Thread: A way to fight spam?

  1. #1

    A way to fight spam?


  2. #2
    Mayor of Awesometown Govtcheez's Avatar
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    It's a bad idea and I can't see any positive results coming from it.

  3. #3
    Why?

  4. #4
    Mayor of Awesometown Govtcheez's Avatar
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    First of all, they're not throwing a ton of traffic at the servers - only a couple MB a person a day. Unless a crapload of people download it, it won't make a huge impact. Besides, don't you think they're made to take a beating?

    Secondly, the excess traffic for no real reason just clogs up pipes

    Finally, what happens when the spammers retaliate?

  5. #5
    Well, a lot of people using is supposed to be the point of it.

    don't you think they're made to take a beating?

    Secondly, the excess traffic for no real reason just clogs up pipes
    About that, I donīt know enough to have an opinion.

    About spammers retaliating, I'm not so sure what they can do. I donīt think they will flood me even more out of spite. And even if they do, maybe we would have a lot less new spammers in the future.

  6. #6
    Mayor of Awesometown Govtcheez's Avatar
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    >Well, a lot of people using is supposed to be the point of it.

    Duh, but I don't think enough people will to make a difference.

    > About spammers retaliating, I'm not so sure what they can do.

    DDOS other sites? Find the IP the attacks are coming from and attack those right back?

    I doubt other sites would be as excited to do something like this if they so Lycos go down all of a sudden.

    Am I the only person that read this and thought "Lycos is still around?"

  7. #7
    and the Hat of Clumsiness GanglyLamb's Avatar
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    Only thing i have to say is this:

    i installed it yesterday evening, this morning i didnt had any internet connection since my isp was having problems, still the screensaver was "working" like it was doing the night before when i was connected to the internet....

    I dont know what i should i think of it , if it really does what it says it needs an internet connection; which i obviously didnt had this morning when i saw this thing going on....

    Weird things and i already uninstalled the thing since im almost at the max of my upload limit ( only get 2 G a month to upload )

    Greets,

    Ganglylamb.

  8. #8
    Boh

  9. #9
    Registered User whackaxe's Avatar
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    hehe yeah govtcheez, i thought the lycos dog died already?

    but the traffic generated will be qute big, 20.000 people as of yet, in one day thats 60 gigs a day (ie: 1.2 terabytes a month, however much bandwith their servers have, I doubt any spam company has got the the wallet to foot that) counting 3mb as minimum generated traffic. and thats 20.000 people in 4 days,(ok firefox gets more, but hey ) that figure can only go back up.

    if the spammers decide to spam people back, they'll be using even more bandiwth (more costs) and DOSing 20.000 people, thats alot of people to get through

    on the other hand, there propbably alot of spam companie to get through
    I loathe pointers

  10. #10
    Mayor of Awesometown Govtcheez's Avatar
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    > that figure can only go back up.

    Maybe, but that's not for sure. If people like GanglyLamb have problems, they'll probably uninstall it. Also, I know he's not one of the only people that have limits on upload/download imposed by their ISPs.

    > if the spammers decide to spam people back, they'll be using even more bandiwth

    I don't think you understand what these people do for a living.

    I dunno, if you want to clog up the internet with pointless traffic like this, you go ahead, I guess. Seems like a waste when there's actually worthwhile distributed computing apps (SETI@home, folding@home) out there. There have to be ways to stop spam, but I'm pretty damn sure this isn't an effective one.

  11. #11
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    ...only get 2 G a month to upload...
    More and more ISPs seem to be imposing limits these days, and this one is true for mine also.

    2GB per month works out at roughly 66MB per day, so 3MB is significant but not crippling.

    I'm really not certain about using DDoS attacks against the spammers. After all, only one or two spam sales justify the next 10,000 spams, including the pr0n0 spam sent to kids.

    They'll get their money. After all, much of it is funded by criminal activity so it could serve to boost more of the same criminal activity in order to finance the extra load.

    But I haven't thought it through fully, so those thoughts really are random.

  12. #12
    Cat without Hat CornedBee's Avatar
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    I see two main problems with this.

    First, there are two kinds of internet users. Those who have to pay the time they're on. And those that pay for transfer volume. The first kind can't use this screensaver, because they're only online when they're actually doing something, i.e. the screensaver isn't running. The second kind, well, it depends on the limit. A very common limit is 500 MB per month. 3 MB * 30 days = 90 MB, that's nearly 20% of the limit. Does the user want this? Most people will say they don't. The number of people who have no limit (such as me) is very small.

    Second, what about the legal and ethical aspects? There were worms that launched DDoS attacks on pages. As long as the spammers aren't doing anything illegal - and under most countries' laws they aren't, if I recall correctly - then this screensaver would be a direct attempt to disrupt profits of companies in a way that is surely illegal, isn't it? Or even if the companies are illegal, that still doesn't make it right. It's lynch justice. It's taking illegal steps to bring down illegal things - no one will object, probably, but it's still unethical.
    All the buzzt!
    CornedBee

    "There is not now, nor has there ever been, nor will there ever be, any programming language in which it is the least bit difficult to write bad code."
    - Flon's Law

  13. #13
    Mayor of Awesometown Govtcheez's Avatar
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    > Those who have to pay the time they're on. And those that pay for transfer volume.

    And there are people who pay a flat fee for everything. I download and upload several gigs a month and my bill never changes.

  14. #14
    Cat without Hat CornedBee's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Govtcheez
    > Those who have to pay the time they're on. And those that pay for transfer volume.

    And there are people who pay a flat fee for everything. I download and upload several gigs a month and my bill never changes.
    I know. I'm one of them, thanks to my special student account. However, I believe we're in a small minority.
    All the buzzt!
    CornedBee

    "There is not now, nor has there ever been, nor will there ever be, any programming language in which it is the least bit difficult to write bad code."
    - Flon's Law

  15. #15
    Mayor of Awesometown Govtcheez's Avatar
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    No, I don't think my Comcast account is anything special.

    I don't know of anyone in the US who has broadband and pays either for the time they're connected or for how much they upload. It's all unlimited, AFAIK.

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