Anti Shoes

[PlatinumJester]

Can we ban anymore people creating login names with the word shoe(s) in the title since most of the Advertising Spam lately has been shoe adverts.

[tannish2]

or maybe only if their first post is also about shoes or something. it could work....

[Dr._Weird]

No, we can't. Come on, what were you thinking? What if people just want the word shoes in their name? Are we supposed to ban Missing Shoe now?

[Pyro]

We can't ban Missing Shoe, or else I'll be missing 'Shoe.


My own puns make me sad.

[StickMan]

God as long as we are on the issue what is up with all the spam lately. Is there some new spam bot the board is not built to filter out. I've seen a little spam during my time on this board but last few weeks have been nuts.

[PlatinumJester]

When I say ban the word shoe I mean for new forumites only. Anyone with shoe in their title should be allowed to keep it but new forumites shouldn't be allowed it in their name.

[Amotis]

You know...

>.>

<.<

There are...shoes...among us.

Right now...as we speak.

...dirty shoes...

[PlatinumJester]

You know...

>.>

<.<

There are...shoes...among us.

Right now...as we speak.

...dirty shoes...

What? :smallconfused:

[Wraithy]

It is human emotion designated humor Platinumjester unit, commence luaghter or they might discover we are spam producing robots from the distant future of the year 2001..... Oh S**t

[Jibar]

Why I remember the great Spam Wars of '06, when we fought back the ravening hoards with nothing but some spiteful words shared between a whole platoon.
And a wampa with a rail cannon.
'Course it didn't do much good, 'cos then they came back! With knives! And sticks! But then we threw Grey Watcher at them and they went away.

Thems was the good ole days.

[PlatinumJester]

OK but right now the newest member is a person called ShoesNew01. Hmm, I wonder what they're up to :smallmad:.

[Shhalahr Windrider]

OK but right now the newest member is a person called ShoesNew01. Hmm, I wonder what they're up to :smallmad:.
Can't be sure until they post.

Innocent until proven guilty and all that rot. :smallwink:

[tannish2]

spammers should be savagely beaten by a panda with a bag of kittens. heres why: they will get hurt by the sheer impact, all pandas are cyborgs capable of applying 3000 tons of force with 1 finger, and if they dont mind the pain, but are still humans, they will feel bad about hurting kittens. anyone else agree that panda-torture is evil? all we need to do is capture a panda and reprogram it to hunt spammers.

and heres my idea, if the first post is about shoes AND their name is shoes AND it includes a link then ban em.

also isnt this illegal? seriously why arent there laws about people spamming.... i find it more inconvenient than some other things that are illegal. and it would be easy to enforce.

[PlatinumJester]

Can't be sure until they post.

Innocent until proven guilty and all that rot. :smallwink:

Yeah I'm sure they're really here to talk about DnD.

Knowing my luck in these situations they will be.

Apologies in advance if I'm wrong.

[CrazedGoblin]

*Loads shotgun* its time for abit of sport hehehe :smallwink:

[The 6th Side]

I would so love to make an account with shoes in the title now :smalltongue:

[Samiam303]

Seriously, banning the name shoe from account names wouldn't solve the problem... they'd just use different names.

See the latest spam thread posted by "bigbrother1" for my evidence.

[Pyro]

[Scrubbed]

It's like their mocking us....

[CrazedGoblin]

the web has sold its soul to advertising!

[Gaelbert]

the web has sold its soul to advertising!

The web had a soul?:smallconfused:

[Shhalahr Windrider]

Yeah I'm sure they're really here to talk about DnD.

Knowing my luck in these situations they will be.

Apologies in advance if I'm wrong.
Good chance you're right. But I'd rather stick with principle in this case. Especially since the alternative is taking measures that really won't solve anything and will cause trouble for people with legitimate business here.

[A Rainy Knight]

Uh-oh. It's not just shoes any more, and they're not just in the GITP products section any more, either. I just found another one in the SMBG section. Thus, I say to you: To arms! Defend the Playground, my brothers and sisters! :smallbiggrin:

Seriously, though, I guess that there's not a whole lot that we can do to completely stop the spammers.

[Logic]

Banning new users that attempt to create a profile with the word "shoe(s) in the username is going to do nothing. They create an account with shoe(s), and BAM! Insta-ban. They realize their mistake after 1+ attempts, and stop making their username include "shoe(s.)"

Nice idea, but it won't really stop anything.

[Ettlesby]

The web had a soul?:smallconfused:

Of COURSE the web has souls.

They're just stolen from people.

[Skippy]

Of COURSE the web has souls.

They're just stolen from people.

*Hides soul-stealing machine*

[tannish2]

the web has sold its soul to advertising!

dude, that happened when it was still ARPANET which was impressive considering that it was used almost exclusively by the US military and some universities (if i remember internet history class right)

but its gotten a few more since then, i know its where i keep mine (2.1 % annual interest, THAT PWNS TOO MUCH TO EVEN BELEIVE)

[Triaxx]

I'm an admin of another forum, and we had a rash of porn spammers at one point. You might want to check the E-mails of the spammers before you delete them, since the E-mails listed for our spammers were from .info addresses. I've never seen anyone legit using them, so we simply blanket banned the addresses with .info.

Worked for us, so I thought I'd chime in for you.

[Death, your friend the Reaper]

The web had a soul?:smallconfused:

Yes.

And on another topic, I can't believe we are thinking of banning the users with shoe in their name, they have the most sole in the entire GitP forum!

[PlatinumJester]

I'm an admin of another forum, and we had a rash of porn spammers at one point. You might want to check the E-mails of the spammers before you delete them, since the E-mails listed for our spammers were from .info addresses. I've never seen anyone legit using them, so we simply blanket banned the addresses with .info.

Worked for us, so I thought I'd chime in for you.

Good idea. Also, why do Spammers always advertise crap?

[Wraithy]

because if it had true merit it would be able to sell from normal adverts (tv, magazines etc.), the point is that their product is so rubbish that it needs to grasp for anything it can find, and these methods tend to annoy people so mutch that the company becomes antagonised. I'd never buy anything that spammed these forums

[PlatinumJester]

OK but right now the newest member is a person called ShoesNew01. Hmm, I wonder what they're up to :smallmad:.

I KNEW IT He just posted some stupid spam in media. Innocent until proven guilty my arse.

[ufo]

He posted very much spam! Holy crap! 5-6 spam threads in succession!

[PlatinumJester]

He posted very much spam! Holy crap! 5-6 spam threads in succession!

Guys like that need to find a life.

[ufo]

Guys like that need to find a life.

... and I'm wondering if you're talking about me or the spamm(bot)er. Because if it's me, it's the second time someone told me that. In a serious way.

[Wraithy]

meh, I'm still unsure if this is even a real person, could be that there is a new way of beating those letter number tests that you do when you sign up.

THE MACHINES ARE ATTACKING!!! TO THE SPACECRAFT!!! SEXY WOMEN AND ME FIRST!!!

[kpenguin]

GAH! I just opened the media page and.... and... *faints*

[PlatinumJester]

... and I'm wondering if you're talking about me or the spamm(bot)er. Because if it's me, it's the second time someone told me that. In a serious way.

The spam bot.

[ufo]

The spam bot.

Thank god!

[/off topic]

[PlatinumJester]

I'm gonna spam the ****er with my e mail account.

[Winterwind]

Thus, I say to you: To arms! Defend the Playground, my brothers and sisters! :smallbiggrin: I offer my avatar's sledgehammer and flintlock pistols for the just cause. Let's drive those shoes back to where they came from! :smallannoyed:

Seriously though, so far it seems to be just one company, though calling that a company is likely an insult to all the other companies out there. Now, my knowledge about the possibilities of forum protection are limited at best, but shouldn't all those posts share enough similarities so that some filters can be adjusted to take those out?

[ufo]

If "You may not sell shoes!" is added to the rules, I'll give free virtual cookies to the whole forum...

[PlatinumJester]

I hope he likes his own trainers :smallamused:.

[Wraithy]

Although my squirrely person is safe inside the spacecraft with the sexy women, My Wraithyness will man the barricades and protect us from the dangers of the shoes.
although honestly if we need to use spacecraft to escape the shoes, I doupt barricades will help atall.

[Jibar]

On a more serious point, has ye webmaster considered setting up a system where enough reports will get a thread locked automatically?
I'd say the people here are mature enough no to abuse something like that, and it would take some wait off the mods.

[Winterwind]

On a more serious point, has ye webmaster considered setting up a system where enough reports will get a thread locked automatically?
I'd say the people here are mature enough no to abuse something like that, and it would take some wait off the mods.I'm not sure whether that would work out.
While most people here are mature enough not to abuse that, it would actually take only a single person who is not to cause damage with that system (by just creating a whole bunch of different accounts).
Given the friendliness of these forums it's quite possible that we wouldn't find even a single person like that, but should we (or rather, the powers that be) take the chances?

[Jibar]

Warning: Incoming Jibar Analogy

That's like asking if it's worth breeding a bunch of Tafflys when there's the threat of Lickatoads.
Sure, it might happen, but you can get fertiliser out of them, and is that not worth it?

[Wraithy]

meh, its a risk I'm sure many of us are willing to take, and besides, if the report-lock system is abused it can just be removed, its worth a try.

[Winterwind]

That's like asking if it's worth breeding a bunch of Tafflys when there's the threat of Lickatoads.
Sure, it might happen, but you can get fertiliser out of them, and is that not worth it?Buh... er... uhmm... yeah! :smalleek:
Okay, you confused me into agreeing with you. Now that's quite a feat! :smallbiggrin:

[Wraithy]

Feat: Jibar Analogy [Racial]
Prerequisites: 13 cha, Catmuffin.
you can make any diplomacy check in 2 rounds with a +10 confusion bonus to your roll.

[The 6th Side]

Ya gotta admit, after seeing the 6 new threads in the Media forum it seems that fate is asking for somthing to be done about this

[tannish2]

well perhaps have different levels of moderatorship, perhaps one where if 3 or 4 reported a thread it would be auto-closed, and then full moderatorness. basically picking semi-trusted users to give that limited power to. because i noticed 4 or 5 spam threads earlier

[Lord Herman]

I think changing the whole moderator system over this is a bit drastic. There must be a better (and simpler) way to stop these ad spamming bastards.

By the way, I don't believe they're spambots. I've spotted some inconsistencies between the different copies of the same ad, which can only be caused by someone not paying attention while copying a post over and over again.

[Castaras]

Pies-new Ltd company based in Hyragg. We manufacture our goods in Hyragg and sell it.
We have customers throughout all over the world.For example:Forgotten Realms, Eberron, Mhorann, Dragonlance and so on.
We mainly manufacture and sell all kinds of the animated pies, pie golems poisoned pies, ordinary pies
Hyragg, Casta productions and more

www.lotsalovelypiespam.com
MSN:pie-spam_01@hotmail.com
MSN:pie-spam@hotmail.com
Yahoo&E: pie-spam01@yahoo.com.cn





<.<
>.>
*runs*

---

Although on a more serious note, the spam does seem to be increasing. But eh. What can we do but ignore it and carry on with our day to day foruming? 'Tis what I do. :smallconfused:

[PlatinumJester]

Maybe we should have like a playground watch like neighbourhood watch. People sign up and can scrub posts as long as they are spam or racism (but for no other reason). I'm sure people wouldn't abuse this but it would have to be an infraction to abuse this.

[ufo]

I'm wondering, are all the mods in the same time zone? Becuase it seems to take some time for the spam threads to be removed. They're all sleeping.


In the night, when the enforcers of justice and law are asleep, the defenseless forumites cannot feel safe. Noone can defend themselves.

[Lord Herman]

If I'm not mistaken, most of the mods live in Trogland. A few live in the UK, I think.

[Emperor Demonking]

Shoesnew1 strikes again.

[PlatinumJester]

Shoesnew1 strikes again.

I know. Why he wasn't he banned earlier? He was reported yesterday by loads of people, I had sent a PM to one of the moderators saying that he would spam at some point and this thread was full of complaints about it.

The ****er should have beened banned ages ago.

[Neftren]

Most likely, this guy is changing server ports and IPs on his computer to avoid an IP/Computer Ban. That's what some people do in Halo anyway...:smallfurious:

------------------------
On another topic since I don't want to start a new thread:

Would it be legal for me to delete this account and start a new one with a different name?

[Emperor Demonking]

Most likely, this guy is changing server ports and IPs on his computer to avoid an IP/Computer Ban. That's what some people do in Halo anyway...:smallfurious:

?

No as he still wouldn't be able to use his original acount. If you ask me people should let the spam threads go to the bottom rather than posting in them.

[ufo]

Are the mods on hiatus? I haven't seen any of them online for a couple of days.

[PlatinumJester]

http://s227.photobucket.com/albums/dd235/PlatinumJester01/?action=view&current=AntiSpamLeague.jpg

Join the revolution people.

[EmeraldRose]

Just keep reporting the new threads as they come up.

[ufo]

I made this a long time ago, but I guess it's appropriate:

http://img250.imageshack.us/img250/3793/e189de7d7849bz2.png

[Lord Herman]

I just had an idea. Would it be possible to auto-ban anyone who posts a thread of the same name (or the same content) in multiple (say, three or more) subforums?

[Serpentine]

I just had a quick look at the first page of all the main forums, and found 17 spamthreads, over 3 or 4 forums :smalleek: This is getting ridiculous.

[Ichneumon]

Yes, would it be from the same IP? I know only mods can check that, but it would help them fight this if they could like bann IPs.

[skywalker]

Are the mods on hiatus? I haven't seen any of them online for a couple of days.

The media discussions mods are Alarra, Gorbash Kazdar, Lilly, and the Giant.

Gorbash's last activity is on the 14th. The rest have last activities yesterday night or this morning. So the mods are around.

[ufo]

The media discussions mods are Alarra, Gorbash Kazdar, Lilly, and the Giant.

Gorbash's last activity is on the 14th. The rest have last activities yesterday night or this morning. So the mods are around.

Perhaps the adventure to the Control Panel and to the Delete Thread(s) button is a long and difficult one?

[PirateMonk]

From the latest one:

We are legitimate and reputable company

*Snicker*

[PlatinumJester]

ShoesNew01 still hasn't banned :smallfurious:.

[Ichneumon]

Maybe the mods are getting payed by those shoe people to wait for a few hours.... :smalleek:

[PlatinumJester]

Maybe the mods are getting payed by those shoe people to wait for a few hours.... :smalleek:

Our mods probably aren't sellouts.

[Winterwind]

Or maybe they are slowly setting all things in motion, invisible to the mortal eye, cunningly planning the spammers' doom. But not a simple ban shall await these unsuspecting fools, oh no - the mods' wrath shall take a far more terrible form. And when the time comes, and the stars are aligned according to prophecy, the mods shall rise from their slumber and sweep the Internet from the infidel spammers...

Okay, I'll stop now. :smallbiggrin:

[PlatinumJester]

Or maybe they are slowly setting all things in motion, invisible to the mortal eye, cunningly planning the spammers' doom. But not a simple ban shall await these unsuspecting fools, oh no - the mods' wrath shall take a far more terrible form. And when the time comes, and the stars are aligned according to prophecy, the mods shall rise from their slumber and sweep the Internet from the infidel spammers...

Okay, I'll stop now. :smallbiggrin:

rap, I had poker planned on that day and aLL :smallannoyed:.

[Lord Herman]

From the latest one:

We are legitimate and reputable company

*Snicker*

From the United Kingdom, no less.

[Emperor Demonking]

The mods aren't letting the companies spam, if they did the mods would have no soles.

I know bet you wish you didn't say limey now.

[PlatinumJester]

The mods aren't letting the companies spam, if they did the mods would have no soles.

I know bet you wish you didn't say limey now.

This looks like a job for limeyman.

[Eldred]

Not sure if anyone has said/noticed, but there is now a user called lapepe1 who is advertising laptops and such in the Media forum.

Gods, I hate spammers. :smallfurious:

EDIT: Gah! My bad, you were talking about lapepe and not NewShoes. :smalleek:

[PlatinumJester]

I know. All we need is one Moderator on-line to remove the threads but they are all absent.

Actually, what we need is an advertising section so that all the spammers will post there instead of Gaming or Media. Then no one would have to even see it.

[PirateMonk]

I know. All we need is one Moderator on-line to remove the threads but they are all absent.

Actually, what we need is an advertising section so that all the spammers will post there instead of Gaming or Media. Then no one would have to even see it.

But the spammers would just ignore that, and besides, we don't want to allow advertising.

[PlatinumJester]

But the spammers would just ignore that, and besides, we don't want to allow advertising.

Neither do I but if people are gonna do it anyway we might as well try and make they do it in some kind of useless place.

[Gaelbert]

But they're so tempting and easy to make fun of...

[Wraithy]

another problem is that people are actually viewing the spams, they're really easy to identify by title, just don't open them. in the mean time I am appaled to see that one of the threads has had 23 views... 23 views!!!
how do people even open these things?!?! :smallfurious: :smallfurious: :smallmad: :smallyuk: *smacks head on desk untill sweet unconsciousness resumes*

[PlatinumJester]

another problem is that people are actually viewing the spams, they're really easy to identify by title, just don't open them. in the mean time I am appaled to see that one of the threads has had 23 views... 23 views!!!
how do people even open these things?!?! :smallfurious: :smallfurious: :smallmad: :smallyuk: *smacks head on desk untill sweet unconsciousness resumes*

Like they say "Curiosity killed the Cat". And the way they manage to open those threads is by moving the mouse cursor over the thread titl and clicking.

[EmeraldRose]

Part of that too is that you can't report it if you don't open it.

[banjo1985]

Oh for the love of all that is sane in the world, please can a mod go and eradicate most of the first page of media discussions?

[PlatinumJester]

Oh for the love of all that is sane in the world, please can a mod go and eradicate most of the first page of media discussions?

Seconded Sooner rather than later

[Ichneumon]

There is nothing wrong with opening them. The point is that when the spam stays for some time, people start to wonder if it isn't spam and why the mods haven't deleted it yet, so they open it.

[A Rainy Knight]

I haven't been here for a very long time, but am I correct when I assume that this is an abnormally large amount of spam? :smallconfused:

Because during the time when I read the forums without a profile, I never saw any spam at all.

[[Insert Neat Username Here]]

There is nothing wrong with opening them. The point is that when the spam stays for some time, people start to wonder if it isn't spam and why the mods haven't deleted it yet, so they open it.

Or they open it to report it.

[PirateMonk]

I haven't been here for a very long time, but am I correct when I assume that this is an abnormally large amount of spam? :smallconfused:

Because during the time when I read the forums without a profile, I never saw any spam at all.

I've never seen this much.

[ufo]

I haven't been here for a very long time, but am I correct when I assume that this is an abnormally large amount of spam? :smallconfused:

Because during the time when I read the forums without a profile, I never saw any spam at all.

Yep. It's something quite new. I think it started two or three months ago.

[[Insert Neat Username Here]]

This is the only spam I've actually seen here. Ever.

[Gaelbert]

I've been here since late march, and I've never really noticed this much before now.

[A Rainy Knight]

Aaaaaaah! The Spampocalypse is coming! :smalleek:

I'll gather food and water, you get the guns and ammo, and then we'll find a good concrete spam shelter. :smalltongue:

[PlatinumJester]

Aaaaaaah! The Spampocalypse is coming! :smalleek:

I'll gather food and water, you get the guns and ammo, and then we'll find a good concrete spam shelter. :smalltongue:


I have the guns and ammo because guns are fun and kill people :smallamused: .

[PirateMonk]

The only way to have a spam shelter is to have a place that doesn't have internet, which just isn't worth it.

[Wraithy]

we may not have a spam shelter, but I have a denial shelter. we can pretend nothing is happening in there while we wait for a moderator to log on.
as for food.... we'll have to eats threads under "silly message board games", they lack neutrients but contain enough padding to give us a small hope of surviving:
THE SPAM TIMES

[PirateMonk]

But SMBGs are fun... :smallfrown:

[tannish2]

isnt there some sort of legal action they can take against this company? well in the meantime keep track of company names who advertise, and make sure to NEVER buy anything from them.

and them SAYING their reputable companies makes it true. also is anyone here a lawyer? becuase that was probably a lie.

[PirateMonk]

isnt there some sort of legal action they can take against this company?

They're probably all based in countries that have freedom of expression, so it's doubtful.

[Samiam303]

isnt there some sort of legal action they can take against this company? well in the meantime keep track of company names who advertise, and make sure to NEVER buy anything from them.

and them SAYING their reputable companies makes it true. also is anyone here a lawyer? becuase that was probably a lie.

To be honest, I'd be impressed if they're a real company... I mean, I'm sure that someone replies to those e-mails, but I'd bet they can change their "company" name anytime they want.

@^ Even with freedom of expression, false advertising is still illegal. However, it's really hard to charge anyone with a crime on the internet, since it's so hard to trace. Unless there's a real financial damage it's hardly worth anyone's time.

[adanedhel9]

They're probably all based in countries that have freedom of expression, so it's doubtful.

Well, as I understand it (IANAL), free speech doesn't cover situations where the speaker, by speaking, is impinging on someone else's rights. These forums are owned by somebody: they take up hard drive space, processing time, electricity, and bandwidth. Rich allows us non-spammers to post here so long as we follow the rules (including the no-spamming rule). Those who break the rules cannot.

The spammers (and anyone else who breaks the rules) are effectively stealing Rich's resources (as apposed to Rich giving them away). This is illegal, or at a minimum actionable, but whether it's really enforceable or not is a different story.

I know there are a few people here who have spent time on rec.games.frp.dnd, a Usenet group (a forum that existed before the World Wide Web) dedicated to D&D. A couple years ago we had a disgruntled poster attack the group with spam, with the intention of making discussion impossible (the group was getting something like 1 spam post a minute). He succeeded for a couple weeks, but some of the regulars managed to contact his ISP, and they cut the poster off for violating the group's rules. So, at least in theory, there are recources that Rich and the mod squad can take. But I doubt they'd be practical except in extreme situations.

[Roland St. Jude]

First, thank you to those of you who reported the various spam threads. Second, please don't post in the spam threads. It only brings more attention to the thread, which encourages the spammer and makes it more difficult to remove the spam. It's also against the rules for exactly those reasons...

Rules of Posting (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/announcement.php?a=1):

Responding to Spam
If you see a Spam post, please Report it. DO NOT respond to it, even if your response is "This is spam!" or a similar variation. All this does is draw attention to the thread, furthering the spammer's goals, and potentially make it more difficult for a Moderator to correct the problem; it does not in any way help.

We have been seeing a bit more spam lately than we've seen in a while. But even with the anti-bot authentication requirement to create an account, GitP actually gets quite a bit more spam than you usually see. Typically, we mods remove spam posts before they get more than a handful of views and after a single (or no) reports. Spam disappears entirely so that you never see that it's there. We are here working for you, but sometimes it takes a bit longer than other times.

Please, please don't encourage the spammers or post to spam threads. Every time that happens a moderator has to ban the spammer, dump all the spam, and then hand out "responding to spam" warnings on top of it. And as noted above those responses actually make removing the spam more difficult. (We can select all of a spammer's posts via checkboxes and remove them all at once, but if someone has responded to a spam posts, we have to go and remove that whole thread.) So please don't form anti-spam brigades or engage in spam wars. Just report the spam (once) and wait for us to take care of it. We will do so with all possible speed. We don't want that rubbish cluttering up the boards any more than you do. Thanks.

[Rockphed]

Thank you for cleaning up the mess Roland(and everybody else who was involved). I never actually saw the spam, though I have seen a few "Moved" threads that didn't have a destination I could see. One of which had a rather spammy title. I think that means that you are doing a good job.:smallsmile:

[Death, your friend the Reaper]

So please don't form anti-spam brigades or engage in spam wars.

But I just ordered in uniforms and everything! Charity's going to be depressed that he can't use that new weapon of his....

*Slinks back into the darkness bitterly disappointed, Death will just have to think up nice messages to add to the post when he reports a spam thread.*

[Skippy]

WARNING!!! Shoes-deal, a new Ghost in the Playground, has appeared... Be prepared to hit the "Report" button whenever he tries to post

[tannish2]

so... wait... do mods get free ninja training? if so.... can you really walk through walls?

[Ichneumon]

I just reported is first post.


Also I think they lie, they are not an professional company (and certainly not in the UK), because than they would let someone who speaks english write this. Even if they are not native speakers a company would pay for a translator. This really just looks like babelfish
dear friend
We are professional and honest wholesaler of all kinds of brand sneaks
and apparel.the products our company supply are as follows:

[Icewalker]

Why are they even trying to sell us shoes??? We're forumites, we don't leave our houses, we'd never wear our old shoes out! :smallbiggrin:

[tannish2]

true, but some of us grow, or occasionally break ours. but seriously, isnt there some license agreement? go to the site and tell the server people to shut these guys down because they have done soemthing technically illegal (they agreed to something to get the account right? which included not spamming? so why not at least TRY that.)

[Green Bean]

true, but some of us grow, or occasionally break ours. but seriously, isnt there some license agreement? go to the site and tell the server people to shut these guys down because they have done soemthing technically illegal (they agreed to something to get the account right? which included not spamming? so why not at least TRY that.)

Alas, I'm pretty sure breaking the user agreement is not the same as breaking the law.

[Amotis]

At least we have the anti-flood system in place. And at least they're not pornographic. At least it's not a...spam war. And at least we have mods who do their job.

There doesn't need for any measures to be taken, srsly.

[Charity]

Trust in the word of Amotis.
Testify!

[Death, your friend the Reaper]

Testify!

Well, it was like this your 'onour, I was all by myself at my castle of shadows, sipping my tea, my granddaughter you see sometimes visits, so I wait up, anyway, there I was surfing the crystal, and lo' and behold someone tried to sell my shoes. Needless to say I pressed the little red triangle straight away.

I swear gov, thats the whole truth.

Oh, you didn't want to know that? Where was I on the 6th of September did you say? Um....

[Serpentine]

He was at my place, seeing to the cat! Honest!

[Wraithy]

we may not have a spam shelter, but I have a denial shelter. we can pretend nothing is happening in there while we wait for a moderator to log on.
as for food.... we'll have to eats threads under "silly message board games", they lack neutrients but contain enough padding to give us a small hope of surviving:
THE SPAM TIMES

*pokes head up from denial shelter*
we survived the 1st wave, but another will come, the end is nigh! *gets sandwich board and heads for oxford street*

P.S. don't eat any of the threads past the 10th page, just trust me on this

[PlatinumJester]

A brand new ShoesNew is back. Now feel the wrath of ShoesNew05.

[tannish2]

ya the mods should really just ban em as soon as they make their accounts. leave those names for actual people who might want to register. after this **** is over with.

[Winterwind]

Hopefully, if those are really people and not bots, they will eventually grow tired after being banned a few times, and give up.
Wouldn't bet on it, though. :smallfrown:

[crimson77]

I was just thinking how funny it would be if a shoe-spammer actually posted in this thread; maybe they could make a case for their spam.

[Winterwind]

Indeed.
But I would be immensly impressed if they could make a point that's sufficiently good to counter our inevitable argument of "It's against the forum rules!" :smallbiggrin:

[Lord Herman]

Hopefully, if those are really people and not bots, they will eventually grow tired after being banned a few times, and give up.
Wouldn't bet on it, though. :smallfrown:

I think it's real people. There are some inconsistencies in the thread titles, which is what you get when someone copy-pastes the same text over and over again. A spambot would make the exact same post every time.

[PlatinumJester]

What a depressing job. Going from forum to forum posting the same thing a million times.

BTW, why do they call it spam?

[Winterwind]

BTW, why do they call it spam?As far as I know, this usage of the term originated from this (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kn4CZw3oGOQ&mode=related&search=) Monty Python sketch.

[Wraithy]

now that we know of the socond wave, we must repent! and pray for mercy from the vengeful god.... erm... ah.
-S**t I forgot the most important thing about rapture theory, I need to find a god- ....vader! darth vader's wrath upon thee who oppose the banning of the shoe sales person!!

[Winterwind]

darth vader's wrath upon thee who oppose the banning of the shoe sales person!!This would have more of a point if there actually was such a person. :smalltongue:

[ufo]

All hail Darth Vader! He shalt smite the spammith!

[tannish2]

seriously though, why cant we get rid of these bitches? why not go to the site and compain, tell them that its technically illegal for them to spam in most forums and that legal action COULD be taken and inform them that because of their method of advertising you will not be buying anything from them. ever. hell, spam em with it.

[Nerd-o-rama]

This is getting a little ridiculous...just add an anti-bot image to the registration script already.

[Roland St. Jude]

This is getting a little ridiculous...just add an anti-bot image to the registration script already.

*Palm-smacks forehead* Why didn't we think of that?

[Midnight Son]

You could always go to the extremes I've seen elsewhere and make everyone log in with a bot filter image every time they enter the site. Currently, once they're past the registration the bots have free reign.

Nah, I'll just chose to ignore the spam the way I have been doing.

*Wishes he could start an account named Shoe-Spammer, just to screw with people.*

[tannish2]

OH! i know, i say give all the people who you know arent spammers free ninja training, and spell trigger items with teleport on them, then we can pwninationalize the spammers. see? ****ING SIMPLE! WHY WAS I THE FIRST ONE TO THINK OF THAT.

naaa not cost efficient. but we could destroy all spam in the world.... might be fun. oh well, ill stick with my "spam the spammers" option, anyone got any bots for it?

[Rawhide]

*sigh* Go away for a while and look what happens...


First and foremost I am going to introduce you to the primary rule of spam. NEVER reply to it. If you receive an email spam. Do not reply. Even if it asks you to unsubscribe. Doing so just confirms your email address as a valid email. This makes it worth more to them to sell and you will get more spam.

Again, do not reply to it on the forums either, we have a report button for incidents just like this. Replying to a spam thread is completely unwanted. Yes, even if all you say is something like "SPAM!". All it does is bounce the thread back to the top of the listings bringing more attention to it, keeping it in the spotlight longer, encouraging others to do the same, making it harder for us to clean up the mess and probably earning you a warning.

Don't PM a moderator about it either, there is a report this post feature you should be using as it can then be looked at by another moderator if the normal ones are off duty.

I see a lot of people who seem to be proud that they participated in some "spam war", I was not a moderator at that time, but I can with all honesty say that you should not be. Ignore the spam, report it, do not post to it, do not try and fight a war. This only makes things worse.

---

Don't bother trying to spam a spammer, its completely pointless. Not only do you give them another email to sell (even if you make a new one and close it - they still make money), but they themselves have countless email addresses they go through. When one starts getting too much spam, they just move on. You think they've never been counter spammed before? They've seen it all.

---

The problem with the internet is "who has jurisdiction?". Europe, Australia and the US can make as many anti-spam laws as they feel like, but it will do jack all. The majority of the spam comes from countries that have no such laws and don't care. There is very little you can do but protect your email address from being discovered, never replying to spam and ignoring it. Tracking them down is hard enough, but once you do there is very little, if anything, you can do.

---

The majority of the forum staff are based in America, we have one in the UK and one in Australia. So yes, most moderation will be done during the same time period and there may be gaps where things take a little longer to get noticed. Please report what you see, ignore it, sit tight and wait for a moderator. If a moderator hasn't had a chance to fix the problem don't keep complaining about it and work yourselves up into a fury, wait. We can't be here every single minute of every single day instantly fixing every issue.

---

We are not about to put a blanket ban on the word "shoe" because some shoe spammers are going to use it. There are many legitimate reasons someone might want to have the four letter combo of s-h-o-e somewhere within their name (Missing Shoe comes to mind). There are however some other names we could block, and I will be asking the other moderators to help me come up with a list that won't be restrictive.

---

We have several measures in place that hinder spammers from joining up, including one of those random character images. But like anything, it can never be perfect and there are ways to get around it some of the time (think of how bad it would be without it).

---

Using asterisks in place of swearwords (or allowing the filter to filter them) does not allow you to 'get around' the no swearing rule.

---

Origin of the term "spam" to mean net abuse (http://www.templetons.com/brad/spamterm.html)

---

I hope I have managed to address every point raised here in my absence. If I missed any, please PM me.