Mahz's Dev Journal

[Lmpkio]

<Snipped quote by Lmpkio>

<Snipped quote by Lmpkio>

The number of mods wont matter. The worse I have ever seen was a site that created a new account every minute. No human can keep up with that. What you have to remember is these are bots, not people. They follow a random program to create accounts and post up links. I think you might be mixed up on what's happening.

Easiest way to explain what is going on is if we think of a Guy that hires a bunch of kids every night to egg a house. You can stop one lot but the next night a new lot will come by. You can scream at the kids but the Guy is just sitting at home watching TV.

@NuttsnBolts

*Sigh* So what is your suggestion? If the reCAPTCHA tests do not work, if having more mods not solve it, WHAT DOES? Surely the answer shouldn't be nothing. I mean, who really wants to deal with this EVERY SINGLE DAY/NIGHT? There has to be some kind of solution...

Edit: And like Legend said... reCAPTCHA tests are supposed to block bots from getting in. The only way these spam bots could've possibly get in, is via someone logging them inside.

[NuttsnBolts]

<Snipped quote by NuttsnBolts>

Without significant technological prowess, it would not be simple to bypass Google's Captcha service.

@LegendBegins

Agreed, but there are back door ways to get around such issues.

I remember a couple years back vBulliten forums had a serious security issue when it was discovered that a bot could create an account and trick the site into giving it Admin privileges. I remember because a few sites I were signed up to suddenly had new admins and no one knew who they were.

[NuttsnBolts]

<Snipped quote by NuttsnBolts>

*Sigh* So what is your suggestion? If the reCAPTCHA tests do not work, if having more mods not solve it, WHAT DOES? Surely the answer shouldn't be nothing. I mean, who really wants to deal with this EVERY SINGLE DAY/NIGHT? There has to be some kind of solution...

Edit: And like Legend said... reCAPTCHA tests are supposed to block bots from getting in. The only way these spam bots could've possibly get in, is via someone logging them inside.

@Lmpkio

I don't have a suggestion unfortunately. Security isn't my speciality so I can't comment on what would be the best outcome.

Spam is really treated like a virus or bacteria. You always need better meds as years go on because the old ones will become obsolete. The system we had in place worked for a while so it did SOMETHING, but the bots found a way around it and that hole now needs to be plugged.

[Lmpkio]

<Snipped quote by Lmpkio>

I don't have a suggestion unfortunately. Security isn't my speciality so I can't comment on what would be the best outcome.

Spam is really treated like a virus or bacteria. You always need better meds as years go on because the old ones will become obsolete. The system we had in place worked for a while so it did SOMETHING, but the bots found a way around it and that hole now needs to be plugged.

@NuttsnBolts

I guess Mahz needs to find even better security measures to fix this problem.

Also that Bot-Admin thing sounds scary as fuck...

Regardless, this was a good conversation. :)

[SilverRain]

Something I noticed when I searched for the spambots:

* With tytyu97, the user is already appearing at the top of Google's search results. I never knew Google would be so fast with their indexing.

* Tytyu97 also seems to be attacking other forums, though we can't see its posts.

* The English-styled names such as standingkoo are marked as spambots by stopforumspam.

* I don't know any of this will help, but just thought I'd post it anyway in case helps in any sleuthing/countermeasures.

[Lmpkio]

Also... I just want to say one last thing: Is @mahz or any of the other moderators: @Kangaroo, @Sherlock Holmes, or @Hank taking any look at our conversation? I mean, it may not be anything really, but an official report from one of you guys on the situation will at least answer some of the questions and what's being planned (hopefully) for this? Anyways, I'm done with my ramble, just wanted to get this to your guys attention.

Please respond if you can. Not just for me, but for the whole guild.

(Now I'm done)

[SilverRain]

Please respond if you can. Not just for me, but for the whole guild.

Lmpkio

Oh Emm Gee... My boss said those exact same words to me (with guild replaced by company).

Um... is it you? Are they any slides you want me to take out?

[Lmpkio]

<Snipped quote by Lmpkio>

Oh Emm Gee... My boss said those exact same words to me (with guild replaced by company).

Um... is it you? Are they any slides you want me to take out?

@SilverRain

Indeed I am young lady!

. . .

Just kidding. Not sure who you meant by that, but I am certainly not that said boss lol. I just simply want Mahz and the others to take a look and update us all on the situation at hand.

Speaking of jobs, mind if I ask what job you happen to take?

[SilverRain]

<Snipped quote by SilverRain>

Indeed I am young lady!

. . .

Just kidding. Not sure who you meant by that, but I am certainly not that said boss lol. I just simply want Mahz and the others to take a look and update us all on the situation at hand.

Speaking of jobs, mind if I ask what job you happen to take?

@Lmpkio

Phew... I was staring at that line for a good while, panicking the whole time. :)

I'm in tech support, but if my boss heard that I'm working on PowerPoint slides, he'll definitely ask why. So yep, I'm safe. :P

But damn, if my boss was here and seeing all my fancies with anime and my post history, he'll definitely look at me weird. There's so much in my online life that I can't let my boss/colleagues know. So relieved...

*goes to watch anime to erase boss from mind*

[Lmpkio]

<Snipped quote by Lmpkio>

Phew... I was staring at that line for a good while, panicking the whole time. :)

I'm in tech support, but if my boss heard that I'm working on PowerPoint slides, he'll definitely ask why. So yep, I'm safe. :P

But damn, if my boss was here and seeing all my fancies with anime and my post history, he'll definitely look at me weird. There's so much in my online life that I can't let my boss/colleagues know. So relieved...

*goes to watch anime to erase boss from mind*

@SilverRain

Lol and it would also be weird to see your boss actually RP too.

And cool :)

[SilverRain]

<Snipped quote by SilverRain>

Lol and it would also be weird to see your boss actually RP too.

And cool :)

@Lmpkio

Yeah, it would make a good talking point. :)

[NuttsnBolts]

Jesus christ! That's a lot of spam!

[Orlan]

From what I've bothered to see the thing's been on for about five hours, spamming something that cannot be understood by some... Brilliant advertising there... Excluding some of your potential customer base if it isn't just some guff.

[Hank]

Also... I just want to say one last thing: Is @mahz or any of the other moderators: @Kangaroo, @Sherlock Holmes, or @Hank taking any look at our conversation? I mean, it may not be anything really, but an official report from one of you guys on the situation will at least answer some of the questions and what's being planned (hopefully) for this? Anyways, I'm done with my ramble, just wanted to get this to your guys attention.

Please respond if you can. Not just for me, but for the whole guild.

(Now I'm done)

@Lmpkio

We (the moderators) have tossed around ideas but the only one who can implement them is @Mahz himself. All we can do is wait on him. The Guild is a hobby of his, not his job, and he'll get to it whenever he has time.

[Lmpkio]

@Hank Thanks for listening in though. If you guys can talk to Mahz about it, that'll be great. Again, thank you. *thumbs up*

[ClocktowerEchos]

Also that Bot-Admin thing sounds scary as fuck...

@Lmpkio

What if they're already amongst us?

What if they've already taken over some of the mod accounts?

What if they've actually taken over the Lord Admin's account?

-puts on tinfoil hat-

[Lmpkio]

@ClocktowerEchos And so the conspiracy continues... XD

[WardenCelestine]

More Bots, wonder how this is going to play out.

[Mateotis]

Since when does the Guild use CloudFlare? Was just redirected to their error page, then their cached version of the site. I don't recall seeing it before, although the Guild has already had its fair share of outages.

[LegendBegins]

Since when does the Guild use CloudFlare? Was just redirected to their error page, then their cached version of the site. I don't recall seeing it before, although the Guild has already had its fair share of outages.

@Mateotis

That has been there for over a year.