[Imc-web] Re: question about IMC website

[Mike Lehman]

Hi Ricky,
Yes, it's an old article of yours from 2003. I hid it as an experiment. 
Most readers of the website are probably not aware of it, but the IMC 
site has been deluged over the last year by literally tens of thousands 
of ads disguised as comments to articles. Some of these we can delete 
automatically, but many of them have to be manually deleted one at a time.

The spammers seem to choose articles to repeatedly hit, apparently 
either because the article was included in a database they bought as 
part of their "get rich quick on the internet" package or because of a 
relatively high Google ranking. A few articles, including this one of 
yours, are simply repeatedly swamped with such crap. I decided to try 
completely hiding the article -- which is something different than the 
hiding it so that it shows up in Hidden Articles -- as this cuts off the 
ability to add new comments and might lighten our workload.

It may be that the spammers simply choose new targets, in which case 
we're better off leaving the old targets up. If they do move along, then 
there are about a dozen other old articles that I may propose for this 
treatment.

I'd be interested in any thoughts or concerns you may have about this. 
The article can be restored at any time. I really hate to hide anything 
that doesn't need it, but until we get new software to run the website 
that prevents this sort of automated spamming, we're kind of backed into 
the corner on what we can do about the workload caused by this problem.
Mike Lehman

Ricky Baldwin wrote:
> Hey Mike-
>
> I just got this and I don't know if it's anything I
> need to think about or do anything about.  I don't
> think I've ever gotten one before.  This is an old
> article that I think I remember writing.  Does this
> mean the article had some kind of virus?  Or that you
> guys are deleting old stuff?  Or something I'm not
> techno enuf to savvy?  Sorry if I'm being dense, just
> wasn't sure what to make of it...
>
> Ricky
>
> --- web at ucimc.org wrote:
>
>   
>> To: baldwinricky at yahoo.com
>> Subject: Your IMC website article has been deleted
>> From: web at ucimc.org
>> Date: Mon,  7 Aug 2006 10:01:28 -0500 (CDT)
>>
>> Your article entitled "Pro-War Hostility On The
>> Rise, Peace Group Expands" has been deleted from the
>> newswire by ml.
>> The deletion code was: Other.
>> The following comments were noted regarding your
>> article: spam target
>>
>> A reference to the deleted article will remain at
>> http://www.ucimc.org/newswire/deleted/index.php
>> Feel free to reply to this message if you have any
>> questions regarding this action.
>>
>> Thank you, The IMC Editorial Collective.
>>
>>
>>     
>
>
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