[Coco] forums restore

[Roger Taylor]

At 03:15 PM 7/8/2009, you wrote:
>Yup, that's the one I saw.
>I wish slow deaths upon such spammers!


I can see who's in the forums and what they're doing and their 
information.  3 spammers were just deleted. 3 servers that were 
browsing the forums wildly and attempting to post were just 
banned.  This cleared up the activity log and took a load off the 
site.  One spammer's IP was changing (the last 2 numbers) so I just 
blocked their IP as such #.#.*.* and they're gone right now.

The bad part.. when the 7/5 backup is restored, I'll have to do this 
again, as I'm working with a site image originally from 2008 with a 
handful of new posts added yesterday and today.

I also blocked all *.ru e-mail addresses.  Soon to follow (sorry, 
guys) will probably be gmail, and maybe yahoo.  I don't use anybody's 
e-mail address for anything so there's no need for anybody to hide 
them.  They don't appear in any posts, either.

I think a more defensive action in the sign-up process will help a 
Lot.  However, this can discourage some new visitors from joining the gang.

We always snap back after mishaps like this so I expect things to be 
back to normal within a week or two, but I'll have to spend more time 
blocking known spammer IPs.  The huge list I added that kept the site 
fairly clean for a long time is no longer there, so I'll do that 
again and keep a better eye on things.  Thankfully, Robert Gault has 
notified me when somebody posted spam and it was usually a real 
person who signed up and posed as a CoCo user.

Again, this is just typical stuff we have to deal with occasionally, 
but it's painful for the admin to waste days of time at the keyboard 
trying to repair what a trasher did.  I still don't know how the PHP 
and MySQL folks just can't get it right after all these years.  With 
each new upgrade, we have new vunerabilities, and since they're 
posted on the web for all to see, the spammers go right for it.

Microsoft should also be ashamed at robbing the entire planet and 
causing more grief than any company has ever even come close to.  Now 
they're pushing Windows 7 at the worst economical times since the 
Great Depression, and offering 50% off if you preorder.  No thank 
ya.  Face lifts just don't qualify for an upgrade these days.  That's 
why I gave up on Money years ago when I saw no difference between 
upgrades, just more HTTP ads and links in the software's "home page" 
which they seem to push into every new program now.  I did try out 
their newest Money title (trial) but it deleted my paid copy of Money 
2006 and now I can't recover it, so they stole my software and I have 
no way to access my money files now.

Folks, it's just a huge mess we have and nobody is immune to being 
screwed at any given time.  You'll wake up tomorrow and your hard 
drive will just quit working or your web site will be on the blitz by 
a bunch of commies.  Your $1,000 laptop will become a $5 rummage sale 
item, with nobody at fault and nobody to "pay you back".  It's 
getting worse.  And Google pretty much owns the web now.  There's 
nothing on the planet that can stop them now, I'm afraid.  Get used 
to it.  If you deal with Google, nothing is private about your life, 
and they know what you're doing and what you like.  Because of this, 
they know where you're going and what you'll be doing.  Since they 
own MySpace, and the entire planet is advertising their life and 
every thought and more, we're all screwed and our friends as well.

Just some thoughts.



-- 
Roger Taylor

http://www.wordofthedayonline.com