# This is a test of the emergency spamblock system



## Netscape Tester (Feb 20, 2005)

This is only a test....

http://www.wizards.com
http://boards1.wizards.com
http://www.nuklearpower.com
Wizards


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## Michael Morris (Feb 20, 2005)

Netscape Tester said:
			
		

> This is only a test....
> 
> http://www.wizards.com
> http://boards1.wizards.com
> ...




And this is a followup of that test.


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## Michael Morris (Feb 20, 2005)

Ok, it works.  Here's the deal.  The primary goal of the comment spammers we've been plagued with of late has been to up their page visibility on webcrawlers such as Google, MSN, Alta Vista and others.  They know full well they're going to get banned - often within minutes of posting - but if their post can last an hour or so they'll get a reference which ups their page relevance and gives them a free higher listing on search engines.

Or so they believe.  Google and the other major search engines have implemented a new element within the <a href> tag called rel="nofollow".  When a webcrawler sees that tag on a link it will disregard the link on the page and not follow it.  To put it bluntly, it turns the spammer's effort into a complete waste of their time - which is only fair, they're wasting our time.

This marker will appear on all user submitted links where the user has fewer than 50 posts.  Once you clear that threshhold the system will allow web-crawlers to follow your links back to your homepages.


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## Darkness (Feb 20, 2005)

That's, very very cool.


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## Ashwyn (Feb 20, 2005)

Darkness said:
			
		

> That's, very very cool.



Yes it is. I like it. I like it a lot.


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## Eternalknight (Feb 20, 2005)

Nice one.  Does it work on sigs too?  Otherwise, what is to stop a spammer just posting the link in his/her sig?


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## Michael Morris (Feb 20, 2005)

It works on 'sigs too.

Anyway - this is annoying to them, but not a real deterrent.  I've begun work on something to outright stop (or at least GREATLY hinder) these bastards.  I am fed up.


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## Piratecat (Feb 20, 2005)

Michael, that's really clever.


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## Zappo (Feb 20, 2005)

That's a good enough idea that I would send it to the vbulletin developers.  As things stand now, spammers won't know this, so they'll spam anyways.


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## Michael Morris (Feb 20, 2005)

I think it's added as of 3.0.7, in any case I got the idea of vbulletin.org so I'm sure they're aware of it.


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## Ankh-Morpork Guard (Feb 20, 2005)

That is genious


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## Hand of Evil (Feb 20, 2005)

Still say death is an open option for them!


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## Dimwhit (Feb 20, 2005)

Too bad the forum script can't be set so it changes their URL to instead display their personal home address and phone number...

Great job, MM!


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## Umbran (Feb 20, 2005)

Downright spiffy!


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## BSF (Feb 20, 2005)

That's cool Michael.  Good job.


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## weiknarf (Feb 20, 2005)

excellent


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## Gez (Feb 20, 2005)

Of course, preventing all newbies from posting links altogether would be just mean... 

While we're discussing about conditional modifiers to links, what about suppressing the "target=_blank" part of links created with the [post] and [thread] tags? And what about a [forum] tag?


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## Truth Seeker (Feb 21, 2005)

Wait, isn't there anyway, we just could go to their home(s), and take away their PC(s)?

Uhm....*thinking* nix that idea.....


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## IronWolf (Feb 21, 2005)

Sounds like a great new feature!


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## andargor (Feb 21, 2005)

Currently being tested by a spammer in the Software forum! 

Andargor


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## Michael Morris (Feb 21, 2005)

Yes, this is starting to be a daily thing.  Well, they're about to meet a new friend of mine (goes back to coding).


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## andargor (Feb 21, 2005)

Scarface said:
			
		

> Say hello to my little friend!






Andargor


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## the Jester (Feb 21, 2005)

Nicely done, Michael!


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## William Ronald (Feb 23, 2005)

Well done, Michael!  Thanks again for all the hard work.


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## FoolishFrost (Feb 23, 2005)

Michael Morris said:
			
		

> Yes, this is starting to be a daily thing.  Well, they're about to meet a new friend of mine (goes back to coding).




As a minor php hacker working on postnuke, pnphpbb2, and enything else I can make work:  You're my HERO!


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## Maldur (Feb 25, 2005)

Not bad for someone that wears hats 

Good show, old boy, good show.


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## reanjr (Feb 25, 2005)

Fantastic idea.  I should go implement that on my blog.


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## reanjr (Feb 25, 2005)

Michael Morris said:
			
		

> It works on 'sigs too.
> 
> Anyway - this is annoying to them, but not a real deterrent.  I've begun work on something to outright stop (or at least GREATLY hinder) these bastards.  I am fed up.




Can you be a bit more specific?  I'm always looking for ways to maim... I mean stop... spammers on my site.


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## Michael Morris (Feb 25, 2005)

I'm currently using a blacklist system which was announced in a seperate thread. I'm not done with it yet and I'm not comfortable releasing it yet.


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## freebfrost (Feb 25, 2005)

Absolutely brilliant!

Great job Michael!


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## Barendd Nobeard (Feb 25, 2005)

Michael:

First, nice feature!

Second, thanks for all you do to keep this place running smoothly!


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## reveal (Feb 25, 2005)

Um... How does this thing work? I posted a thread here http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?t=122343 and I have three edited comments because, in all instances, they had two links, one to rpgnow and one to enworld, within them. Am I considered a spammer now? 

Edit: Initially it displayed my post but, for whatever reason, I would go back in a few minutes later and it would change to the links.


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