For New Members - PLEASE READ

[ConchRepublican]

Due to a high incidence of spam posts after our site upgrade, we have instituted a new filter, the system will check and block the first 3 messages with URLs from NEW users.

We apologize for this inconvenience, but we hope it makes for a better experience overall.

[Styles Bitchley]

Glad to hear there will be some added security at the Estate. I kept thinking Ivan was trying to get messages through to the KGB.

[Gorilla Mask]

Hi guys,

Glad to know that we'll have fewer peddlers and door-to-door salesmen, coming, ringing and cluttering the intercom of our dear butler! Furthermore, I was a bit worried , these days, about those black dressed Russian agents who were trying to enter the property from the waterfront...

[ZelenskyTheValiant (Ivan)]

School-boy tricks. I was not involved.

[ConchRepublican]

School-boy tricks. I was not involved.

[Higgins@Kokoda]

I'm sure I heard Higgins say, with regards to the blight of the internet spammer, and this is a rather difficult story to tell...

"It all began in the summer of 1919 when my father was in the Military Section attached to the British delegation...the old boy was stricken with the influenza and, not to make excuses...there was this American Red Cross Nurse, from Texas, LOUD, COURSE, VULGAR...a TART ACTUALLY.."

[Mad Kudu Buck]

Ah yes. I know the story well. It reminds me of the time I was captured by Mongolian bandits in Burma in '43... or was it '44? No matter. They put me in a cell with a Portuguese hermaphrodite who had taken ill after being bitten by a poisonous tree lizard. It was somewhat strange because that species of lizard is not indigenous to the area - quite remarkably similar to the time I was bitten by a Chinese needle snake in Mozambique during the Tutsi uprising of '52...

[TigersHat]

Don’t look at the URLs, work the lock.
Work the lock, don’t look at the URLs.

YOU LOOKED AT THE URLS!

[ConchRepublican]

Don’t look at the URLs, work the lock.
Work the lock, don’t look at the URLs.

YOU LOOKED AT THE URLS!

[T.Q.]

Conch,

I was curious.

How do these spammers break through the Dracos lll.8 security protocols of signing up. getting the email and verifying?

They must be real people right?

[ConchRepublican]

Conch,

I was curious.

How do these spammers break through the Dracos lll.8 security protocols of signing up. getting the email and verifying?

They must be real people right?

I have NO idea . . . they very much appear to be bots to me going by their email addresses (for example, the latest is v.e.r.on.asku.t.en.k.o.al.l.s.ta.r@gmail.com which reads like it's autogenerated). I can't believe people sit in their underwear in the basement and just spam random boards, but I do think people create these things and set them loose just to be dicks. Or to steal info . . .

I have kept Styles' post up because it seems to have become a bit a honey drawing these posts in so I can stay on top of them more easily. Since that has been "kinda" working I'm hesitant to spend money on the Dracos IV security protocol . . .

[T.Q.]

Conch,

I was curious.

How do these spammers break through the Dracos lll.8 security protocols of signing up. getting the email and verifying?

They must be real people right?

I have NO idea . . . they very much appear to be bots to me going by their email addresses (for example, the latest is v.e.r.on.asku.t.en.k.o.al.l.s.ta.r@gmail.com which reads like it's autogenerated). I can't believe people sit in their underwear in the basement and just spam random boards, but I do think people create these things and set them loose just to be dicks. Or to steal info . . .

I have kept Styles' post up because it seems to have become a bit a honey drawing these posts in so I can stay on top of them more easily. Since that has been "kinda" working I'm hesitant to spend money on the Dracos IV security protocol . . .

Ah, the Dracos IV... that's right.

I didn't remember so I searched and it was written weird but I still cut & pasted it.

[Carol the Dabbler]

Due to a high incidence of spam posts after our site upgrade, we have instituted a new filter, the system will check and block the first 3 messages with URLs from NEW users.

How does this look to a (genuine) new user? Are they informed that they'll need to repeat their first post several times?

[ConchRepublican]

Due to a high incidence of spam posts after our site upgrade, we have instituted a new filter, the system will check and block the first 3 messages with URLs from NEW users.

How does this look to a (genuine) new user? Are they informed that they'll need to repeat their first post several times?

Good question, I do not know.

I'll try and find out. My hope is new members would have lurked on the boards for a while and read the announcements.

[Carol the Dabbler]

Due to a high incidence of spam posts after our site upgrade, we have instituted a new filter, the system will check and block the first 3 messages with URLs from NEW users.

How does this look to a (genuine) new user? Are they informed that they'll need to repeat their first post several times?

Good question, I do not know.

I'll try and find out. My hope is new members would have lurked on the boards for a while and read the announcements.

From my experience with other forums, some people do lurk first, but others look for (in this case) a Magnum forum because they're dying to post something -- and it'd be a shame to thwart that kind of enthusiasm.

You might try creating an additional account for yourself, and see what happens when you try to post something. If you get a non-helpful error message, you (as a genuine newbie) might try once more, but at that point I can imagine a lot of people just giving up.

Added: Just read your initial post again, and since the algorithm relies on IP addresses, seems like it could also block an existing user if they move to a new place, or even try to post from their cell phone. And they'd presumably have no idea what had gone wrong.