The Grey Labyrinth is a collection of puzzles, riddles, mind games, paradoxes and other intellectually challenging diversions. Related topics: puzzle games, logic puzzles, lateral thinking puzzles, philosophy, mind benders, brain teasers, word problems, conundrums, 3d puzzles, spatial reasoning, intelligence tests, mathematical diversions, paradoxes, physics problems, reasoning, math, science.

Antrax · ESL Student

So far I've noticed one post that looked like spam but didn't have any links, hidden links, profile links or anything at all to really make it spam. I left it alone just in case.
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After years of disappointment with get rich quick schemes, I know I'm gonna get rich with this scheme. And quick!

Samadhi · +1

Those posters invariably repost under a new name and are chock full of spam. I don't know why they do that.
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And he lived happily ever after. Except for the dieing at the end and the heartbreak in between.

Courk · Daedalian Member

Was it just me or did we get a huge wave of spam today?

Lepton* · Guest

We did. Check the spam forum. =]

Antrax · ESL Student

Good news, everyone! I failed my mandatory "basic electricity and magnetism" exam, and as a result was deleted from Physics 2 for not having the necessary prerequisites. This means I have an extra 10 free hours or so every week, and that I don't have to take that cursed course for another semester.
More to the point, it means I FINALLY found the time to install some new anti-spam measures. Currently it's yet, another subtle change to our registration forms that should confuse most bots. If (when) this proves not to be enough, I'll install the "question" mod, as people reported dropping from multiple postings a day to completely nothing after installing it with some personalised questions. Here's to hoping.
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After years of disappointment with get rich quick schemes, I know I'm gonna get rich with this scheme. And quick!

Antrax · ESL Student

Oh, hell yes. As expected, the prior modification didn't really stop the bots. However, this new mod I've installed is so jam-packed with random options and annoying anti-bot measures, I am actually optimistic about it stopping spam. Samadhi, Hy, etc: please don't change the settings without telling me, but feel free to add more questions. Just avoid ones whose answers are "yes" or "no" ("yeah" and "no way" are fine).
Let's see if this works.
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After years of disappointment with get rich quick schemes, I know I'm gonna get rich with this scheme. And quick!

Samadhi · +1

That's pretty cool.

Antrax · ESL Student

(if anyone's curious, try to register now and see what replaces the old visual confirmation)
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After years of disappointment with get rich quick schemes, I know I'm gonna get rich with this scheme. And quick!

Courk · Daedalian Member

I was having fun playing with that, until I exceeded the registration attempt limit. Felicitous

James Madison · Icarian Member

Dammit Courk, now you've got me doing it! Razz

<--wordcross

Lepton* · Guest

Antrax, that rocks, dude.

Antrax · ESL Student

All I did was read a lot about the problem and potential solutions, then chose one of many pre-made solutions. If I'd written it myself (as originally intended) it would have taken much longer and the end result wouldn't be as sophisticated. I mean, generating random math questions in image form, wow.
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After years of disappointment with get rich quick schemes, I know I'm gonna get rich with this scheme. And quick!

Samadhi · +1

Enough already. You didn't need to be awesome, but you were. Recognize.

Antrax · ESL Student

It took an extra semester, but I eventually crushed Physics 2 (btw, why does a wave's phase "reset" when it goes through a pin-hole? If I knew that back then, I would've scored 100% Melancholy

)

That being said, the spam bots are back. I actually suspect they're spam humans, since I didn't hear about any huge advances in the field of CAPTCHA-solving.
Does anyone have a good suggestion of how to deal with this? We don't want to remove ourselves from search engines (see the "new blood" thread), but an original solution like the asterix (that still works wonders) would be welcome.
The problem statement is users sign up, choose a bunch of random threads and post in them, usually something that somewhat relevant. However, they embed a link either in their signature or their post.
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After years of disappointment with get rich quick schemes, I know I'm gonna get rich with this scheme. And quick!

Jack_Ian · Big Endian

Possibilities:

1) New members must wait 24 hours before being allowed to post. They can always post as a guest if they're desperate. This will probably upset mafia games though where new usernames are created.

2) First 24 hours. Posts must begin with an asterisk.

3) Any attempt to post a link within the first 20 posts will result in the post being rejected. New users can always just paste the URL into the post and invite users to copy it into their browser.

I quite like option 3. Not sure how easy it would be to implement though.

Jack_Ian · Big Endian

Neo · Daedalian Member