Anastasios
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Faith: Eastern Orthodox
Jurisdiction: Greek Old Calendarist
Posts: 10,431
Metropolitan Chrysostomos of Florina
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« on: June 09, 2011, 06:32:08 PM » |
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Due to spambots "mutating" and learning how to defeat our preventative measures at registration, and due to the forum software developers not keeping up with this (something OCNet has no control over), I have had to implement administrator approval of new members, a step I never wanted to implement due to the overhead management. But we have to protect members from being exposed to inappropriate conduct.
In Christ,
Fr. Anastasios
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« Last Edit: June 09, 2011, 06:34:06 PM by Fr. Anastasios »
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Check out my personal website with 130+ articles: www.anastasioshudson.comDisclaimer: Past posts reflect stages of my life before my baptism may not be accurate expositions of Orthodox teaching. I served as an Orthodox priest from June 2008 to April 2013, before resigning for personal reasons |
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Maria
Orthodox Christian
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O most Holy Theotokos, save us.
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« Reply #1 on: June 10, 2011, 12:25:20 AM » |
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Thank you. That is going to be a lot of work. Especially if you have to sort through 20 applications per day or more. Would the use of member recommendations or member referrals help you in determining which ones are spambots? In another forum, when I served as an Admin, we implemented moderation for the first 10 posts for non-referred members. We also asked them to list their baptismal name or patron saint. Usually the spambots had no clue and would use the default, so they were banned.  |
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« Last Edit: June 10, 2011, 12:30:07 AM by Maria »
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Glory to Jesus Christ!
Glory to Him forever!
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Michał Kalina
proud Podlachian Belarusian parajournalistic engineer in spe
Section Moderator
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OC.net's trickster
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« Reply #3 on: June 10, 2011, 02:15:19 AM » |
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That is going to be a lot of work.
Especially if you have to sort through 20 applications per day or more. There are 1.76 average registrations daily. |
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formerly known as mikeDespite being a Polish citizen I am not a Pole.  Long live Belarus! "It's my constitutional right!" |
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Anastasios
Webdespota
Administrator
Stratopedarches
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Faith: Eastern Orthodox
Jurisdiction: Greek Old Calendarist
Posts: 10,431
Metropolitan Chrysostomos of Florina
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« Reply #4 on: June 10, 2011, 12:19:36 PM » |
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Since yesterday, there were 33 registrations. Some spammer must have figured out a new trick.  I would like to require faith and jurisdiction to be filled in. That would weed out a lot. The current software doesn't appear to support making a custom field mandatory, though. We'll see what I can do. |
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« Last Edit: June 10, 2011, 12:21:13 PM by Fr. Anastasios »
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Check out my personal website with 130+ articles: www.anastasioshudson.comDisclaimer: Past posts reflect stages of my life before my baptism may not be accurate expositions of Orthodox teaching. I served as an Orthodox priest from June 2008 to April 2013, before resigning for personal reasons |
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Gamliel
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« Reply #5 on: June 10, 2011, 12:22:22 PM » |
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Too bad some people don't have better things to do than to create viruses, spam, and worms.
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That person
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Long live Commie Superman
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« Reply #6 on: June 10, 2011, 12:55:56 PM » |
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Best of luck to the administration and to any new members coming with good intentions. Some of the material coming from the spambots is pretty awful, so I can see why you took this step.
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"Some have such command of their bowels, that they can break wind continuously at pleasure, so as to produce the effect of singing."- St. Augustine of Hippo
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Maria
Orthodox Christian
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Posts: 3,587
O most Holy Theotokos, save us.
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« Reply #7 on: June 10, 2011, 01:14:06 PM » |
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Since yesterday, there were 33 registrations. Some spammer must have figured out a new trick. I would like to require faith and jurisdiction to be filled in. That would weed out a lot. The current software doesn't appear to support making a custom field mandatory, though. We'll see what I can do. Some spambots are real persons in Third World countries who are paid per post and who work in sweat shops. When these normal humans reach 10 posts or whatever the board has set to send private messages, then they spam everyone with PMs. They must have spent hours sending individual PMs to members and mods alike. I was the recipient of several spambot PMs. One spambot sent out more than 100 PMs before they were caught when members reported them. However, they all posted from the same IP address, so a check revealed that there were 25 spambots using the same IP. Thus they avoid detection in their initial 10 post moderation which other boards have implemented. Those PMs could be Nigerian scams, drug advertisements, cosmetics, or clothing stores selling supposedly Indian or Pakistani apparel (American style skirts and dresses). |
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« Last Edit: June 10, 2011, 01:27:30 PM by Maria »
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Glory to Jesus Christ!
Glory to Him forever!
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Anastasios
Webdespota
Administrator
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Faith: Eastern Orthodox
Jurisdiction: Greek Old Calendarist
Posts: 10,431
Metropolitan Chrysostomos of Florina
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« Reply #8 on: June 10, 2011, 01:17:32 PM » |
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Thanks for mentioning that, Maria. I have the ability to ban by IP address if I notice a large number coming from the same IP.
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Check out my personal website with 130+ articles: www.anastasioshudson.comDisclaimer: Past posts reflect stages of my life before my baptism may not be accurate expositions of Orthodox teaching. I served as an Orthodox priest from June 2008 to April 2013, before resigning for personal reasons |
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wayseer
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Posts: 103
- a student
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« Reply #9 on: June 13, 2011, 06:42:56 AM » |
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I would like to acknowledge my gratitude to you as admin for the work you do. I understand it is not easy yet we get to enjoy the site and what it offers.
Lord, in your mercy protect this site.
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Not all those who wander are lost.
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vamrat
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« Reply #10 on: June 13, 2011, 09:32:04 AM » |
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Thanks for mentioning that, Maria. I have the ability to ban by IP address if I notice a large number coming from the same IP.
Ha, that's the difference between real people and machines! The spambots come at you a dozen on the same IP address, I probably have three or more IP addresses on here from different computers! |
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It is an education process for me as I learn about the psychology of spiritual apostasy. And others get the benefit of perhaps hearing righteousness for the first time.
Blessed are the Peacemakers, for they shall be called the sons of God.
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Anastasios
Webdespota
Administrator
Stratopedarches
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Faith: Eastern Orthodox
Jurisdiction: Greek Old Calendarist
Posts: 10,431
Metropolitan Chrysostomos of Florina
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« Reply #11 on: June 13, 2011, 08:38:54 PM » |
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I would like to acknowledge my gratitude to you as admin for the work you do. I understand it is not easy yet we get to enjoy the site and what it offers.
Lord, in your mercy protect this site.
Thanks so much for your kind words. It really means a lot to me, and the rest of the team. It's hard to believe we've been going at it for 9 years strong now. |
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Check out my personal website with 130+ articles: www.anastasioshudson.comDisclaimer: Past posts reflect stages of my life before my baptism may not be accurate expositions of Orthodox teaching. I served as an Orthodox priest from June 2008 to April 2013, before resigning for personal reasons |
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Tallitot
OC.net guru
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« Reply #12 on: June 13, 2011, 09:51:15 PM » |
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Since yesterday, there were 33 registrations. Some spammer must have figured out a new trick. I would like to require faith and jurisdiction to be filled in. That would weed out a lot. The current software doesn't appear to support making a custom field mandatory, though. We'll see what I can do. I think that would be great, not only in terms of weeding out spam, but also helping the flow of conversation. It's difficult enough to guage some posts w/o the nuance of voice, facial expression and body language; the more you know about the poster the better to avoid misunderstandings. A coupke of times I've been surprised to find out a poster was a guy that I thought was a girl and vice-versa! |
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If people cry at weddings...why don't they laugh at funerals?
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