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19 - Absolute Power |
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13/07/07
I'll sing you a song, it won't take long: All spammers are
bastards! |
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The internet is in a pretty bad way. At least, that's if
the two months it's taken me to make my forums
spam-proof are anything to go by. I was a relative
latecomer to the net, gaining access in late 1999
(although I wouldn't have a home connection for another
five years after that). Despite my fairly short time
online, I still feel a sense of nostalgia for how things
used to be. It seemed as if you didn't have to register
for anything if you didn't want to, and spam was limited
to the occasional 419-scam email preying on the
credulity of the stupid. Nowadays, you'll struggle to
find any forum that doesn't require registration, and
spam is everywhere. Not just in email, but plastered all
over the web. My understanding of the inept spam
postings you'll often find on forums is that their
primary purpose is not to generate clicks from the forum
users (since even the spammers, it seems, aren't stupid
enough to imagine that disrupting somebody's discussion
forum is a god way to ingratiate them with towards your
product) but to increase the number of search engine
hits for their product, thus moving it up the Google
rankings. In a sense, this is more
insulting than mere spam. At least those emails you'd get
advertising some cheap Viagra knock-off were targeted at
you. You were seen as a potential customer. With this forum
spam, you're reduced to a mere tool: a means to an end.
I'm afraid that there isn't going to be much to this posting
other than me saying "I don't like spammers" - not exactly
an original view, I know. But it is something I feel strongly
about. Sure, there are worse things going on in the world
than the consistent disruption of discussion forums, but
nonetheless, I feel that anybody who will cheerfully infuriate
millions of ordinary, decent people for a few potential
sales of their crappy product has to belong to a special
class of evil. Actually, "evil", overused as it is, probably
isn't the best word. To act in this manner suggests a lack
of conscience, an absence of empathy towards other humans.
I mean, I harbour a generalised disdain towards the vast
majority of humanity, but this is way beyond anything that
I'd do. Even if I was offered all the money and cheap, crappy
drugs I could handle.
Finally, on a more positive anti-spam note, I suggest anybody
out there with a forum that's being spammed look for a "security
question" mod. I very much doubt it'll be a permanent solution,
but right now it's working well for me.
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Would you like to buy your
own plot of fire on the sun? |
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