Adam Howard
Well-known member
Would be cool if there was some way to submit that proof through Xen Utilities. For example, when a spammer does make through and spam me, that I could click a button and submit that whole post.
Stop Forum Spam announce removal of Xen utilities users
- Thread starter Lisa
- Start date
Digital Doctor
Well-known member
Ridiculous.
That's *really* unfair treatment.
ManagerJosh
Well-known member
Look, we're missing the point. We're attacking each other. We were all playing nice and letting a few spammers in here and there as fair game. However once they automated everything and flooded our boards with Spam, it was a declaration of war. They were overwhelming us and we turned to our partnerships with SFS and others to help slow this down.
Let's just play nice because valuable resources like SFS and Jaxel are hard to come by.
ManagerJosh
Well-known member
Here's another two cents.
We're going to need new methods, new metrics, new analytic data of fighting spam as the IPv6 adoption rate increases. With IPv4, at least there is for the moment a finite number of IP addresses that can be utilized utilized. The current datasets of "IP Address, Username and Email" works well for IPv4, but as we're seeing with XRuner, email addresses and usernames are being generated on the fly and it will be a matter of time before we start seeing unique usernames and email addresses per spam attempt coming from a single IP address.
We will need to start identifying other data sets to keep the spam out.
We're going to need new methods, new metrics, new analytic data of fighting spam as the IPv6 adoption rate increases. With IPv4, at least there is for the moment a finite number of IP addresses that can be utilized utilized. The current datasets of "IP Address, Username and Email" works well for IPv4, but as we're seeing with XRuner, email addresses and usernames are being generated on the fly and it will be a matter of time before we start seeing unique usernames and email addresses per spam attempt coming from a single IP address.
We will need to start identifying other data sets to keep the spam out.
Digital Doctor
Well-known member
Interesting point for the members whom are reported in error.
ManagerJosh
Well-known member
We will likely need more variables and sophisticated algorithms to minimize false positives. If those algorithms are not maintained and updated to identify the more aggressive nature of spammers, that false positive rate will go up.
SneakyDave
Well-known member
Jake Bunce
Well-known member
Yeah this bothers me personally. I registered on a forum once to test a problem they were having. I failed the recaptcha on the first try which resulted in my email being reported to a spam site for all to see. Then I had to contact them to be removed. I was a false positive.
(missing thumbs up smilie) Jaxel! Thank you for the very prompt response to this issue!
That's the biggest understatement I've read lately.
As much as I've hated spending so much time on spammers this past week, I've really appreciated the options we've had to choose from and the abundance of good advice that's available.
And perhaps somewhat overlooked in all this is the ease with which add-ons are managed in XenForo.
That's the biggest understatement I've read lately.
As much as I've hated spending so much time on spammers this past week, I've really appreciated the options we've had to choose from and the abundance of good advice that's available.
And perhaps somewhat overlooked in all this is the ease with which add-ons are managed in XenForo.
Jaxel
Well-known member
AlexT, in america, email addresses, IP addresses and usernames are not protected personal information... its why the police can retrieve all that info without warrants and stuff.
MichaelDance
Well-known member
Tbh they shouldn't of just said that, they should of posted on the source, if they knew it was so called XenUtilities they should of googled it and traced it to XenForo.com and posted a thread on the forum so WE the Xenforo users can see it, people won't know about it unless they follow SFS on twitter of if they googled it and came across it.
Personally they brought it on themselves for not explaining to us. Jaxel can't be a mind reader.
I blame ReCaptcha lol
Carlos
Well-known member
Yes! I am concerned.
Let's block everyone using xenUtilities and call it a day, SFS (StopForumSpam) . Let's see how xenForo users react next time.
I moved all the spam into a private forum so that posters don't have to deal with the garbage that plagued our site. *crosses arms*
I don't want google to penalize our site just because spammers come and ruin our site!
Now, if you'll excuse me, I gotta update xenUtilities.
Been talking to SFS on twitter. And one comment left me speechless....
...In light of lawsuits, and developers not talking, this negative response to xenForo is bad PR for xenForo.
Oh, ive been given post access.
The issue here is that if User X from IP X is given an IP by his ISP (or forced out a proxy or NAT, like in Aussie, South Africa, Poland, Russia, a lot of South America, Ukraine, Portugal, almost every Islamic based country.. etc you get the idea) one that is listed, say 9 months ago and that user joins a forum with Jonny as a username and then enters his legitimate email address, XU would add that user to the SFS db. That user is *not* a spammer and never was but suddenly an automatic progress has been made that this user IS a spammer, is blocked, is submitted and is then displayed as such. This is unverfiied false data and will not (as never has been) tolerated at StopForumSpam.
Look at this from my point of view. I am trying to keep a system running that you can use, 100% for free. If the system is full of s**t, why would you use it. It would block every user that ever tries to join, which would then submit every user to ever simply fill in a registration form. If the DB is that polluted, then you would dump it in a second. You get something for free, that I spend a great deal of my own time on, advert free, that you can use reliably on your site. Do you want to poison it? Garbage in, garbage out.
Sure, I overreacted. I was seeing a considerable investment of my time and effort, being abused. While this exact "guilt by association" wasn't in the ToS, it was all over the forum and has been posted on twitter before. I have a seriously hard job ahead just clearing out the garbage that I have missed, time that I would rather spend with my kids but I'm going to plod on and try to remove as much as I can. Why? So that you don't dump SFS.
i have no way to know if you are using XenUtils. I do however know if you are submitted garbage when its pointed out by some poor innocent person. Then I check if you are submitting garbage and then I remove all the submissions in order to remove the garbage. If it keeps happening, then you get your access removed for abuse.
The issue here is that if User X from IP X is given an IP by his ISP (or forced out a proxy or NAT, like in Aussie, South Africa, Poland, Russia, a lot of South America, Ukraine, Portugal, almost every Islamic based country.. etc you get the idea) one that is listed, say 9 months ago and that user joins a forum with Jonny as a username and then enters his legitimate email address, XU would add that user to the SFS db. That user is *not* a spammer and never was but suddenly an automatic progress has been made that this user IS a spammer, is blocked, is submitted and is then displayed as such. This is unverfiied false data and will not (as never has been) tolerated at StopForumSpam.
Look at this from my point of view. I am trying to keep a system running that you can use, 100% for free. If the system is full of s**t, why would you use it. It would block every user that ever tries to join, which would then submit every user to ever simply fill in a registration form. If the DB is that polluted, then you would dump it in a second. You get something for free, that I spend a great deal of my own time on, advert free, that you can use reliably on your site. Do you want to poison it? Garbage in, garbage out.
Sure, I overreacted. I was seeing a considerable investment of my time and effort, being abused. While this exact "guilt by association" wasn't in the ToS, it was all over the forum and has been posted on twitter before. I have a seriously hard job ahead just clearing out the garbage that I have missed, time that I would rather spend with my kids but I'm going to plod on and try to remove as much as I can. Why? So that you don't dump SFS.
i have no way to know if you are using XenUtils. I do however know if you are submitted garbage when its pointed out by some poor innocent person. Then I check if you are submitting garbage and then I remove all the submissions in order to remove the garbage. If it keeps happening, then you get your access removed for abuse.
Carlos
Well-known member
If that's the case, then why did your post say "XenForo Utiles users about to get all their submissions and API access removed." Hm? It seems like you're targeting us.
And, by the way, if this is your attitude... What does this say for the future of 1.2? The xenForo developers are working on a StopForumSpam integration. We desparately need this. As you can imagine, why my reaction to your news.
One last question: What do you think of xenForo? I ask because you seemed critical towards xenForo in that last tweet...
And I as said, i overreacted. Twitter gievs a crappy 140 character limit and what I wanted to post didnt fit. I was trying to clear out a massive amount of garbage. If you like what is provided, please use it. if you want garbage and an unreliable service, then please dont.
I'll say again, I have little or no way to know what Forum you are running but if I get a complaint about a listing that has come from a XenForo site, then I will look at it and if its garbage, then you get all your submissions removed and API key access removed. You DO NOT get access removed from querying the database. If you come back and get a new key, add garbage, then you are abusing the site and you will get your API query access removed. I have a service to protect, one that 20,000+ people use, one that costs me time and money, one that you cost nothing. I will protect it and if I step on some toes while I do it, then fine. You cannot keep 100% of the people happy 100% of the time but I will stop garbage going into the DB when I can and by whatever means I have.
I'll say again, I have little or no way to know what Forum you are running but if I get a complaint about a listing that has come from a XenForo site, then I will look at it and if its garbage, then you get all your submissions removed and API key access removed. You DO NOT get access removed from querying the database. If you come back and get a new key, add garbage, then you are abusing the site and you will get your API query access removed. I have a service to protect, one that 20,000+ people use, one that costs me time and money, one that you cost nothing. I will protect it and if I step on some toes while I do it, then fine. You cannot keep 100% of the people happy 100% of the time but I will stop garbage going into the DB when I can and by whatever means I have.
Similar threads
