Welcome To Websleuths # 2

[Shiressleuth]

So are these real user names that are being used?

Seems like it is happening every night now.

 

[DakotaMayi]

I haven't seen any Chinese or Korean threads. I don't know whether to be glad or feel left out I predominantly use Safari on a Macbook Pro in case it matters.

 

[BetteDavisEyes]

When I visited this site last night (@9:00PM), everything in the sidebar (right margin) was in Chinese I didn't sign in and deleted my bookmarked link for Websleuths. All seems well this morning.

 

[Amonet]

OK you all are cracking me up. LOL
First off this was not a hack. It was a spam attack. Why? No one knows. I am going to use Google translate and see what the thread titles say. Maybe that will help us understand the point of this crap. If there is a point at all.

We may have a few stragglers who are still active members and might start more Korean threads. If this is the case please alert. We truly would rather have a bunch of alerts that are the same rather than no alerts at all.

Well, that was a little excitement in our lives for a moment. Now back to your regular programming.

Spambots are for backlinking purposes, as they know the forum is being spidered that means their links will be spidered so they'll get backlink credit from it.

It's hard for me to translate that into plain English. You know when you use a search engine and all the results come back in a certain order, very few results are on page one, and that's where you'd normally click a result from...it's a coveted spot to be in the first few pages of results rather than back on page 500 where no one ever clicks. The spambots are a cheat way to try to move a particular webpage/website up through those pages in the search results. Being in the first few pages of the search results means more people clicking that result, and that will translate in more sales for that product, so that means more money/profits.

It's cheating and nasty. It's annoying for forum members to see. It's annoying, frustrating, and hard work for forum admins.

But it's not dangerous, it doesn't mean they've hacked the forum. All they're doing is using an automated method (a bot) to sign up to random forums and make a post or two that contains their spam.

 

[JudgeJudi]

Everything is back to normal in the right sidebar for me as well.

 

[Amonet]

So are these real user names that are being used?

Seems like it is happening every night now.

The bot is populated with a list of usernames which usually attempt to appear like a Western name. The bot uses the same sign up process that we humans use. They are not hacking existing real accounts, they make their own. They don't hack the forum to do this, they use normal sign up processes, but it's a bot that's doing the sign up and not a real human.

Yes, the forum's tech admin needs to 'do stuff' to keep them out, and it can be hard to get one step ahead of the bots. I didn't notice these attacks on the old forum, so it's probably just a case of playing catch-up and putting out big enough nets to catch the spammers...but when you put out the net to catch spammers you don't want real people caught in the net, so it can be tricky.

 

[Spellbound]

Spambots are for backlinking purposes, as they know the forum is being spidered that means their links will be spidered so they'll get backlink credit from it.

It's hard for me to translate that into plain English. You know when you use a search engine and all the results come back in a certain order, very few results are on page one, and that's where you'd normally click a result from...it's a coveted spot to be in the first few pages of results rather than back on page 500 where no one ever clicks. The spambots are a cheat way to try to move a particular webpage/website up through those pages in the search results. Being in the first few pages of the search results means more people clicking that result, and that will translate in more sales for that product, so that means more money/profits.

It's cheating and nasty. It's annoying for forum members to see. It's annoying, frustrating, and hard work for forum admins.

But it's not dangerous, it doesn't mean they've hacked the forum. All they're doing is using an automated method (a bot) to sign up to random forums and make a post or two that contains their spam.

Best explanation I've heard. I wouldn't know if they are or aren't dangerous, so thak you for this!

 

[dixiegirl1035]

I have not figured out how to duplicate the previous server when I logged on and would go to the last post I viewed and it would continue from there. I don't see that option now. It just goes to different page numbers and I press on the last one and go backwards and I have no idea where I left off.

Can anyone explain how to do that or does it no longer exist?

 

[dixiegirl1035]

The bot is populated with a list of usernames which usually attempt to appear like a Western name. The bot uses the same sign up process that we humans use. They are not hacking existing real accounts, they make their own. They don't hack the forum to do this, they use normal sign up processes, but it's a bot that's doing the sign up and not a real human.

Yes, the forum's tech admin needs to 'do stuff' to keep them out, and it can be hard to get one step ahead of the bots. I didn't notice these attacks on the old forum, so it's probably just a case of playing catch-up and putting out big enough nets to catch the spammers...but when you put out the net to catch spammers you don't want real people caught in the net, so it can be tricky.

I miss seeing the sign up date for individuals on the threads. It helped me many times greet new people, and know who the old-timers were.

Does that capability no longer exist? If it does and I am not seeing things correctly, can somebody guide me? Also, there is no " settings" for font size...or posts per page like we had before?

ETA.. I also really miss having post numbers on the thread as that was also a way I kept track of where I was but now they are gone. Or am I not doing something correctly and others can see post numbers.

 

[DakotaMayi]

I miss seeing the sign up date for individuals on the threads. It helped me many times greet new people, and know who the old-timers were.

Does that capability no longer exist? If it does and I am not seeing things correctly, can somebody guide me? Also, there is no " settings" for font size...or posts per page like we had before?

ETA.. I also really miss having post numbers on the thread as that was also a way I kept track of where I was but now they are gone. Or am I not doing something correctly and others can see post numbers.

If you click on the persons avatar, a little box will come up, this will show you their sign up date.

I haven't come across a setting for font size. And it is not possible to change posts per page... there is a good reason for this.

Post numbers are at the end of the post next to like and reply.

I hope that helps some.

 

[Shiressleuth]

The bot is populated with a list of usernames which usually attempt to appear like a Western name. The bot uses the same sign up process that we humans use. They are not hacking existing real accounts, they make their own. They don't hack the forum to do this, they use normal sign up processes, but it's a bot that's doing the sign up and not a real human.

Yes, the forum's tech admin needs to 'do stuff' to keep them out, and it can be hard to get one step ahead of the bots. I didn't notice these attacks on the old forum, so it's probably just a case of playing catch-up and putting out big enough nets to catch the spammers...but when you put out the net to catch spammers you don't want real people caught in the net, so it can be tricky.

I saw some were using real user names though, which bothered me.

 

[Tricia]

Just a reminder this should be fixed. If not please let me know.

I hate to be a nag, but has anyone devised a way yet to hide/mute the Game forum? I usually don’t even log in any more because I have found that when I’m not logged in, I can just hit “Recent Posts” and see actual newsworthy threads. When I take the time to log in and click “New Posts” all of sudden there are Game posts everywhere. I have anxiety and OCD and for some reason this really bothers me. I feel myself starting to hyperventilate just thinking about it!

I really miss the mute function from the old site! I know I can "watch" threads here, but I still have to weed through all the game/off topics to even find threads worth watching. And that has to be done every time I log in if I want to stay current. So much easier and logical to mute what you don't want to see in the first place.

As a long-time lurker, not being logged in is inconvenient but it works for me (although when not logged in every single apostrophe and quotation mark show up as multiple numbers and characters like #%1$3# which is hard to read). Again, sorry to be such a pest!

 

[Tricia]

Tricia I’m not getting a congrat thing, though my Alerts are still erratic...hit or miss.

When you say "Hit or miss" can you describe exactly what is happening and get a screen shot?

 

[Kasmeer]

The game forum thing isn't fixed for me, at least, still seeing quite a few of them. Hoping I've added a pic correctly (cropped it to the relevant bit); I see exactly the same on Recent Threads and Latest Replies (btw, what's the difference between those two? They always show the same stuff... I'd find it useful for one to be a "Popular Threads" which have had lots of activity in the last few days/hours, so I can see what's active that I've missed)

 

[Tricia]

Can someone please post exactly the problem you are having with the following:

1-The Search Engine

2-The Dates

If you could provide a screenshot that would be extremely helpful.
Thank you!
Tricia

 

[Amonet]

I saw some were using real user names though, which bothered me.

The ones I saw last night were all using bot names. I'm not sure where you saw that in order to examine it.

The ones I saw, one of them was katrinaxxxxx, one of them was shaunxxxxx , I think one was pattyxxxxx. I've put *advertiser censored*'s where there was a surname. Is that what you mean by real name, or do you mean a name that you recognize as being a regular poster here?

 

[Gardener1850]

Can someone please post exactly the problem you are having with the following:

1-The Search Engine

2-The Dates

If you could provide a screenshot that would be extremely helpful.
Thank you!
Tricia

@Tricia

I've wracked my brain trying to figure out a better way to explain what is going on with the search engine. Let me try a different approach.

If I post about something right now, in this thread, that is not posted anywhere else and then a moment later search for that topic, THIS thread should come up in the search results, correct?

For example, if I were to post a random word not discussed anywhere else on this site (I checked before posting this) like say:


bardolatry :The excessive love of Shakespheare

It should come up in the search after I post it. Posting this first to test... see next post for the results...

 

[Gardener1850]

@Tricia

I've wracked my brain trying to figure out a better way to explain what is going on with the search engine. Let me try a different approach.

If I post about something right now, in this thread, that is not posted anywhere else and then a moment later search for that topic, THIS thread should come up in the search results, correct?

For example, if I were to post a random word not discussed anywhere else on this site (I checked before posting this) like say:


bardolatry :The excessive love of Shakespheare

It should come up in the search after I post it. Posting this first to test... see next post for the results...

The result after searching the entire site for the post I just made about bardolaty is "No results found". Here is a Screenshot:

 

[Shiressleuth]

[QUOTEChineseyptuz, post: 14156910, member: 117002"]...snipped for focus

If I hadn't seen the spam in Thai last night and Chinese the night before that, I totally would have been suspicious of the Korean bots tonight [/QUOTE]
Thai, Chinese, what about Kentucky Fried spam tonight? He He.

Eta - not to mention the Asian dating sites ( and sights) continually coming up.

 

[Steleheart]

If you click on the persons avatar, a little box will come up, this will show you their sign up date.

I haven't come across a setting for font size. And it is not possible to change posts per page... there is a good reason for this.

Post numbers are at the end of the post next to like and reply.

I hope that helps some.

I miss showing 100 posts per page.