CaptainPanic Posted January 14, 2011 Share Posted January 14, 2011 Recently, a new type of posts has appeared on our forum. People who sign up for the forum, and then write a post which contains nearly no information. I have seen enough to say that it's a trend (although I did no statistical analysis to prove that it's actually a trend). Typical posts are: By a member who has a total post count of 2: Yes, you are right, i agree with you... By a member who only wrote this, and never returned to our forum: great post i like it most What's the point of this? Are these spam posts in which the mods have just deleted a URL (if so, why not the whole post)? Am I missing the purpose of this spam? Or are these just Chinese / Indian kids of 10 years old who got an assignment from their English teacher to post an English sentence online? Any thoughts? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
imatfaal Posted January 14, 2011 Share Posted January 14, 2011 yes great post, i agree with you most Toe-dipping into water, first attempts at acceptance by a potential new peer group, tentative assays at a foreign lingo - probably a bit of all three? I suppose a fair amount of the time the content on SFN turns out to be too involved and too serious for many people who just want a place to chat that isn't sports/religion/fiction based; thus they come, they post once or twice, and they leave for pastures new. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spyman Posted January 14, 2011 Share Posted January 14, 2011 I have noticed this on another forum and suspect it is spammers or their bots testing/probing out the cite in question. At one particular forum in my home country it was evident that the posters didn't understand the language and several of those I found seemed to be exactly identical or duplicates of other posts in the thread or from other threads. That forum is now heavily attacked by foreign spammers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
D H Posted January 14, 2011 Share Posted January 14, 2011 Excellent posts! I agree with all of you! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
swansont Posted January 14, 2011 Share Posted January 14, 2011 I check them out when I see them. Sometimes there is a link in the profile, and occasionally there is a link in the post, with the color matched to the background. Sometimes it's a setup for coming back later and inserting a link where the post won't raise attention — they aren't soliciting us so much as trying to raise their search-engine rank. That doesn't work because the ability to edit sunsets after a short time. If it's identifiably nefarious (i.e. breaks the spam/advertisement rules), the users are banned as spammers as a matter of policy. If it doesn't break any rules, nothing happens; it's not incumbent on me to try and guess the motive of the poster. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mississippichem Posted January 14, 2011 Share Posted January 14, 2011 Very that good is. I agreeing mostly though you. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
imatfaal Posted January 14, 2011 Share Posted January 14, 2011 I check them out when I see them. Sometimes there is a link in the profile, and occasionally there is a link in the post, with the color matched to the background. Sometimes it's a setup for coming back later and inserting a link where the post won't raise attention — they aren't soliciting us so much as trying to raise their search-engine rank. That doesn't work because the ability to edit sunsets after a short time. ... Damn! I knew the mods here were acknowledged experts in their field and fairly powerful and active on the forums; but you can command whether the sun rises or sets! That's positively godlike - no wonder you get stars below your name. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CaptainPanic Posted January 14, 2011 Author Share Posted January 14, 2011 If it doesn't break any rules, nothing happens; it's not incumbent on me to try and guess the motive of the poster. Your sig says "Stop failing the Turing test!"... but I've seen cases where these spam bots (if they are spam bots) get a reply from a genuine human. They're listening to you. Are you not only a SFN mod, but also the spam bot overlord? 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr Skeptic Posted January 14, 2011 Share Posted January 14, 2011 Your sig says "Stop failing the Turing test!"... but I've seen cases where these spam bots (if they are spam bots) get a reply from a genuine human. They're listening to you. Are you not only a SFN mod, but also the spam bot overlord? http://xkcd.com/810/ As always with xkcd, you should read the comment on mouseover of the image (on their site). 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
swansont Posted January 14, 2011 Share Posted January 14, 2011 Your sig says "Stop failing the Turing test!"... but I've seen cases where these spam bots (if they are spam bots) get a reply from a genuine human. They're listening to you. Are you not only a SFN mod, but also the spam bot overlord? I'm not empowered to ban someone based on their comment being nebulous. I don't have any problems that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnB Posted January 14, 2011 Share Posted January 14, 2011 Not godlike imatfaal. He doesn't command the sun to rise and set, he just edits the sunsets, a much less powerful position. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cap'n Refsmmat Posted January 14, 2011 Share Posted January 14, 2011 Back when we used vBulletin, we had devious types who would register, make an innocuous post, wait several weeks, and then add a signature to their posts with a link in it. I had to write a script to look for links in new member signatures so I could ban them easily. Hence new members now can't have a signature until they have 10 posts. With spammers, sockpuppets, and ban-evaders, you can see why I'm always suspicious of new members... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
swansont Posted January 14, 2011 Share Posted January 14, 2011 With spammers, sockpuppets, and ban-evaders, you can see why I'm always suspicious of new members... The 600 series have rubber skin. They're easy to spot. But the newer ones sweat, have bad breath, everything. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moontanman Posted January 14, 2011 Share Posted January 14, 2011 (edited) Not godlike imatfaal. He doesn't command the sun to rise and set, he just edits the sunsets, a much less powerful position. Only a bush league god then? About a year ago i checked out yahoo chat, I spent some time lurking to see how the bots work, bots out number humans 10 to one at least. In some cases the bots will respond to anyone who posts with a limited number of responses. In some cases the bots will make a statement every couple of minutes, this often results in a string of bots replying to other bots. The resulting "conversations" often even make a strange kind sense. Some bots will respond to certain key words like "human" or "real" and proclaim themselves to be real humans. It's eerie to watch... Edited January 14, 2011 by Moontanman Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skyhook Posted January 15, 2011 Share Posted January 15, 2011 (edited) These spams and bots are getting more advance, got fooled by them. How did they evade the Captcha ? I've been suspicious of such posts too, and avoided replying to those that have a link. Edited January 15, 2011 by skyhook Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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