Spam (Round 2)

[Derek Read]

We've seen a large increase in “link spamming” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spamdexing#Link_spam) recently. In order to reduce the number of spam messages on our forum we now use a service to block computers that are known to be active spammers. Such computers may be infected with a virus that is secretly spamming forums (a “robot” / “zombie computer”) or it may be an uninfected machine that has simply inherited an IP address previously used by an infected computer.

Suspect computers are now redirected to a “warning” page. Most people will never see this page, however, the page gives the visitor a chance to prove they are “human” by passing a simple test. People that pass the test may view the forum for a few hours.

We use various databases to decide if a machine should be blocked. If at some point you or a colleague is having trouble viewing the forum you may wish to look up the record for your current IP address at http://www.projecthoneypot.org to see why it is in their “black list” database. If you are blocked, you may refresh your IP address to obtain one that is not on a black list.

As usual, we monitor the forum and will continue to take the following actions (as soon as we are aware):

– Delete posts if they are blatant spam and/or off-topic.
– Remove links from signatures if we suspect they might be link spam.
– Remove links when a post appears to be legitimate but contains possible link spam.
– Obvious spammers are banned without warning.
– Remove posts containing offensive imagery or text (we reserve the right to decide exactly what “offensive” means).

If you have set forum preferences to send you notifications for a particular board you may be sent a notification for a topic that no longer exists. This is because we deleted it after the notification was sent out (we are alerted to new postings after seeing the same notification).

If we make a mistake please contact us via the “Report to Moderator” link or supportxmetal [at] justsystems [dot] com

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