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JohnP
Master Marine Consultant

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1520 Posts

Initially Posted - 09/26/2009 : 18:10:52

Some sort of machine has posted a message on the Swap Meet Forum, under the name of PeraCrarp, and it is written in randomly generated "mock English" language. Maybe in another world this entity would be appreciated, but it seems inappropriate for a sailing discussion group.

Please remove this posting.

JohnP
1978 C25 SR/FK "Gypsy"
Mill Creek off the Magothy River, Chesapeake Bay
Port Captain, northern Chesapeake Bay

Edited by - on

piseas
Former Treasurer

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USA
2017 Posts

Response Posted - 09/26/2009 : 19:07:16

John, it's been removed as has other similar posts.
Steve Auerbach, Treasurer

Edited by - piseas on 09/27/2009 09:34:30

delliottg
Former Mainsheet C250 Tech Editor

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USA
4479 Posts

Response Posted - 09/26/2009 : 19:48:33

It's a typical bot, they post semi-random phrases that sort of make sense in a very disjointed way, while including links to whatever they're selling hoping you'll click on one because it's on a forum that you trust. The idea is to defeat programs that run heuristics against posted material checking for spam. They don't automatically refuse a post because it has the word "cialis" or "vicodin", it's entirely possible someone on the affected forum might be talking about it. If you fill the post with pseudo English, it gets by filters (like ours). That's where having admins routinely scan the forums is crucial if you want to keep the spam at a minimum. Fortunately they mostly post in HTML instead of PHPBB tags, so almost all of their attempts to create links fail here because they're using the wrong tags. It would seem like it'd be easy to create a bot that figures out what type of forum it's posting on, but that's another exercise.

Edited by - on

JimB517
Past Commodore

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USA
3285 Posts

Response Posted - 09/27/2009 : 08:03:44

You know I scan the forum 3 times per day and remove these things. Posts or private emails about them are appreciated, but not really necessary. I'll get to them soon enough.

Edited by - on

Dave Bristle
Master Marine Consultant

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Djibouti
10005 Posts

Response Posted - 09/27/2009 : 09:10:05

I'll suggest that the moderators also go to the "Members" list, sort on "Member Since", and review the recent additions (and their links). Many obviously are not, never have been, and never will be sailors, much less owners or members.

Edited by - on

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Notice: The advice given on this site is based upon individual or quoted experience, yours may differ.
The Officers, Staff and members of this site only provide information based upon the concept that anyone utilizing this information does so at their own risk and holds harmless all contributors to this site.