The Grey Labyrinth is a collection of puzzles, riddles, mind games, paradoxes and other intellectually challenging diversions. Related topics: puzzle games, logic puzzles, lateral thinking puzzles, philosophy, mind benders, brain teasers, word problems, conundrums, 3d puzzles, spatial reasoning, intelligence tests, mathematical diversions, paradoxes, physics problems, reasoning, math, science.

Antrax · ESL Student

I actually plan on installing a "2+2" box when I find the time to upgrade our board version. OCR is getting really good, it's quite possible that's how bots circumvent it.
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After years of disappointment with get rich quick schemes, I know I'm gonna get rich with this scheme. And quick!

HyToFry · Drama queen

What about a good ol' "you can't post url hyperlinks until you're an Icarian Member--or maybe any ubb code at all?" and then them give someone Icarian member status at three posts?

That should completely eliminate google seeding, and any image spam we've gotten in the past.

We could also limit the "Start a new topic" option until a member has three posts.
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"History is merely a list of surprises. It can only prepare us to be surprised yet again." Hi ho.

MatthewV · Daedalian Member :_

Antrax · ESL Student

Hy, my problem with that idea is that the code change is non-trivial, and the contraints on my time are ridiculous this semester. If you have the time to implement this, go ahead, it's a much better solution (and if you look closely at the site code, you'll see something similar I stuck there).
The 2+2 box is trivial to implement, unless you actually want random addition exercises instead of a "just enter four in this box:" thing Felicitous

.
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After years of disappointment with get rich quick schemes, I know I'm gonna get rich with this scheme. And quick!

HyToFry · Drama queen

Samadhi · +1

Yeah, I don't see how that would limit anyone except someone who wanted to start a game and had less than 3 posts. I know it's free market...but c'mon...
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And he lived happily ever after. Except for the dieing at the end and the heartbreak in between.

HyToFry · Drama queen

I see where he's going now... "using a new name to start a mafia game"... Yeah my point stands.... They'd just have post three random "this is just to enable links" posts, and they'd be good to go.

It would also have the added benefit of letting people see the clever ramblings that people with access to the Spam forum get up to. Wink

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"History is merely a list of surprises. It can only prepare us to be surprised yet again." Hi ho.

Samadhi · +1

Why would anyone see those ramblings?
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And he lived happily ever after. Except for the dieing at the end and the heartbreak in between.

HyToFry · Drama queen

Good point.... I would edit my original post, but then people wouldn't see the changes (something that I think should be implemented on a site as clever as this.) So, without further ado.... "Let's go back."

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I see where he's going now... "using a new name to start a mafia game"... Yeah my point stands.... They'd just have post three random "this is just to enable links" posts, and they'd be good to go.

It would also have the added benefit of letting people see future clever ramblings--or, at least, new ramblings--in spam posts that people--who only used to only be people with access to the Spam forum--get up to. Wink

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"History is merely a list of surprises. It can only prepare us to be surprised yet again." Hi ho.

HyToFry · Drama queen

In conclusion: Making a good post takes several tries.

(that would have been funnier if you could see how many times I had to edit that last post to get my point across.) Extreme Delectation

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"History is merely a list of surprises. It can only prepare us to be surprised yet again." Hi ho.

Samadhi · +1

Actually, if YOU edit your post, people will see that.
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And he lived happily ever after. Except for the dieing at the end and the heartbreak in between.

HyToFry · Drama queen

Okay. Changed. Now what did it say before I changed it?
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"History is merely a list of surprises. It can only prepare us to be surprised yet again." Hi ho.

Samadhi · +1

Go ahead and change it. Felicitous

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And he lived happily ever after. Except for the dieing at the end and the heartbreak in between.

Antrax · ESL Student

I don't get it. Are you trying to demonstrate why spam is annoying? Confused

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After years of disappointment with get rich quick schemes, I know I'm gonna get rich with this scheme. And quick!

HyToFry · Drama queen

I am trying to argue with a know-it-all.

Sam is doing the same.

You're only adding to the problem. :p
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"History is merely a list of surprises. It can only prepare us to be surprised yet again." Hi ho.

Antrax · ESL Student

Bah, not my fault I know it all.
_________________
After years of disappointment with get rich quick schemes, I know I'm gonna get rich with this scheme. And quick!

Samadhi · +1

Two issues:

Mail checking. As it is, we seem to be benefiting from the fact that most spammers assume email checking. And while blocking certain email addresses has reactively produced results, should we be proactive? I have no idea what level of coding would be involved but I suspect there is a mod for it. But should we? There are so many people here that use character fudging for their email (IE samadhi69*at*gmail/dot*com!~) I don't know...it's just an idea, personally I don't like it.

Creating threads:
One suggestion that was made by someone (can't remember whom) is that new threads can't be made by people with less than 5 posts.

Again, I don't know the coding, but I suspect it wouldn't be huge. 99% of the spam for the last 6 months have been posts. Every night, the first thing I do is check the spam forum to deal with bots/assholes/whatever. I can remember 2 in the last 6 months (and that's only because there was one tonight).

Even if spammers somehow figured that they had to post in active threads instead of creating their own, that would be better. When GLers come to this site, they see the new threads and the threads with new posts. What's worse? Seeing a new thread about transexuals, or seeing a post about happiness has a new post...and upon checking, it's about transexuals.
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And he lived happily ever after. Except for the dieing at the end and the heartbreak in between.

HyToFry · Drama queen

I'm surprised the spam bots haven't learned how to vote yet.

I vote for the "no new threads for the first five posts" idea.
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"History is merely a list of surprises. It can only prepare us to be surprised yet again." Hi ho.

HyToFry · Drama queen

I also like the idea of a new Member Status of "Newbie" for the first two posts. That way we can glance to guess if it's a spam post or not.
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"History is merely a list of surprises. It can only prepare us to be surprised yet again." Hi ho.

Samadhi · +1

"Likely Spammer" is IMO perfect for the smart ass crowd we have here. Felicitous

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And he lived happily ever after. Except for the dieing at the end and the heartbreak in between.

HyToFry · Drama queen

I totally agree; however, it needs to not scare off new-posters. It will be funny to us, but a *real* new-user won't think it's so funny and could possibly take it offensively.
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"History is merely a list of surprises. It can only prepare us to be surprised yet again." Hi ho.

Courk · Daedalian Member

But... it's so funny.

Courk · Daedalian Member

OK, what if it's "likely spammer *nudge*

"

HyToFry · Drama queen

Perhaps a changing of forum names is in order?

I've only noticed spam ending up in Off-Topic. Maybe if we rename Off-Topic, and set up a *fake* Off-Topic which is accessable only to registered members (and, so, not google) then Spam posts will end up in the spam forum anyway.

Unless google does register? Also, it's a stupid idea if spam is everywhere, and I just haven't noticed it.
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"History is merely a list of surprises. It can only prepare us to be surprised yet again." Hi ho.

Antrax · ESL Student

Spam also appears on VSP and GLP. Also, I strongly doubt the bots read the forum name, they just choose a number.
_________________
After years of disappointment with get rich quick schemes, I know I'm gonna get rich with this scheme. And quick!

Samadhi · +1

Then maybe instead of 1, 2, 3, etc we should use e, pi, etc Felicitous

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And he lived happily ever after. Except for the dieing at the end and the heartbreak in between.

MatthewV · Daedalian Member :_

Off Topic also has the largest number of replies and threads. I seriously doubt that most spambots would choose #7...much more likely is that they seek out the widest used area.

HyToFry · Drama queen

We could fake the post count. We could even fake the posts.
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"History is merely a list of surprises. It can only prepare us to be surprised yet again." Hi ho.

Samadhi · +1

Aren't we already?
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And he lived happily ever after. Except for the dieing at the end and the heartbreak in between.

Antrax · ESL Student

Seems like too much effort for not enough gain. If you really want to help, code the"2+2 = ?" box in the registration screen to strongly de-standardise our registration form.
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After years of disappointment with get rich quick schemes, I know I'm gonna get rich with this scheme. And quick!

Bicho the Inhaler · Daedalian Member

Or take it to its natural next step: make new members solve a puzzle to register. Felicitous

I was joking when I first typed that, but now I think it could work. It could be a basic puzzle that anybody could solve with a little thought. "2 + 2 = ?" would probably work just as well, but a puzzle seems more in the GL spirit. Less practical, maybe, but more fun.

Also, I'm not sure how serious people were about this, but I'm opposed in general to "no access to forum functionality Y for the first X posts" and completely opposed to the "no new threads for the first X posts" proposal.

Courk · Daedalian Member

Even the simplest of puzzles might not be solvable to everyone.

wordcross · Posted: Tue Jul 25, 2006 1:51 am Post subject: 74

HyToFry · Drama queen

Courk · Daedalian Member

I'm opposed to that, too, actually. I know I was terribly shy before I made my first post. I had no idea what to say, and all I was doing was signing up for a game. I can just picture someone who comes up with a puzzle they want to post, but we're going to make them post in other threads first? Most of us regulars can blow through 3 posts without even thinking about what we're typing, because we know everyone and everyone knows us. No one will know these new members, and some people can find that very intimidating when trying to make a first post that just exists to boost their post count.

And I've lost my train of thought...

Samadhi · +1

HyToFry · Drama queen

Silly hy.
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"History is merely a list of surprises. It can only prepare us to be surprised yet again." Hi ho.

Amb* · Guest

THe front page link has a rather unsavoury set of explanation titles. While personally I dont care, I really dont want this popping up under spam in case work filters get me accused of looking stuff up.... Can we have it retitled?

Samadhi · +1

Changed.
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And he lived happily ever after. Except for the dieing at the end and the heartbreak in between.