Thread: Compare with this opinion PM

  1. #1
    Hurry Slowly vart's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2006
    Location
    Rishon LeZion, Israel
    Posts
    6,788

    Compare with this opinion PM

    I got the second PM "Compare with this opinion" with suspisios link.

    Now it is from MiracleM5. (previos was from historyR)

    I see his messages on the board are deleted, but what about PMs?
    All problems in computer science can be solved by another level of indirection,
    except for the problem of too many layers of indirection.
    – David J. Wheeler

  2. #2
    C++ Witch laserlight's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2003
    Location
    Singapore
    Posts
    28,412
    Sorry, you have to delete them yourself.
    Quote Originally Posted by Bjarne Stroustrup (2000-10-14)
    I get maybe two dozen requests for help with some sort of programming or design problem every day. Most have more sense than to send me hundreds of lines of code. If they do, I ask them to find the smallest example that exhibits the problem and send me that. Mostly, they then find the error themselves. "Finding the smallest program that demonstrates the error" is a powerful debugging tool.
    Look up a C++ Reference and learn How To Ask Questions The Smart Way

  3. #3
    Hurry Slowly vart's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2006
    Location
    Rishon LeZion, Israel
    Posts
    6,788
    Quote Originally Posted by laserlight View Post
    Sorry, you have to delete them yourself.
    seems to me these users are bots. Shouldn't these accounts be deleted?
    All problems in computer science can be solved by another level of indirection,
    except for the problem of too many layers of indirection.
    – David J. Wheeler

  4. #4
    C++ Witch laserlight's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2003
    Location
    Singapore
    Posts
    28,412
    Quote Originally Posted by vart
    Shouldn't these accounts be deleted?
    It amounts to the same thing here. I do not think that banned users can send PMs to other users. The PM that was sent to you was before the bot account was banned.
    Quote Originally Posted by Bjarne Stroustrup (2000-10-14)
    I get maybe two dozen requests for help with some sort of programming or design problem every day. Most have more sense than to send me hundreds of lines of code. If they do, I ask them to find the smallest example that exhibits the problem and send me that. Mostly, they then find the error themselves. "Finding the smallest program that demonstrates the error" is a powerful debugging tool.
    Look up a C++ Reference and learn How To Ask Questions The Smart Way

  5. #5
    Woof, woof! zacs7's Avatar
    Join Date
    Mar 2007
    Location
    Australia
    Posts
    3,459
    I thought you required n posts before being able to PM?

  6. #6
    Devil's Advocate SlyMaelstrom's Avatar
    Join Date
    May 2004
    Location
    Out of scope
    Posts
    4,079
    Quote Originally Posted by zacs7 View Post
    I thought you required n posts before being able to PM?
    I'm almost certain that there is a vBulletin exploit that the spammers have been using for a while. I don't know if this board has a minimum set, but I don't think it would matter regardless.
    Sent from my iPad®

  7. #7
    C++ Witch laserlight's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2003
    Location
    Singapore
    Posts
    28,412
    Quote Originally Posted by SlyMaelstrom
    I don't know if this board has a minimum set, but I don't think it would matter regardless.
    Yes, even with a minimum, the bot can first spam with posts, and then spam with PMs once the post requirement is reached.
    Quote Originally Posted by Bjarne Stroustrup (2000-10-14)
    I get maybe two dozen requests for help with some sort of programming or design problem every day. Most have more sense than to send me hundreds of lines of code. If they do, I ask them to find the smallest example that exhibits the problem and send me that. Mostly, they then find the error themselves. "Finding the smallest program that demonstrates the error" is a powerful debugging tool.
    Look up a C++ Reference and learn How To Ask Questions The Smart Way

  8. #8
    and the hat of copycat stevesmithx's Avatar
    Join Date
    Sep 2007
    Posts
    587
    i can't believe it's a bot. Even i find it difficult to read the captcha displayed during registration. How can a bot possibly process such a complicated image?.
    Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted
    - Albert Einstein.


    No programming language is perfect. There is not even a single best language; there are only languages well suited or perhaps poorly suited for particular purposes.
    - Herbert Mayer

  9. #9
    Crazy Fool Perspective's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jan 2003
    Location
    Canada
    Posts
    2,640
    Quote Originally Posted by stevesmithx View Post
    i can't believe it's a bot. Even i find it difficult to read the captcha displayed during registration. How can a bot possibly process such a complicated image?.
    There are a number of ways, the most clever of which use humans. Let's say Kermi want's to start spamming vbulliten boards. He already has probably 10s of users a day signing up here and filling in captchas. He just swaps the auto-gen captchas for the ones his bot is challenged with and the humans here solve the captcha for his bot.

    Alternately there could be a programming bug to bypass the captcha entirely.



    Suggestion: The right to PM should be based both on a minimum post count that spans at least one week. That way bots can be banned before they send out all of these annoying PMs.

  10. #10
    Hurry Slowly vart's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2006
    Location
    Rishon LeZion, Israel
    Posts
    6,788
    Quote Originally Posted by Perspective View Post
    There are a number of ways, the most clever of which use humans. Let's say Kermi want's to start spamming vbulliten boards. He already has probably 10s of users a day signing up here and filling in captchas. He just swaps the auto-gen captchas for the ones his bot is challenged with and the humans here solve the captcha for his bot.

    Alternately there could be a programming bug to bypass the captcha entirely.



    Suggestion: The right to PM should be based both on a minimum post count that spans at least one week. That way bots can be banned before they send out all of these annoying PMs.
    Or there is a web site the bot uses...

    Spammer creates a very attractive site that requires registration. (Download free porno video of the day, for example)
    As soon as bot initialtes the registration process on the vBulletin boars the captcha is downloaded and presented to the first user who wants to register on that "bot-support" site. user answer is than supplied to the vBulletin...
    All problems in computer science can be solved by another level of indirection,
    except for the problem of too many layers of indirection.
    – David J. Wheeler

  11. #11
    Crazy Fool Perspective's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jan 2003
    Location
    Canada
    Posts
    2,640
    >Or there is a web site the bot uses...

    That's what I meant by Kermi, he runs this web site (well, him and webmaster). Though porn-of-the-day probably would get more registration than cboard

  12. #12
    Crazy Fool Perspective's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jan 2003
    Location
    Canada
    Posts
    2,640
    Quote Originally Posted by independentg View Post
    When i read this topic, i think about that sort of things http://sourceradix.com/m/mon.html
    You may check that, and most likely it would change your mind. Whatever.


    ROFL! How terribly appropriate for this thread.


    edit: by the way, it's a spam bot post.. don't bother clicking the link. If the mods dont' catch it quick some of you will likely get a PM pretty soon from the same user.

  13. #13
    Officially An Architect brewbuck's Avatar
    Join Date
    Mar 2007
    Location
    Portland, OR
    Posts
    7,396
    Quote Originally Posted by worshipedu View Post
    When i read this topic, i think about that sort of things http://sourceradix.com/m/mon.html
    You may check that, and most likely it would change your mind. Whatever.
    Can we say "ban this netblock?" Jeez.
    Code:
    //try
    //{
    	if (a) do { f( b); } while(1);
    	else   do { f(!b); } while(1);
    //}

  14. #14

  15. #15
    Malum in se abachler's Avatar
    Join Date
    Apr 2007
    Posts
    3,195
    I think im still running 3.7.4, havent bothered with 3.8.1 yet I suppose I should...

    oops, just checked im at 3.7.1, really out of date,

Popular pages Recent additions subscribe to a feed

Similar Threads

  1. Help Writing My Own String Compare
    By djwicks in forum C Programming
    Replies: 4
    Last Post: 04-07-2005, 09:44 PM
  2. c++ string creation and file manipulation
    By ccb056 in forum C++ Programming
    Replies: 24
    Last Post: 09-20-2003, 02:01 PM
  3. Freedom of opinion
    By Shiro in forum A Brief History of Cprogramming.com
    Replies: 1
    Last Post: 02-10-2002, 07:06 AM
  4. Can't figure out why?
    By kwigibo in forum C Programming
    Replies: 10
    Last Post: 10-14-2001, 10:58 PM