First post by new member subject to Moderator approval.

[-CB-]

Third time - you ban the whole subnet - for instance 123.123.123.***

Great. So somebody using the same ISP I do pulls this kind of crap, I get blocked as well? Go that way and you end up blocking *.*.*.* in the end.

Is there a way that the authorities could be contacted about any possibly illegal post made by a pronbot?

Yes, its within the range of possibilities to inadvertently ban wanted users.  In practice, I never once saw it to be the case.  Why?  Because I checked the IP's coming in from good users, checked the IPs from bad users, and we simply did not have any in the same ranges.  As I said - Italy.. big big problem.  China - massive problem  Netherlands too for that matter has its fair share.  Greece.  Turkey, Russia.

Let me tell you about China.  Right here on my network, I reject probably 2000 to 5000 request from China daily.  If they were individual...I'd probably not have noticed.  But what they do is a complete and thorough port scan, searching for openings.  I do run an FTP server and HTTP server here.  Both are set up in ways to reject crawlers and such, but the Chinese... they just keep pounding, and pounding and pounding, to the point that it will take my T1 line and bring it to a crawl at times.  But, the Chinese are not the worst for the porno.  That goes to the Italians.

Unless threats are made, or the postings are containing verifiable kiddie porn, the authorities have no interest and better things to do with their time.

=CB= thanx for the IT side of the issue, appreciated. I think there's an International Treaty or the like that resolves to stop this sort of modelling happening but maybe some countries haven''t signed it or haven't enacted laws to eniorce the Treaty there? :dontknow:

In China's case,  I guess it's possibly the anarchy that can happen sometimes when a mega huge bureaucracy tries to control everything and is spread a little too thin doing that, and the end result is some businesses can corruptly be avoided and do what they want to do. :icon_scratch:

China does it on purpose.  They are constantly trying to gain access to any computer system.  I get get it on my network.  I get it at work - we have the China hour, as we call it, when external connections across the network are jammed.  Happens about 10am eastern for us.  We have whats called a flexible
PRI T1 there (a pair of them actually).  So our normal T1 bandwidth is based on the available voice channels.  There are 23 channels of 56k on a PRI, plus a control channel, making 24 total.  When we want to knock the Chinese for a loop... all we gotta do is... well it involves the phones, thats all I'm saying on that.

Let me give you yet another scenario here, which is, whatever we see as real, is not real.  And that which we consider unreal, may in fact be real.  That is, ladies and gents, that may have been a sting post, trolling for pervs to see who bites.  Happens.  An examination of the IP would give some clues - but I do think that most, if not all, of that type of offensive tripe that comes from the USA to USA networks is a sting.  Its been mentioned before online, and in trade publications.

 

[Mor Paul]

Didn't see this, thankfully. But I think W ought to offer moderator status to a few regulars in different time zones to at least nip this in the bud and ban individual users. If it gets worse, maybe more drastic measures should be taken but volunteer moderators would be a helpful start and I can't see any reasons against it. DBW offered already, and I would second his nomination if he really wants to.

Who are the regular Asian/OZ and European posters that might want to volunteer?

I wouldn't mind being one too, though I can understand not getting it, being young and all.
If we create a moderator group, I think post hiding would be best, instead of deleting. Once the post is hidden, the administrators can choose to delete it or not.
For user accounts, short term bands at maximum, and then the administrators can choose whether or not to make it permanent.

 

[OzziePete]

China does it on purpose.  They are constantly trying to gain access to any computer system.  I get get it on my network.  I get it at work - we have the China hour, as we call it, when external connections across the network are jammed.  Happens about 10am eastern for us.  We have whats called a flexible
PRI T1 there (a pair of them actually).  So our normal T1 bandwidth is based on the available voice channels.  There are 23 channels of 56k on a PRI, plus a control channel, making 24 total.  When we want to knock the Chinese for a loop... all we gotta do is... well it involves the phones, thats all I'm saying on that.

Let me give you yet another scenario here, which is, whatever we see as real, is not real.  And that which we consider unreal, may in fact be real.  That is, ladies and gents, that may have been a sting post, trolling for pervs to see who bites.  Happens.  An examination of the IP would give some clues - but I do think that most, if not all, of that type of offensive tripe that comes from the USA to USA networks is a sting.  Its been mentioned before online, and in trade publications.

Aaah I get it about China then. There's some similarity about what you're mentioning here, to what I knew from my previous job, and 'Govt. stuff'.  :icon_thumright:

Re: the loop, does it involves feedback and electrical interferrence that really upsets pc's hacking into that circuit, lol! :laughing8: :evil4: (The thought of hundreds of PCs across China suddenly flashing a blue flame and the smell of carbon ................ ccasion14: job well done!)

I suppose that if this stuff was a bait for a sting then we should at least be thankful that somewhere there's some agency trying to be proactive rather than wait for some parent to complain about their kids being approached over the net. And I hope they catch a lot in their efforts, if that's the case!

 

[OzziePete]

Hiding posts and Threads from new users for say the first 10 or 20 posts woulkd be a good idea, Max. That way, the posts could sit in some sort of inbox for the Mods to assess, and we all wouldn't have the rubbish open to us to see. :icon_thumright:

 

[-CB-]

I'm not sure if this software allows hiding... its actually a version of what I was using before.  What it does allow is moving to a restricted area.

I'm of the opinion this is all much ado about very little.  Gregg cant do it all, but frankly...not he, nor anybody can do anything except clean messes.  You just cannot read every post.  You cant have 100 percent total security and cleanliness.  Instead, staff must rely on being informative to the membership, asking for their help, and acting quickly and completely to reports of abuse or offense.

If you think about it - this place is like a party at Gregg's place.  We're the partiers, its up to us to make it work, but... its Gregg's place, and we all need to be mindful of it.  The way I used to describe it to folks who complained of censorship...was... hey, dont come to my place, and poo in the corner of the living room!~  Expect consequences if you do!~!~

 

[Mor Paul]

You just cannot read every post

Actually... I...

Well, except for the ones that were deleted.

 

[tfarny]

Well if you had an open-door, anonymous 1000 person party at my place every night, I'd surely want a few trusted friends with the pre-approval to help bounce folks who deserved it.

 

[OzziePete]

Good points raised about the Mods reading the posts of newbies =CB=. Would be a boring job too, in the majority of time.

But how many newbies would we get in a  week?

These bad posts and Threads popped up and stood out by a mile in our Forum - meaning we can easily detect newbies on the fourm making comment. In your comparison to the party situation, it's like someone from out of town turning up to a local church gathering, you kinda look different.

But I guess Wyliee, Gregg do have 'day' jobs & probably a busy social, family and musical schedule too. Not all of us have no life outside of the PC (*sigh*  :sad

 

[Alfang]

Wow, like many, I missed the offensive post, and thanks CB for telling us what you know, ( I am building a website now, but security will be done by the hosting service )

But I don't think we need to change any rules or proceedures just yet, lets hope this was a one time thing, I think we police ourselves pretty good on this site,  I have tried a couple other forums, only to lose respect for the whole place due to the way they act. I don't think we have that here.

Lets not Pee In Greggs Pool

 

[Volitions Advocate]

I started this thread so I guess I'll just say that I hope I didn't seem like I'm being the loudmouth at the party trying to run things.  Mostly I just wanted to put out an idea and have a discussion. which I think has happened so I'm happy.

I'd offer myself as a moderator, but I'm one whole entire hour ahead of the guys at W and I'm a student (soon to be a working student) so I have very little time to be of much help anyway.

Hopefully I don't seem lazy in bringing up a topic and then not helping with it, but I'm glad we're all mostly on the same page.

 

[OzziePete]

I started this thread so I guess I'll just say that I hope I didn't seem like I'm being the loudmouth at the party trying to run things.  Mostly I just wanted to put out an idea and have a discussion. which I think has happened so I'm happy.

I didn't get that impression from your first post on the subject. Just someone very concerned about the improper content and the fact we do have some folks here u18 who might be targetted if things got very nasty with links etc..
But after =CB= filled in some of the blanks about what happens on the other side of them pipes for forum websites, well, we've pretty much covered what can be done if it becomes neccessary..
I'd reckon that the Mods got a shock at the reports we put in too, you kinda like to think that this place is pretty decent, and that folks will let them know the minute they see something nasty pop up again.

As I'm on the other side of the Pacific I'll keep an eye out for anything improper, hope that Wana (please DO NOT open the links Wana!) and a few others of us around these parts do the same too.

 

[-CB-]

I tend to think of a board as a living online publication.  An evolving web-zine. 

For every participating member, there are 10's or 100's of lurkers.  Those that dont want to contribute, are not members, but are the constant stream of "Guests" that come and go.

Its important to maintain an even keel.  Its important to look fresh, and its important to have civility. 

There are lots of "free for all" forums and boards out "there" on the web.... this need not be one of them.

In moderation, less is more.  Well if you think of it - moderation means exactly that.. (sort of...).  An easy hand, housekeeping, gentle reminders if needed.  But that easy hand must also be firm... a lot can be done behind the scenes to make things as dandy as Milliway's for all of us awaiting the end of the universe.

 

[jay4321]

The easier way to go about this to have a few forum regulars with some semblance of maturity given some moderator status. Restricting the posts of new members will help filter out the spam type issues, but will also discourage new people from joining/posting and create more work for the moderators anyway.

 

[Mor Paul]

Speaking of spam...

Who else caught a whiff of it?

 

[-CB-]

Was that spam?  Dang... I thought it was mild salami... so I got out the hot mustard and hard crust bread!~.

 

[Mor Paul]

I thought it was bologna, and I was going to put it on some toast.

 

[-CB-]

come to think of it, that spam WAS a bunch of bolonga....er... baloney!~

 

[dbw]

If I can help somehow without doing too much work, let me know!  :rock-on:

 

[-CB-]

.....passes the Thagomizer to DBW.....

Ok, just sit at the door with that, and look sternly at all who enter.  That should do it.

 

[Dan025]

.....passes the Thagomizer to DBW.....

Ok, just sit at the door with that, and look sternly at all who enter.  That should do it.

reminds me or the air force,

our security forces were stretched thin stateside so they had people off the flightline get qualified on the m-16 in a higher class that requires you to requalify once a year rather than 3 years, put them in a security forces squadron hat not the official black beret and gave us a vest w/o ballistics plate and had us check ID's we had like 2 hours of security training that ended in a test that if you passed by default because if you didnt the instructor gave you answers until you did.
they posted one of us at the gate with m-16 in hand next to contracted civilians ie. rent-a-cop's  one per gate and the 3-5 real cop's per shift that were available drove the squad cars and manned the security desk.
we had m-16's because its all the air force would qualify us on. the idea was to look intimidating without the airforce spending money on bullets to train you. and when it came to discharging our weapons the cosensus was don't. the legal implications of a non security forces member fireing on civilians could be bad threat or no threat. but at least they gave us bullets.