Forum Moderators and Rules/Guidelines

[Astro Forever]

Vergere has done an amazing job. He found a way to prevent the spammers from posting even before they get the chance. That's why you see his nickname on the main page all the time, even though he does sleep and lead a normal life!

You don't hear much from him on the forum, but Verege has always done an amazing job with the spammers. We used to have them once in a while but they rarely got through, mainly thanks to him. Now that the situation has become worse, he's found a new an effective solution. I'll let him explain if he wants to!

We all owe a lot to him. You will see a few bad posts once in a while, but for each one that gets through, there are MANY that nobody else but the moderators will ever see!

[Vergere]

For the curious, I have some statistics. Since the start of the spam attack, 1st october:
- According to the moderation log, I have deleted 162 posts, that were all spam.
- 210 new accounts have been created, all of them suspected to be for spam purpose, and most of them confirmed as such. This is almost twice as many as the accounts created since april (many of them were spammers by the way).

I won't tell what I did. Any information I give might be used by the spammers to fine-tune their attacks. However, if you are devoured by curiosity, just send my a PM and swear not to repeat it to the spammers.

[AstroBoyGF]

YAY, FOR VERGERE FOR STOPPING SPAMMER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[jeffbert]

For the curious, I have some statistics. Since the start of the spam attack, 1st october:
- According to the moderation log, I have deleted 162 posts, that were all spam.
- 210 new accounts have been created, all of them suspected to be for spam purpose, and most of them confirmed as such. This is almost twice as many as the accounts created since april (many of them were spammers by the way).

I won't tell what I did. Any information I give might be used by the spammers to fine-tune their attacks. However, if you are devoured by curiosity, just send my a PM and swear not to repeat it to the spammers.

Please do not endanger our best anti-spam weapon by this offer of disclosure. It has been said, "3 can keep a secret so long as 2 are dead."

[Fauna]

Yeah, I'd be afraid of them hacking into my inbox and endangering all of OH MY GOSH ONE OF MADE A DIRTY THREAD I AM SO SICK OF THESE GUYS

Why are they doing this?! It's not to sell anything, just link up with horrible things! And we're only talking about Astro Boy, normally!

[MightyAstro]

Why are they doing this?! It's not to sell anything, just link up with horrible things! And we're only talking about Astro Boy, normally!

They're just sick people Fauna.

[Vergere]

There is a reason behind this: money. I told you not to click on the links, because they contain malware. Malware takes over your computer so it secretly obeys their orders. It is used to extend their botnet, which in turn gains computing power to increase its attack power. Some of the spams trully are commercial and meant to earn money.
They're sick, yes. But they're not fools.

[Fauna]

Don't worry, I never clicked on their external links. Just that freaky thread by accident. :d oh:
My family's old computer died by way of malware; my parents tried to watch a news clip on a YouTube imitation site, and soon we found we were sharing our computer with a jerk in Des Moines.

Oh crap, the bots are back again.

[CommanderEVE]

Spammer attacks’ eh?

Interesting, maybe you should turn the forum to Admin approval of new accounts. But then some still slip though, it’s a pain. But I wonder, are they all coming from the same IP address? Because then you could possibly IP ban them.

Edit: Well done Vergere.

[Vergere]

Most IP addresses are different, coming from everywhere around the world. This is obviously a botnet.