the past, why not do it again?

Dr.Susse said:
Redlin5 said:
shrekfan246 said:
Redlin5 said:
Tech team would be best solution...
Tech team? What's that?
Adam Jensen said:
This site is also in dire need of maintenance. It's so slow to load compared to pretty much every other website in history of websites.
Something that existed in the Escapist of yore.
No reminiscing about the past!
Now eat your Gruel.
Are we in the mad max universe? I've not been away that long for society to fade from this dark land?
 

SolidState

New member
May 30, 2015
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Can someone explain WHY the captcha was removed? I don't think anyone has yet explained the reasoning for its removal.
 

PainInTheAssInternet

The Ship Magnificent
Dec 30, 2011
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SolidState said:
Can someone explain WHY the captcha was removed? I don't think anyone has yet explained the reasoning for its removal.
Possibly for convenience? Something intended to keep regular and new posters around that backfired hard? I unno.
 

IceForce

Is this memes?
Legacy
Dec 11, 2012
2,384
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Evil Smurf said:
Throwing more mods and hiring coders to create a capture for non pub club memebers worked in the past, why not do it again?
>hiring coders

Well there's your problem. That costs money, and they Escapist doesn't have any.
 

IceForce

Is this memes?
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Dec 11, 2012
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SolidState said:
Can someone explain WHY the captcha was removed? I don't think anyone has yet explained the reasoning for its removal.
After the tech team was fired, slowly but surely certain things on the site started breaking and/or stopped working correctly. I mean, hell, that's to be expected when you fire literally the only people who can actually fix the things that break.

Fast-forward to today, and this site is now plagued with a fucking laundry list of bugs and glitches and things not working correctly.
 

Borty The Bort

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Jul 23, 2016
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I know this doesn't really have any other value other than being a complaint, but I want to bring up that this is kind of getting out of hand with the spam. There are literally dozens of pages covered with crap right now on the Gaming Discussion forum. There needs to be a solution to this :/
 

Remus

Reprogrammed Spambot
Nov 24, 2012
1,698
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17 Pages! we're gonna need some industrial strength disinfectant for this mess.
 

SolidState

New member
May 30, 2015
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I've been away for a while, and I've returned to... this.

Did the mods/staff just give up and abandon the place or what?
 

IceForce

Is this memes?
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Dec 11, 2012
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An idea at this point might be to just rename the gaming board to "spam board" or something, and just make a new gaming board. It's weird that 99% of their effort seems to target just one subforum.

I'm sure rearranging the subforums like that could probably be done by the mods themselves, without even needing staff / tech team assistance, so it's a possible simple and quick solution.
 

IceForce

Is this memes?
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Dec 11, 2012
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Wintermute said:
How come the wild west doesn't have any spam? Is it a "hidden" subforum or something?
It's only accessible to Pub Club members. You either need to be a paid subscriber, or be one of the many who received a lifetime subscription for free. Aaaand the bots are neither of these things.
 

Silentpony_v1legacy

Alleged Feather-Rustler
Jun 5, 2013
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And they don't even take us to dinner or give us a good dicking before spraying their love all over the forums. Makes me feel cheap.
 

DoPo

"You're not cleared for that."
Jan 30, 2012
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IceForce said:
It's weird that 99% of their effort seems to target just one subforum.
I guess it's just because it gets the most views.
 

Arnoxthe1

Elite Member
Dec 25, 2010
3,391
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Really taking these bots down will require *gasp* an actual tech team. Something Defy doesn't think is a worthy investment. So you better get used to this.
 

Karthesios

New member
Jul 11, 2010
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Marik2 said:
What do people who make these bots hope to gain?
They're looking for those one or two marks out of thousands of potential targets of their spam. If they reel those one or two in, the spam campaign turns a profit. Spam, whether in email or forum posts costs virtually nothing to make and distribute, so it doesn't take much for it to be worthwhile (email is more lucrative since a spammer can effortlessly send out millions of messages claiming to be Nigerian royalty or claiming to sell cheap dick pills or whatever).

Even if you "merely" trick 0.001% of those millions of recipients means for every million people you spam, you've successfully conned 10 of them out of some money, possibly hundreds of dollars apiece.
 

Scarim Coral

Jumped the ship
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Oct 29, 2010
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Look like the op jinxed it as the off topic is now hit by the spambots!!