[Imc-tech] Temporarily Shutting Down Comments?

[Mike Lehman]

Zach,
I think that the captchas probably are the ultimate solution, but we'll 
have to wait and see.

Here's a block of 5 spams that popped up within 2 minutes of each other. 
I will not delete them so that you can have a chance to look at things.
http://www.ucimc.org/editor/index.php?class=Article&function=editor_display&id=39115
http://www.ucimc.org/editor/index.php?class=Article&function=editor_display&id=39116
http://www.ucimc.org/editor/index.php?class=Article&function=editor_display&id=39117
http://www.ucimc.org/editor/index.php?class=Article&function=editor_display&id=39118
http://www.ucimc.org/editor/index.php?class=Article&function=editor_display&id=39119

Depending on how deep things get in the meantime, I may delete and purge 
subsequent spams. Let me know if you want me to hold off. I'm getting 
ready to leave for the IMC for a couple of hours, and there are already 
about thirty of these damn things since I last cleaned up. I'll leave 
the mess and come back and cleanup later, except for the above cited 
messages, unless I hear otherwise in the meantime.

Thanks, Zach.
Mike Lehman

Zachary C. Miller wrote:

> The only real solution to the spamming is to implement captchas (the
> little graphical number thing that some human has to read and enter). 
> 
> Does anyone know if there is Dada support for captchas? 
> 
> (Mike, I've been putting off the research effort to block the spam
> because I haven't had the time to track down the URLs of the incoming
> spam. If you could email me the URLs of some example spam messages I
> can check the logs to see if there's anything easy to block.)
> 
> Mike Lehman wrote:
> 
>>Having dealt with ever-increasing amounts of poker spam and having made 
>>several appeals for aid on this issue and having appealed to Steering 
>>for the authority to log and block this abuse, yet not having any action 
>>taken, I want to propose shutting down the Comment portion of the 
>>website temporarily to see if this will disrupt the spamming of poker 
>>offers to it.
>>
>>I realize this is a drastic step, but I (or anyone else, for that 
>>matter) really can't afford to spend a half hour or more every morning 
>>deleting hundreds of these items in order for the editing screen to be 
>>useful. Until a better technical fix is available in the form of a 
>>software update or the previously authorized blocking of the source IPs 
>>can be attempted as a solution (which, AFAIK, was never actually carried 
>>through, even though it has been specifically authorized in this case), 
>>this seems to be one last thing that might be tried.
>>
>>I am open to other ideas, ANY ideas, but I do not think that allowing 
>>the site to be taken over as an advertising medium is at all consistent 
>>with Indymedia principles. It has reached this point -- where drastic 
>>action is required.
>>Mike Lehman