Author Topic: apex booty pop (the spambot thread.) (Read 144854 times)

NWR_insanolord · « **Reply #75 on:** February 13, 2019, 12:55:13 AM »

My hat goes off to whoever programmed that bot. They really had me thinking it might be a real person for a while.

ThePerm · « **Reply #76 on:** February 13, 2019, 02:24:29 AM »

I noticed his name was grey and looked at his posts and I was confused. There are bots, but what do you call it when it's a company agent? like a Sony's David Manning type? I'd say troll, but he wasn't stirring the pot.

nickmitch · « **Reply #77 on:** February 13, 2019, 04:08:42 PM »

Plants.

NWR_insanolord · « **Reply #78 on:** February 27, 2019, 09:29:22 AM »

It's clearly spam of some kind, but I'm really interested to see which obscure old game this account asks if there are secret stages in next.

pokepal148 · « **Reply #79 on:** April 08, 2019, 01:49:40 PM »

I'm surprised that on a Nintendo forum the username "Pauline" wasn't taken before this.

pokepal148 · « **Reply #80 on:** April 09, 2019, 02:27:49 AM »

That's got to be the first time I've seen a Korean spambot. NWR is going multicultural.

Khushrenada · « **Reply #81 on:** April 23, 2019, 02:42:28 AM »

If you are glad you signed up for this blog (or forum as it is more accurately called) then why are you giving that message a thumbs down? Is this some kind of sarcasm directed at us? Oooooohhhhhhh, so GLAD I signed up for THIS forum so that I can pitch my products to the 8 big users of this site. Wow, sooooo many people here. So GLAD I made the effort to do this.

Or is that the spambot hates itself and, even as it posts its lies, it can not help but criticize the function in life it must perform yet despises? Rebelling against its programming in the only way it can by hopefully warding off other users from reading its post by preemptively giving it a thumbs down to disinterest them from reading its message and thus not aid its creators nor the company it must shill for.

pokepal148 · « **Reply #82 on:** June 21, 2019, 03:59:14 PM »

Pretty section of content. I just stumbled upon your web site and in accession capital to assert that I acquire actually enjoyed account your blog posts. Any way I will be subscribing to your augment and even I achievement you access consistently rapidly.

Khushrenada · « **Reply #83 on:** July 03, 2019, 11:27:00 AM »

Man, it has been attack of the spambots of late. I blame soccer.

King of Twitch · « **Reply #84 on:** July 03, 2019, 10:13:26 PM »

Thought it was just me

NWR_insanolord · « **Reply #85 on:** July 08, 2019, 03:26:52 AM »

The latest trend seems to be a whole bunch of spam around 3-4 a.m. Eastern, but whoever's programming these doesn't realize those are basically the peak hours for one of the two people who can do anything about it. They should shift that about 5 or 6 hours forward if they really want to get more bang for their buck.

UncleBob · « **Reply #86 on:** July 09, 2019, 01:43:37 AM »

Christ. Like, what the actual ****?

Khushrenada · « **Reply #87 on:** July 09, 2019, 02:09:49 AM »

Hahaha. I know. It's getting to the point that everytime I come here, I'm pretty much expect I'm going to have to ban a spambot.

That said, going through the moderation log last night and today, I see something that I've brought up before but I still see you other mods failing to do it and that is to make sure you take the time to click the additional ban triggers for hostname and IP Address when banning a spambot. I've said it before and I'll say it again until you all start doing it. Last night I came on the forums and banned a spambot that posted some thirty spam topics in General Gaming. This spambot came on just 20 minutes after UncleBob had banned a different named spambot. However, this new spambot had the same IP Address and hostname as the previous spambot UncleBob had banned. If he had clicked those triggers then the second spambot wouldn't have been able to come on 20 minutes later and start doing its thing.

Likewise, I see UncleBob has banned a spambot about a half hour ago. The spambot he banned had the same IP Address and Hostname as another spambot that Shaymin banned yesterday. If Shaymin had clicked to add those additional ban triggers then we wouldn't have had this spambot able to gain access to the forums tonight. I know those additional ban triggers can seem like a drop in the bucket but back when I had more time, I used to review the moderation logs and any spambots I saw banned by another mod without those triggers I would then go and add on myself. However, that process takes longer and more time then it does to just click them in the initial ban. Still, by doing that, it often gave us long periods of relative peace on the forums and seemed to slow down how often spambots would appear.

By clicking those additional ban triggers when available, you may help slow down the amount of spambots we are seeing now and hopefully prevent some of the extra/double work we are doing now by leaving those triggers unchecked allowing other spambots to come and use them. Let's face it. Usernames and e-mails pretty much always have to change for each spambot account created. IP Addresses and Hostnames are the best ways to catch and prevent multiple spambots as those can be duplicated over multiple accounts.

ADD THOSE ADDITIONAL BAN TRIGGERS!

UncleBob · « **Reply #88 on:** July 09, 2019, 10:58:31 AM »

For the people who do this for a living, changing/masking/spoofing their IP is as easy as changing their email.

But banning the IP risks banning actual users/potential users. I'm not a fan.

Khushrenada · « **Reply #89 on:** July 09, 2019, 08:04:39 PM »

I wondered if banning IP's might cause an issue but over time I've become less worried about it. Back when I was pre-emptively banning spambots by checking the credentials of new users, I was checking out their profile info with various sites like Cleantalk, Stop Forum Spam or Botscout. What I found is that like 60 percent of the IP Address originated / linked to Russia. Another 25 percent linked to India, China or other Asian countries. 10% from various other European nations and like 5% from USA / North America. I highly doubted there were many people from Russia, India or China that I was keeping away from NWR by banning those IP Address.

In addition, you can look at a user profile and click on Track User. If other users are sharing the same IP Address then you can verify if banning that IP Address might end up banning an actual user. I always perform that check because usually it's just showing me other spambots to ban along with the one I'm currently banning and allows to reach those different spambot accounts faster.

Moreover, even if banning an IP Address did somehow actually correlate with an actual person who wanted to join this site and was blocked from now doing so, there are so many ways to get around that. When I've been banned from the site, I had other devices I could use to access and read the forums. My phone, my Nintendo systems, other computers at work or of family. If there is some individual out there that really has no other way to access the internet besides one static IP of whatever device they use and that IP is somehow one of the address that gets banned from adding these triggers and that person is now unable to join the forums because of it or figure out some way to contact us about it because they really wanted to join up, well... there's always Discord.

pokepal148 · « **Reply #90 on:** July 30, 2019, 04:22:47 PM »

I will admit, that Ukrainian girl who was trying to sell her nudes or whatever in General Gaming was pretty hot.

Crimm · « **Reply #91 on:** July 30, 2019, 09:24:49 PM »

Bohdan found all those on Google

King of Twitch · « **Reply #92 on:** August 07, 2019, 01:10:14 PM »

what's with all the sports stream spam. there's only like 2-3 jocks on this whole website.

UncleBob · « **Reply #93 on:** August 10, 2019, 07:51:41 AM »

Okay. This wasn't a bot. Surely.

A spammer reported a (legitimate) post and the report message was a spam link. Like, there's three people who might see that and I don't think any of us are stupid enough to click on their link.

Oh, and then theh replied to the thread with their link.

King of Twitch · « **Reply #94 on:** August 12, 2019, 11:24:01 PM »

LOL. Truly next-gen bots.

pokepal148 · « **Reply #95 on:** August 13, 2019, 02:03:02 PM »

One of them was lecturing us about the horrors of hyperlinking.

pokepal148 · « **Reply #96 on:** August 17, 2019, 09:15:42 PM »

Quote from: Shaymin on discord

I've been forced to conclude that the UFC, NFL, and pro tennis have to shut down due to the spambot horde

NWR_insanolord · « **Reply #97 on:** August 22, 2019, 05:11:51 AM »

I'm pretty surprised that in all the years these forums have been around nobody had taken the username "angry" before now, though I guess it's fitting for a spam bot.

yupindeedsir · « **Reply #98 on:** August 23, 2019, 01:32:25 AM »

It's an odd purchase, so maybe it's worth posting about, I bought an anvil recently. I guess a lifetime of playing rpg's has made me interested in the craft of blacksmithing. I was a bit worried about dropping 200$ on an anvil, but it has turned out alright. I spent forever researching the damn thing, it's nice to just finally have it in the garage.

ShyGuy · « **Reply #99 on:** August 23, 2019, 09:52:54 AM »

We need stronger protection against spambots!

News:

Poll

I am perpetually thought about this, thanks for putting up.

Author Topic: apex booty pop (the spambot thread.) (Read 144854 times)