Is Trade2win as lifeless as it seems to me?

[Vasco da Banana]

T2W must be in danger of collapse if virtually the only active thread is this one.

 

[Lightning McQueen]

T2W must be in danger of collapse if virtually the only active thread is this one.

it is has morphed and become site interactive across many issues.

maybe that's the fascination?

I still wish to know -

why so many thousands of guests were interested in a shoe pic.

have these new members been messaging.

are the member mods not now allowed to chase after them.

there were more questions unanswered but I can't think right now

 

[VielGeld]

LM, serious question. Would you be willing to rejoin the mod team if offered the chance? You seem to be much more active than any of us on T2W, and that would be an asset.

I'll look into the linkback you mentioned in a sec.

Registration process is too weak by todays standards.
Current challenge response question is too easy for a bot.
Maybe something along these lines is needed:

Either that or manual registration confirmation.

Agreed.

Maybe not so far as manual registration yet until some sort of additional filter is implemented. I know of several forums that do it that way, but they also have the manpower to stay on top...

 

[VielGeld]

I'll look into the linkback you mentioned in a sec.

Pardon the double post, but I don't see anything significant here. Only two linkbacks in that thread unless I'm looking at it wrong.

 

[Lightning McQueen]

VielGeld, thanks kindly, have already been asked by the head honcho very recently and declined the generous offer.


anyways, i believe you are could be in big trouble with allowing these dodgy amed members, here's why.

you have to put it bluntly swarms of the little blighters massing in large numbers readying to pounce. if they strike in their 100's you will not stand a chance, for every 1 you ban, 10 will appear to spam their useless message off to as many members as they can before you can shoot them.

they've been joining since at least the beginning of feb and have been joining relentlessly ever since. the members list is chock full of them, 100's of them. they are going through each of them, testing in turn to see they are functional. someone unknown will have already researched members profiles. each of them will be armed to the teeth with member pm details.

the chinese spam good and they do it in style

this has been seen before, don't believe me, ask jon or cv of the war tales last time they swarmed. but this one looks to be far bigger in scale and they still registering troops.

 

[robster970]

Teh Leopard is here - hello Leopard!!!

 

[Lightning McQueen]

Pardon the double post, but I don't see anything significant here. Only two linkbacks in that thread unless I'm looking at it wrong.

are they old?

 

[VielGeld]

No, I believe you. The other forum I moderate has had a similar experience, and was the prime reason why I was made mod on that one. The issue was thankfully taken care of by slightly modifying the registration process. The couple thousands of 'bots that registered never activated for some reason, though (God bless!). I could mention the time we had to clean the board from nasty XXX material -- not cool!

So yes, I entirely agree that these should be banned, no question about that. But keeping up with them is something else...

Honestly, the best option may simply be to block China for the time being as T333 suggested. I'd be willing to go through the list and deleting them then.

are they old?

'sorta. I saw Feb and Aug 2012 as dates.

 

[Trader333]

LM,

One of the key reasons they register according to VB discussions is that they want to be indexed via their profile. This is made worse if guests can view them as this helps index them in the search engines. By making it that guests cannot view profiles this stops this element of what they are trying to do.

If, as you say, they launched an all out attack then we have the ability to ban entire IP ranges at will that would stop this with immediate effect. Based on what I have read, for most of them it is the profile links they want and hope to get indexed. There are others of course and these are also dealt with as soon as I become aware of them.

We have also previously changed the captcha and it makes no difference. If we change the question we get a temporary reprieve and then it all starts again.

It was also stated that T2W get this because we have created a target rich environment for it but this is not the case. I set up another board last year which has no visibility and I get exactly the same issue so they are deliberately seeking out any bulletin board they can. I managed to stop it by making the registration process ask a question that only those who have knowledge of the subject area would know the answer to or that can be bothered to look it up. Since then I have had almost 0 spam.

 

[Steve]

OK whatever happens and who does what, we must fix this and i'll be dealing with it as the week progresses. All contributions gratefully received!

 

[Steve]

Oops, I was writing my post while you did yours Paul. So , am I being a bit dense here, why don't we just do as you say and ask a question to prevent these things?

 

[Lightning McQueen]

if they are just registering to be indexed, they'd register and just lay dormant? I think that dormant nics can be safely ignored. but these registrations though are not left dormant, many of them are signing back in at least once. it's not a good sign.

in the very unlikely event i'm correct and we are following the same pattern as before, then yes you have options. but someone has to be there at hq to push the button. when the grunts on the ground are under siege defending the perimeter, what happens when they message the command bunker to call in a napalm strike on ip's, or request the nuclear option to block a continent, but nobody is home?

 

[Steve]

if they are just registering to be indexed, they'd register and just lay dormant? I think that dormant nics can be safely ignored. but these registrations though are not left dormant, many of them are signing back in at least once. it's not a good sign.

in the very unlikely event i'm correct and we are following the same pattern as before, then yes you have options. but someone has to be there at hq to push the button. when the grunts on the ground are under siege defending the perimeter, what happens when they message the command bunker to call in a napalm strike on ip's, or request the nuclear option to block a continent, but nobody is home?

So who's finger should be on the strike button? Mine?

 

[Lightning McQueen]

So who's finger should be on the strike button? Mine?

I guess so, last time sharky was in the command, but the bunker was deserted.

 

[Steve]

OK. Well I'm not going anywhere so that's a good starting point.

What we now have to do is figure out what buttons need to be pressed, when and why.

I'll get into this as the week progresses.

 

[VielGeld]

I managed to stop it by making the registration process ask a question that only those who have knowledge of the subject area would know the answer to or that can be bothered to look it up. Since then I have had almost 0 spam.

Fyi, this was the solution I was referring to in my previous post. It's marvellously simple, though the registrants do need to know the answer... But I'm sure we could put up a Q such as "What is the primary subject matter discussed on this board?" with little detrimental effect.

 

[Trader333]

OK we can give it a go and maybe change the question on a regular basis.

 

[Lightning McQueen]

One of the key reasons they register according to VB discussions is that they want to be indexed via their profile. This is made worse if guests can view them as this helps index them in the search engines. By making it that guests cannot view profiles this stops this element of what they are trying to do.

i'm having trouble with this. i can't get my head around why they want their profile indexed. i could understand if there was something in there to be indexed, but there isn't. they've not filled out anything profile wise, its just the same standard location, sex and the vendor status. add to this, i seem to be under the impression that guests couldn't see member profiles anyhow, just an observation. i haven't seen a search spider go anywhere near a profile either, also only an observation, i have no idea what's actually allowed.

 

[Trader333]

Usually their profile contains advertising URLs and this is what "I am informed" is why they do it. The ability for guests to view profiles was only removed recently.

 

[Lightning McQueen]

Usually their profile contains advertising URLs and this is what "I am informed" is why they do it.

there's nothing at all in any of their profiles. they're clean on that front.