Topic: Anti-SPAM by Cleantalk installed

[Dungeon Master]

As a measure to safeguard the forum against bots and SPAM, I have installed a mod called Anti-SPAM by CLeantalk. This is a highly-respected anti-spam facility that filters out new users and spam posts by existing users. It uses a large variety of checks, including keywords and IP address databases.

No anti-SPAM system has 100% accuracy, so if you find you are having trouble posting, please let me know below.

[Ken B]

As a measure to safeguard the forum against bots and SPAM, I have installed a mod called Anti-SPAM by CLeantalk. This is a highly-respected anti-spam facility that filters out new users and spam posts by existing users. It uses a large variety of checks, including keywords and IP address databases.

No anti-SPAM system has 100% accuracy, so if you find you are having trouble posting, please let me know below.

I for one will miss Andrei's posts.

[k a rl h e nn i ng]

Thanks, Rob!

[Brewski]

Thanks so much, Rob! Couldn't log on earlier, but now running fine again. (Still see 30+ pages of "guests," presumably of the non-human variety, but it appears their efforts have been stymied.)

--Bruce

[Christo]

I for one will miss Andrei's posts.

Am I missing something?

[Brian]

Agree, the forum is running much more cleanly now - I guess we were getting spammed to oblivion. Thanks Rob!

[71 dB]

Am I missing something?

Yes, sense of humor. 

[Gurn Blanston]

Yes, sense of humor. 

[Christo]

If the bots can only be satisfied by sacrifying Andrei, I agree we must be prepared to bring that sacrifice. 

[Cato]

Sorry!  For me it is back to error messages and taking 3-5 minutes to load a page!

[Ken B]

Sorry!  For me it is back to error messages and taking 3-5 minutes to load a page!

It has been slow for me for a day. Okay now but very slow the past 24 hours.

[k a rl h e nn i ng]

Yes, sense of humor. 

Be fair: your sense of humor is dormant unless you aren't the butt.

[71 dB]

Be fair: your sense of humor is dormant unless you aren't the butt.

Better understanding of US politics has taxed my sense of humor... 

[JBS]

Better understanding of US politics has taxed my sense of humor... 

But only Republicans complain about too much taxes!

 

[Que]

Better understanding of US politics has taxed my sense of humor... 

Now, there a thought ..... perhaps Rob's new contraption could automatically weed out any post on Trump?   

Q

[Madiel]

I got a 403 access forbidden error last night while trying to quote and reply to a post. This was a curious new development.

The only notable things about the post were that it quoted a previous post and it had italics in it. I don't know whether that or something else triggered the anti-spam software?

[Madiel]

Also, I note that my Firefox browser comes up with 2 little logos on every page.

One is "tracking attempts blocked", which suggests that the anti-spam is doing something here. I don't know what Firefox is trying to "track" but I certainly haven't changed any of the default settings, which suggests that if my Firefox browser is trying to "track" something, so is everyone else's Firefox browser.

The other thing is note that parts of the page aren't secure, such as images. This is probably unavoidable and probably also not new. It's the tracking bit that I'm pretty sure is new.

[J.A.W.]

Also, I note that my Firefox browser comes up with 2 little logos on every page.

One is "tracking attempts blocked", which suggests that the anti-spam is doing something here. I don't know what Firefox is trying to "track" but I certainly haven't changed any of the default settings, which suggests that if my Firefox browser is trying to "track" something, so is everyone else's Firefox browser.

The other thing is note that parts of the page aren't secure, such as images. This is probably unavoidable and probably also not new. It's the tracking bit that I'm pretty sure is new.

I usually use MS Edge, but tried this page on Firefox (version 69) and got the same "Tracking attempts blocked" logo. No logo on Edge or Chrome.

[JBS]

I got a 403 access forbidden error last night while trying to quote and reply to a post. This was a curious new development.

The only notable things about the post were that it quoted a previous post and it had italics in it. I don't know whether that or something else triggered the anti-spam software?

Experiment...I'm quoting a post with italics in it.

Edit...no problem posting. I can say that pages are loading slowly this evening (US East Coast time), but were loading very quickly a few hours ago.

[Ken B]

Now, there a thought ..... perhaps Rob's new contraption could automatically weed out any post on Trump?   

Q

You know, it’s a puzzle why a classical chat group would get a bot army riled up. But there really are a lot of Trump posts. I wonder now that you mention it if that caught the attention of some bot that then decided this was a political site.