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Newbs

Posted: Wed Jan 18, 2023 7:01 am
by sparks
Why are we attracting newbs who want to try and sell us something?

Re: Newbs

Posted: Wed Jan 18, 2023 7:21 am
by arthwollipot
Because Admin hasn't been able to finely tune the filters yet. It's unfortunately an unavoidable consequence of existence - forums will attract spam, unless the goat's entrails are properly prepared under the full moon nearest the equinox.

Re: Newbs

Posted: Wed Jan 18, 2023 9:14 am
by Admin
Not entirely right - a load of them registered before I turned new registrations off and because you can't multi-delete I'm just chopping them as they activate.

No human is involved - it's 100% robot action.

Fucking wankers who program this shit. The online equivalent of graffiti.

Re: Newbs

Posted: Wed Jan 18, 2023 11:24 pm
by arthwollipot
And it doesn't serve any purpose. Nobody is dumb enough to click the links, and we're long past the stage where Google simply counted the number of pages that link back to a site to determine its google ranking.

It's pointless and annoying and only makes more work for hard working site admins. If there's anything I can do to help, let me know.

Re: Newbs

Posted: Thu Jan 19, 2023 8:54 am
by Admin
Thanks mate, but it's pretty straightforward, I'm just banning and deleting as they arise.

Re: Newbs

Posted: Thu Jan 19, 2023 5:09 pm
by stanky
As the token cave man here, I find this activity to be most bizarre.
Is there even an analogy for it in the non-computer world?

Re: Newbs

Posted: Thu Jan 19, 2023 6:28 pm
by grayman
stanky wrote: Thu Jan 19, 2023 5:09 pm As the token cave man here, I find this activity to be most bizarre.
Is there even an analogy for it in the non-computer world?
Our offices at work still receive the occasional spam-type fax advertising some needless crap.

Do you ever get telemarketing cold-calls stank? Seems like this is along those lines.

Or how about junk mail? That might work as an analogy as well. Seems like I get a lot of stuff through the post office that goes directly into the recycle bin.

Re: Newbs

Posted: Thu Jan 19, 2023 11:21 pm
by arthwollipot
stanky wrote: Thu Jan 19, 2023 5:09 pm As the token cave man here, I find this activity to be most bizarre.
Is there even an analogy for it in the non-computer world?
It's like you're sitting in a cafe having a coffee and a quiet conversation with friends, and people with sandwich boards start trooping in and noisily trying to sell you stuff. The cafe manager can ask them to leave, but there's more of them than there are managers, so it takes a while to get around to them all.

Re: Newbs

Posted: Fri Jan 20, 2023 1:38 am
by sparks
One of the few situations where a loaded gun would prove most efficacious.

Re: Newbs

Posted: Fri Jan 20, 2023 9:22 am
by Admin
Except you'd be shooting at shadows, because it's all done by 'bots.

Worse, it's done by 'bots that have probably been active for years, because nobody would bother targeting forums in the 2020s.