New Anti-Spam measures

[4D696B65]

... there is now a database of known spammers ...that is dynamically updated by this board as well as others ...

Ah, so the new anti-spam measure(s) is/are something akin to a distributed blacklist. That's a hopeful sign.

We now work with http://www.stopforumspam.com/ and https://www.projecthoneypot.org/ among others. It helps dramatically.

[dasein]

I wasn't aware that Project Honeypot was still active, but it's nice to see that they are. (I actually contributed a couple of MX records to them a very long time ago, and was wondering just the other day if the project was still active, and thus would still need said records.)

Distributed blacklisting is a very powerful and very robust tool. And nearly impossible for the Bad Guys to defeat. Excellent choice. (Though I do worry a tad if email address is one of the things that is tracked/blacklisted. Google "Joe Job" for details.)

[nadir]

viewtopic.php?f=12&t=67979&start=15#p389385

Better late than never. Yup.

[Pick2]

Well , I can see My job here is done
( as miniscule as it was , flagging spammers )

[dasein]

@Pick2

1) Reporting spam is not, never has been, and never will be, a "miniscule" contribution.

2) While the automatic anti-spam measures recently put in place will help tremendously, some spam still gets through. So you're not out of a job... it's just that your job is now a whole lot easier (mine too).

[Pick2]

1> It was supposed to be mildly funny
2> the very next thing that happened after posting that was I Flagged a spammer ( I had not seen any in a few days )
3> ???
4> Profit !

There has been a slight uptick in spam on the "Other Forum" , from ~ one a week to almost one a day ( probably a coincidence )
I will endeavor to persevere ...

[Randicus]

Distributed blacklisting is a very powerful and very robust tool. And nearly impossible for the Bad Guys to defeat.

Although any improvement of the board's anti-spam measures would be helpful, the blacklists should not be praised without reservation. Unfortunately, many Good Guys are also affected by such blacklists, because they can be too aggressive.
http://forums.debian.net/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=102796

Just had a little look into why you're being flagged as a spammer.
You're currently using a Dynamic IP handed out from Vodafone India.
This IP has previously been caught being used by an automatic spam-bot (it got caught in what is known as a honeypot).
This will only affect registration or changing your profile while you are still on that IP address.

I foresee many people, current and potential Debian users, in India and China not being able register, because of "ethnic IP banning." I have not experimented yet, but I would not be surprised if my IP address is considered spam. I have a bitch of a time trying to access sites outside China, because of this kind spam counter-measure. There are a huge number of web sites in North America and a few in Europe that I can never visit, because I am guilty of the crime of living in the wrong location. rupeshforu3 may be annoying, but he is unlikely to be the only person negatively affected by the implementation of this service.

Another factor to consider. Hopefully it will not be too big a problem.

[dilberts_left_nut]

He can go here to ask for removal from the database.
http://www.stopforumspam.com/removal

[Mez]

I foresee many people, current and potential Debian users, in India and China not being able register, because of "ethnic IP banning." I have not experimented yet, but I would not be surprised if my IP address is considered spam. I have a bitch of a time trying to access sites outside China, because of this kind spam counter-measure. There are a huge number of web sites in North America and a few in Europe that I can never visit, because I am guilty of the crime of living in the wrong location. rupeshforu3 may be annoying, but he is unlikely to be the only person negatively affected by the implementation of this service.

Another factor to consider. Hopefully it will not be too big a problem.

The IPs are not banned because of their ethinicity - they're banned if they've been used for spamming before.

Also, your IP seems to be fine (I ran a manul spam check and nothing came up)

[Randicus]

Ethnic IP banning is a phrase I created for the post. I chose it, because many blacklists are not rigorous in sorting spam from real users. In effect, they ban IP addresses from certain countries. I am not claiming the ones used here do that, but this kind of measure inevitably involves some degree of it. I mentioned the problem with blacklisting IPs simply to draw attention to a potential problem. I do not want members thinking it is a panacea to the spam woes.

He can go here to ask for removal from the database.
http://www.stopforumspam.com/removal

Is that link displayed on the registration and edit details pages? Not many people will be aware of it.

[dilberts_left_nut]

Is that link displayed on the registration and edit details pages? Not many people will be aware of it.

No idea, but it is now in the "New Anti-Spam measures" thread

[kedaha]

I trust the measures are effective - even though I just reported a spam post which got removed quickly.
It seems there are quite a few measures like random captcha images and even questions like those used to sign up for the arch forums like:
What is the output of "date -u +%V$(uname)|sha256sum|sed 's/\W//g'"?(Required)

Code: Select all

$ date -u +%V$(uname)|sha256sum|sed 's/\W//g'
a114e11267c9a4f5cae4223c8ba5a5b6ffbf3d9c2c7f08736946618924f3484d

.
which perhaps requires a little more human intervention and could also be considered.

[arochester]

There is a mis-quote wrongly attributed to Abraham Lincoln

You can please some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can not please all of the people all of the time.

Sometimes, general measures are for the good of the majority and will catch out some innocent individuals. Does that mean the general measures should not be put in place? Perfection is harder and may take some time!

We were drowning in spam. The spam in cyrillic has stopped. That does not mean that everybody in Russia is a spammer. The spam where users said they lived in South America and lead to Polish websites has stopped. Not everybody in Poland is a spammer ...Is bremenpl still with us?

On balance are people happy or unhappy with direction of the changes?

[confuseling]

...
What is the output of "date -u +%V$(uname)|sha256sum|sed 's/\W//g'"?(Required)

Code: Select all

$ date -u +%V$(uname)|sha256sum|sed 's/\W//g'
a114e11267c9a4f5cae4223c8ba5a5b6ffbf3d9c2c7f08736946618924f3484d

.
which perhaps requires a little more human intervention and could also be considered.

If you don't want any more of those pesky "I'm having trouble getting Debian to work" posts...

[kedaha]

On balance are people happy or unhappy with direction of the changes?

Happy. Thanks for adopting measures against the deluge.

...
What is the output of "date -u +%V$(uname)|sha256sum|sed 's/\W//g'"?(Required)
...
which perhaps requires a little more human intervention and could also be considered.

If you don't want any more of those pesky "I'm having trouble getting Debian to work" posts...

yes, there have been quite a few. No trouble getting it to work in ubunto or Windows though.