Spam

[Mark Thomas]

You may have noticed a number of spamming posts this week. They have all been harmless, have been removed and the poster deleted. As a safety measure, though, you should not click on any links in these posts and also please click the "Report to Moderator" button as soon as you spot one, so that I can deal with it straight away.

Up to now, the defences of this iteration of the Forum have been very effective. Obviously, though, I need now see what additional security measures I can put in place to deter hackers and spammers and I will do that as a matter of urgency.

[JimL]

♪♪♪♪Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam, Lovely Spam!  Wonderful Spam!♫♫

[Mark Thomas]

Thank you, Jim. Maybe while you are singing away to yourself you might like to reflect on the amount of effort that has to go into moderating and administering even a small forum like this, keeping it spam and hacker free?

[JimL]

Sorry, Mark.  Thought you'd appreciate a little Monty Python.  Spam I don't worry about nearly as much as I do hackers.

[Mark Thomas]

I have now strengthened our defences against hackers and spammers. Fingers crossed that the recent spat of spam posts is now at an end.

[Mark Thomas]

As part of our anti-spam defences, I have added a requirement for new members to require moderator approval for their first four posts. Obviously this should only affect members who have not yet achieved that number, but if anybody else experiences problems please do let Alan or I know straight away.

[petershott@btinternet.com]

That looks a very good idea. I do regret you have to spend valuable time in propping up the site to protect it from this constant menace. We are all very much in your debt, for a world without an Unsung site would be a impoverished one.

But, tee hee, pity the potential new member who devotes his first posting to the joys of listening to Birtwistle! (Excuse the frivolity!)

Peter

[Mark Thomas]

Hmmm... hadn't thought of that. The ultimate sanction: First post must be in praise of Raff!

[eschiss1]

Hmmm... hadn't thought of that. The ultimate sanction: First post must be in praise of Raff!

Raffi? ... Raffish behavior?...

[albion]

I'd like to welcome our latest member, Coach Bags Outlet, and am greatly looking forward to the erudition which may be coming our way - any relation of the fondly-remembered Juicy Couture? 

[eschiss1]

I'd like to welcome our latest member, Coach Bags Outlet, and am greatly looking forward to the erudition which may be coming our way - any relation of the fondly-remembered Juicy Couture? 

Well, remember the service we provide by providing them this outlet for that first-class if baggy erudition.

[albion]

Hallelujah! Our latest member agogo_2009 has come in answer to my prayers, with a signature including (you guessed it) juicycouture! 

Perhaps the registration process should be altered so that new members have to answer five unsung-composer brain-teasers (e.g. Which unsung composer's name rhymes with something you do when you hear a really good joke?) 

[Mark Thomas]

Yes, there does seem  be a hitherto unknown link between unjustly neglected romantic composers and the leather goods trade! Maybe  I should set up a separate section of the Forum for shoe and handbag fanciers? Perhaps that might attract people with altogether more unsavoury appetites...

Seriously, though, the recent update introduced more safeguards against spamming posts and, fingers crossed, we haven't had any actual posts for several weeks. I trawl the new members a couple of times each day and cull those who are obviously spammers or who appear to be genuine, but who have visited only once. There are quite a few registered members who lurk, and that's fine. New members have to pass a "Capcha" filter and answer three simple questions to register. Why simple? Well, we have people here whose first language isn't English and I wouldn't want someone with a valuable contribution to make to be debarred because their English isn't 100%. One of the questions was originally "What's Beethoven's first name?" - easy enough, and relevant, but then the answer has to be either "Ludwig" or "ludwig" ad it's no good specifying in the question that the answer must be in, say, lower case because that falls foul of the need for simple language. So the answers need to be simple too. The first two posts of any new member require approval of either Alan or I, though.

What I've settled for for now is that our defences (keep those fingers crossed) are good enough to prevent spam posts, which means that members aren't inconvenienced with all that Gucci talk. Alan or I cull any rogue members periodically, but they're no threat to the board whilst we get around to chopping them.

I understand that there's a modification of the board which requires a response email from the registrant to validate their registration but as spammers are capable of generating hundreds of thousands of genuine Gmail or Hotmail addresses, that's generally felt to be not much of a deterrent. The next step, which I am personally loath to take, appears to be for a registration only to be valid after it is personally reviewed by Alan or I and you'll understand that that's unattractive because it means that we have to be around and be capable of approving registrations pretty much 24/7.

[Mark Thomas]

You may be interested to know that we are currently getting two or three attempts to post spam each day, all of which have so far been stopped by the new policy of requiring moderator approval for the first post of new members. In addition to the two or three new registrations which result in spam, we are often getting a further half a dozen spurious member registrations daily which are unable to post a spam message. You may see these names appear and then disappear within a few hours in the "Latest Member" line at the bottom of the home page.

We aren't alone. Apparently, as ISPs and users get more vigilant at spam prevention, the spammers have turned to message boards and blogs, where generally defences are lower.

Hopefully, Dante's Inferno has kept up with the times and a tenth circle of hell is now reserved for spammers and hackers. I'm all ready to stoke the fires 

[eschiss1]

Probably an 11th circle- the 10th was already reported on in an article in The Onion awhile back and is probably overflowing by now... (what's that you say?)... anyway, good point.