Links Not Working

[paul32]

George has one good idea.

I'm probably not understanding the problem. If there is an ad posted wouldn't it be obvious it is an ad, and I don't think making its links broken will stop and ad.

Here is another idea. I've seen sites that require you to type a sequence of letters shown to you in an image, to keep automatic software from going through the site. Maybe that is what you need. I've found a could forums when doing general internet searches that had that feature to be able to search. I didn't understand why a search would need that.

 

[charlie b]

The problem I see with links is that it is easy to make them lie. An undesirable type person might post a link that would take an unsuspecting victim to a porn site or to a place that causes viruses to download. But they can then change the letters that appear in the hyperlink to something that looks safe and normal. As a result, an automatic link that says it is for an electric supply store may take you where you don?t want to go. If instead we force all links to display the entire text of the intended web site, then you can tell right away if it is a fake or a place you don?t want to go.

Not a great solution, I admit, and particularly not a good long term solution. But it?s not a bad starting place for combating all the spam we have been getting of late.

 

[infinity]

Providing links is a large part of this forum. Personally the spam doesn't bother me. When I see some I simply click on the icon and report it. As far as spammer changing the link to send you to an undesirable place, anyone can post undesirable images if they so choose just like they would post the photo of a piece of equipment. The moderators have done a good job at deleting the junk as it appears. Maybe I'm not fully understanding the problem since to me there really doesn't seem to be one. Maybe I need some enlightening.

 

[celtic]

- copy the link (URL)
- goto http://tinyurl.com/
- paste the URL into the window
- make it tiny
- copy the "tiny" URL and paste it here in the forum.
​

I have no idea what you are suggesting or why.

We don't want active links on the forum at this time.

Bob,
Using tinyurl does not create active links - it merely shortens them so the forum software doesn't interpet a 1000 character URL as one word and try and fit it all on one line - essentially making the post wider than your monitor can fit...and streching all the other posts on that entire page as well.

Does that explain the "what" and "why"?

 

[celtic]

Maybe I'm not fully understanding the problem since to me there really doesn't seem to be one. Maybe I need some enlightening.

IMHO, the change is two-fold:

- to protect us ~ especially the new users that may blindly follow links

- to protect Mike Holt ~ when you click a link, that sites admins can tell where you came from ...guiding ever more spammers to flood this forum with their crap as their "advertising" seems to work here.


I like George's idea of limiting functions for new users until they reach a benchmark. I participate in other forums that have handled this problem the same way...a spammer isn't going to post 10-20-? times just to get one or two posts of crap posted here. It's too much effort on too little return.

 

[iwire]

- it merely shortens them so the forum software doesn't interpet a 1000 character URL as one word and try and fit it all on one line -

Got it....thanks, but you do not need to do that, when you submit the post the software disables it and it will post like plain text.

Here is a long URL for example.

http://www.grainger.com/Grainger/wwg/productIndex.shtml?operator=searchProductBySubCat&segment=Electrical&family=Starters+and+Contactors&subcat=Definite+Purpose+Contactors+Accessories

 

[charlie b]

Maybe I'm not fully understanding the problem since to me there really doesn't seem to be one. Maybe I need some enlightening.

Perhaps this will help. The number of members who have been banned exceeds 60. Most of those have happened in the past few weeks, and mostly due to spam or posting of inappropriate material.

 

[celtic]

Got it....thanks, but you do not need to do that, when you submit the post the software disables it and it will post like plain text.

Here is a long URL for example.

http://www.grainger.com/Grainger/wwg/productIndex.shtml?operator=searchProductBySubCat&segment=Electrical&family=Starters+and+Contactors&subcat=Definite+Purpose+Contactors+Accessories

That link got me to a "technical difficulty" page..don't know if that was the intended target.

Here's a long one(219 characters) from the New Jersey Permanent Statutes Database
http://lis.njleg.state.nj.us/cgi-bin/om_isapi.dll?clientID=20825537&Depth=4&TD=WRAP&advquery=46%208-19&headingswithhits=on&infobase=statutes.nfo&rank=&record={1273E}&softpage=Doc_Frame_Pg42&wordsaroundhits=2&x=0&y=0&zz=

The short version is this:
http://tinyurl.com/yjdgmh

I opted to omit the url= business to avoid confusion of where the link starts and ends.

 

[celtic]

hmmm...the page seems to have gotten wider...is it just my monitor?

 

[George Stolz]

I opted to omit the url= business to avoid confusion of where the link starts and ends.

I think the thing I described earlier happened to Bob when he posted that long link. His computer probably knew it was a url address, so it hinted at that automatically, and the forum software reacted to it by adding it's own url tags.

 

[George Stolz]

hmmm...the page seems to have gotten wider...is it just my monitor?

No, mine too.

 

[iwire]

hmmm...the page seems to have gotten wider...is it just my monitor?

Do you mean that my long URL runs off the page and you have to scroll?

On my PCs I don't have to scroll to see anything in this thread.

 

[George Stolz]

Do you mean that my long URL runs off the page and you have to scroll?

On my PCs I don't have to scroll to see anything in this thread.

Looks like on my PC, I don't have to scroll. On the Mac I did.

 

[tallgirl]

Perhaps this will help. The number of members who have been banned exceeds 60. Most of those have happened in the past few weeks, and mostly due to spam or posting of inappropriate material.

Does the vBulletin software allow you to turn off vbCode for members until they've been around a while? Or is it an all-or-nothing thing per forum or whatever?

 

[iwire]

Does the vBulletin software allow you to turn off vbCode for members until they've been around a while? Or is it an all-or-nothing thing per forum or whatever?

Quite a few options are being discussed, nothing has been decided as of yet.

Check out this site 'botmaster.net/more1/' and you will see what we are up against.

 

[celtic]

Check out this site 'botmaster.net/more1/' and you will see what we are up against.

I had seen in other forums that some "members" are asking where to get the XRumer software - probably looking for a warez(if you don't know, don't ask) version or something.

Quite a few options are being discussed, nothing has been decided as of yet.

Take your time.

 

[iwire]

I had seen in other forums that some "members" are asking where to get the XRumer software -

If you go back to one of those questions, cut and paste it to Google you will find that same exact question is being asked at hundreds of forums, it was asked here and was removed.

This bot can even get around the 'words in a picture' code usally used to stop bots. ( A picture is shown with a word in it and you have to manually enter that word in a code field. )

 

[mdshunk]

That message went, "I'm seeking for description of XRumer software.
Can you help me? Or give me a link to the official site of this sofware.

Thanks"

 

[celtic]

This bot can even get around the 'words in a picture' code usally used to stop bots.

That is some serious stuff....no wonder I couldn't buy tickets online...the hackers hogged them all up.


I read some on that page...even creating a high benchmark post count is useless...they can just flood the forum with crap until they hit that mark.

That thing is bad news.

 

[hockeyoligist2]

That botmaster is some nasty stuff. Too bad the web has turned in to what it has. I have an e-mail address that get's over a thousand spams a day. I just keep it so if I need to sign up for something that requires an e-mail they can just pile up there and I delete them all!