DigitalNigel.com

by **Lord of Darkness** on December 28, 2006, 2:31 PM

Okay, we HAVE to come up with some way to lessen the amount of spam bots we are getting here on DN or I'm going to get extremely tired of deleteing, banning, deleteing, banning, deleteing, banning...deleteing, banning them. I've gotten extremely efficient at working fast to delete and ban them without mistake but it is buggering when one gets a spambot or three a day.

What can we do to get less of them through the registration process?

by **Fierce Omen** on December 28, 2006, 9:38 PM

I don't even know why they're showing up on the member list even though they haven't been approved. Nigel said it had something to do with the server DN runs under, perhaps we're in need of a new one? That's all I know on the matter however.

by **Lord of Darkness** on December 28, 2006, 9:43 PM

We're not about to switch to a new server. We are quite happily situated on the one we are on...so we have to adjust what we can.

by **Fierce Omen** on December 29, 2006, 3:34 PM

*nods in agreement.*

by **Paws** on December 29, 2006, 10:07 PM

Unfortunately, that's what happens when one is using an older format standard message board layout and server. Changing to another premade forum design or another provider probably wouldn't help too much.

by **Lord of Darkness** on December 30, 2006, 2:03 AM

:S

I feel like dooms day is upon me. hahaha

by **Fierce Omen** on December 30, 2006, 11:01 AM

Not for another 6 years, LOD. ^^b

by **Lord of Darkness** on January 1, 2007, 5:38 PM

Hahahaha!!!!

by **Admin Nigel** on January 7, 2007, 10:11 PM

As per your discussions, The spam bots have nothing to do with our current server/hosting provider. It as was said, has mainly to do with the current forum software we are using. I am looking around for possibilities to block some of the bots gaining access, but i am unsure of my possible success. I had hoped that the verification images would have done the trick, but obviously not. I am looking for solutions. Hang in there.

by **Fierce Omen** on March 14, 2007, 7:41 PM

I hope you come up with something soon, the majority of the mails sent to me. (About 30 in a day) are digitalnigel.com useraccounts, waiting to pile their way into the forum base. It's saddening too, I could've found the person I ask to join, if I hadn't had to dig through about 50 other porn related account names.

by **Lord of Darkness** on February 4, 2008, 9:30 AM

Now you know, man...now you know.

Okay, out of no where I started getting a crap load of users signing up to DigitalNigel.com (basically all of them spam, mind you), what changed?

Trev., have you been using your admin powers to ban ips and urls?

by **Admin Nigel** on February 4, 2008, 2:22 PM

Well, I get the same emails. I've just set up a filter on outlook to move those emails to a different directory and can go through them later. As for getting some more spam bot prevention measures. I'd be happy to if it's going to be worth it. Based on recent activity, there isn't looking like a lot of a point. Again, I'd be happy to work on this if we're going to work on bringing it back a little. If it's not really worth it, I'll lock down user registration so nobody can register, we wont get the emails, etc.

by **Fierce Omen** on February 12, 2008, 1:19 PM

I'm still here, in and out. But as far as the situation goes in this case I've got no idea how to stop these infernal things.

by **Admin Nigel** on February 12, 2008, 6:10 PM

There's a few mods I can install on the system to help make sure that bots aren't registering. There may also be an issue with the CAPTCHA image verification thingy, where it's letting some thru. I can look into it a bit.

by **Admin Nigel** on February 12, 2008, 6:25 PM

Also, at the time of posting this, I found it rather humourous that we have a total of 2883 registered members. Man, those bots have been busy!

EDIT: I went into the database and told it to delete anyone who wasn't already active. I doubt that causes any issues for anyone who legitimately was trying to set up someone with an account, but I'm sorry if it does. Now we are down to our normal listing of 24 members. Soon to be 7 trillion. (Even though there aren't that many people in the world.) :mrgreen:

by **Fierce Omen** on March 15, 2008, 6:41 PM

Glad to here it, am I still going to be getting loads of digitalnigel spam though?

by **Admin Nigel** on March 25, 2008, 3:27 PM

Yes, we all are, but I have an idea. I was thinking that we could shut down all registrations so that noone will be able to register. In this case, if you have anyone that you want joined, you can email me, and I can get it so that they can register, but otherwise, I'm considering just shutting down the registration page so that no bots can register. That would take care of our spam problem.

by **Fierce Omen** on April 3, 2008, 6:37 PM

Please do. I'm soooo tired of having to find my mail through countless digitalnigel ques. >.<

by **Admin Nigel** on April 4, 2008, 2:31 AM

Officially fixed. I've made it so that the registration page nolonger works. I've got a php die() statement set up in the system where it tries to begin registration processing. So that means, the registration link is still there, you can still fill out all the forms, but as soon as you click submit, it comes back with an error message. Therefore theoretically no more spam bots.

While I was at it I also cleared all the ones out of the database too. We had a buttload in there. I think my query removed over 1200 spam bots from the system. Hopefully no more.

Nigel

by **Paws** on April 9, 2008, 3:46 PM

Holy heck. 1200?! o_O Man, I stopped counting those messages in my inbox ages ago. ^_^; I had no idea the problem had gotten that bad.

by **Admin Nigel** on April 9, 2008, 9:47 PM

Well, 1200 in the few months since I last cleared it out. I fully suspect that we've had far far far more registrations via bots and people than a mere 1200. I have not though, since I disabled registrations, seen any new emails come up, so at least our inboxes aren't as inundated with spam.

by **Fierce Omen** on April 10, 2008, 8:07 PM

Thank the gods for that. Well ployed, Nigel, well ployed. :mrgreen:

by **Admin Nigel** on June 4, 2008, 4:48 PM

Well it seems that the upgrade to the new system has helped to fix our little spam problem. I haven't been noticing any spam going on here, and I have registrations set to user activation, so the new system must be keeping them out. YAY! NO SPAM!!!! (Knock on wood)

by **Fierce Omen** on June 10, 2008, 9:57 PM

If I see one a sudden flood from digital nigel I'm coming after you Nige. Even if that means traversing the entire width of the United States to find you. ^_^

by **Admin Nigel** on June 12, 2008, 11:45 AM

I could just make a program to spam us with random spamlike names to get back that good 'ol nostalgic email flooding! I've kinda been missing it. It made me feel popular.

by **Fierce Omen** on June 17, 2008, 8:03 PM

As touching as that is. I find hermiting from these digitalnigel wannabees much more comforting. I've got enough spam coming in as it is. lol.

by **Admin Nigel** on June 18, 2008, 4:57 PM

Aww, darn! I was hoping you wouldn't say that!

by **Fierce Omen** on June 19, 2008, 12:04 PM

Sorry buddy. You'll just have to find another group to cater to your popularity. ^_^

by **Admin Nigel** on June 19, 2008, 12:59 PM

Well, I suppose having a few active members kinda makes up for it.

by **Fierce Omen** on June 19, 2008, 1:03 PM

Well, unfortunately I don't know how to get much of the people who were at one point active... well active again. I could take a look on my myspace page and bother a few people. But that doesn't necessarily mean they'll show up.

by **Admin Nigel** on June 19, 2008, 1:03 PM

Theoretically we could send a mass email, but I feel like that just kinda annoys people rather than actually encouraging them.

by **Fierce Omen** on June 19, 2008, 1:05 PM

As long as it isn't consistent. I'm sure one little email wouldn't hurt. And I'll just comment to a few friends I know were on DN at one point.

by **Admin Nigel** on June 19, 2008, 1:06 PM

Well, do you have any ideas as to what to actually say in the email? If so, just go ahead and do it from the ACP.

by **Fierce Omen** on June 19, 2008, 1:07 PM

Sure, I'll get right on it.

by **Admin Nigel** on June 19, 2008, 1:08 PM

Do you realize that you have 1627 Posts?

by **Fierce Omen** on June 19, 2008, 1:10 PM

Do you realize how often I used to frequent this site?

by **Admin Nigel** on June 19, 2008, 1:12 PM

Well, considering that I've been *relatively* active through the course of this, and you subtract the 5000 I gave to myself a long time ago, you end up with a measly 455. You've done well!

by **Fierce Omen** on June 19, 2008, 1:17 PM

I also had a lot of time on my hands back then. lol. And this was about the only other site I ever visited aside from deviantart. But thanks much.

by **Admin Nigel** on June 19, 2008, 1:20 PM

Well, lets hope that deviantart has been doing better overall than this forum has.

by **Fierce Omen** on June 19, 2008, 1:27 PM

Don't get your hopes down man, I just finished sending the email. I'll do another few on the side on some other sites I frequent as well as myspace. And I'll bother Sean and Derick too for old times sake. We'll get this thing going again.

by **Admin Nigel** on June 19, 2008, 1:28 PM

Well we had Sean for a few days, then he disappeared again. It'll be good to get the crew back.

by **Fierce Omen** on June 19, 2008, 1:31 PM

I'm sure he's still around here. He's just good at not posting. *chuckles*

by **Admin Nigel** on June 19, 2008, 1:33 PM

You are right, He last visited on the fourth of this month, He's been around. Now if only he'd post. Damn it Jim!

by **Fierce Omen** on June 19, 2008, 1:35 PM

*chuckles*

by **Paws** on July 27, 2008, 3:00 PM

Bah to the both o' ya. I'm not not nearly as much of a slave to the internet as I was. I don't even play on Karchan much, now.

by **Fierce Omen** on July 28, 2008, 8:12 PM

I couldn't bring myself to play Karchan even when you tried to get me on it. I guess my rp's have mostly been forum or chatroom based (chatroom based since DN went into hybernation). Hell, I don't even do it often anymore, the only one I got going now is that one with Derek. (Oh, it's my turn to looks like)...

by **Admin Nigel** on July 29, 2008, 2:16 PM

What is this "Karchan" you speak of? I have heard of no such thing! Therefore it must not exist.

by **Fierce Omen** on November 1, 2009, 2:08 PM

A rather astute observation, but I'm afraid you're wrong. It very much does exist, but I'm too confused to decipher it's complexities.