The Dink Network

Has he been, like, geting laid or something? Having kids? Did he actually get a job? Did he start that one band with that one hit single that topped the charts? Seems like I haven't seen him around here in forever.

Oh, I totally know what you mean! It's like he disappeared
off the face of the earth! What crazy hijinks might he be
up to? Maybe he's sailing all the way around a large puddle
or perhaps climbing the highest 7-11 around! Oooh, the mystery.
The suspense!

???

I don't know. Where has he been?

Maybe he has been planning a grand return, with free cookies for everyone!

Yeah, I wonder where he is, too. Did you hear anything about where Tal might be, Tal?

Yeah, he's been missed lately, but I figured he was starting that band of his or something.

Perhaps he's off exploring the caverns of Marmalade or
fighting his way through the forests of WallaWalla BingBang.
Maybe he decided to become a pirate and is off looting
KooKooKachoo!

Or he's acting like Tal again.

Probably rather Boom Shakalakalaka Island.

Tal finally got his big boy hair.

Alright, so truthfully, I paid a lot less attention to this place after...

a) sinking into WoW
b) finding someone nearby that I care deeply for
and c) growing weary of moving lance's threads (sorry, man ) and putting up with a bunch of idiots in general.

But, I'm lurking regularly again, as a mod probably should do.

and putting up with a bunch of idiots in general.

Us!? (That's not meant in a mean kind of way!)

WoW? Oh NOES!! No, really. I've see too many people utterly disappear into WoW. As in, hey, I haven't seen you in 2 years. You look bad. Bye.

It's good to hear that you've got a wimenz on the side though.

I crawled out of WoW just in time

But hey, Tal, Lance is off the hook. Put some pressure on Rajesh now that you're lurking again

Oh yes. Most of his posts are useless. Put some pressure on him.

Dude, I'm not even looking at any of those. Please get a life.

It's a bot, your response means nothing to it.

Were you talking about the links or the posts?

The posts with a bunch of links in them. The things that post those are bots. Responding to them is like talking to the animatronic dummies in Disney World. Sure, they look like they might be alive, but they're not, and they can't give a crap about what you have to say.

Oh I thought he might have been responding to where Tal has been lately

We're doomed! Doomed I say!! You know, there's a simple solution to this. Just set it so guests can't post.

Wait... so Sjadd is like a robot?

I bet it isn't a Kungfu master though!

You know, it would probably not be too difficult to make a simple spam filter that does not let people who are not logged in write more than say... two links per message or so... that would stop most of those things, I think.

What about one of those things where you have to type the odd-shaped letters that bots can't read?

Roll on G9... release date: the day after Necromancer

PROBLEM: some bots can read that nowadays, and if they can't, it's entered by the bot maintainer.

A good solution would be to only be able to post if you're a member. Bots haven't really figured out how to register, here.

I actually don't see how these adbots are a problem. Sure, they are annoying and spam the topics, but it's only like one post a day. And if the links contain viruses or something, all we have to do is to not click them.

I never thought this would ever happen! Geez, why do people do this? It really gets annoying after a while. Don't they realise that?

You know, it would probably not be too difficult to make a simple spam filter that does not let people who are not logged in write more than say... two links per message or so... that would stop most of those things, I think.

Why couldn't it be a filter that prevents any links being
posted unless you're logged in?

Not that being on topic is wrong or anything but...

"It's good to hear that you've got a wimenz on the side though."

Just thought I'd point out that he never said it was a woman...bwow chicka wow wow

I thought about that too, and that would be even better, but there seems to be a philosophy on this board that people who are not logged in have the same rights as those who are, so I figured I'd get "more support" with a more lenient suggestion.

People don't post this. Someone runs a script or program that goes through all kinds of websites, posting spam. The result: the forumgoers have to avoid the usually nasty and/or dangerous links, and they make money out of it somehow.

Solution: there is no REAL solution, and the internet is getting more and more polluted with crap like this. Now it even happens here, which makes me sad.

Couldn't one filter away posts that have 15+ lines of links, one after another? I've never seen a regular member do that, and this spam-bot is fairly consistent, so... eh?

They don't make money because they do this, they do this because somebody is paying them. It's a way to trick search engines into thinking you're somebody; having links to your site all over the web.

Except they lose their page ranks, thus not appearing in search results on Google... So in the end it doesn't really make sense.

I've added a magical spambot filter for users who don't login: they just have to type "I am not a spambot", as instructed.

More drastic measures may be taken, but they probably will not be necessary. We've had the same spambot try to submit entries for the poll (with spam comments) and the old complaints boxes, so it doesn't seem to be so keen on whether or not the spam is viewable by anyone.

Edit: changed 'drastic measures will be taken' to 'drastic measures may be taken'.

When you ay they have to type: "I am not a spambot", is that in the Username section?

No, an 'antispam' field is added below the subject for users who are not logged in.

I like it! Made me laugh.
What are the drastic measures?

...

So where has Tal been lately?

More drastic measures would be something like a captcha, limiting the number of links an anonymous user can post, or other diabolical ideas I may think of.

Solve a 16*16 sudoku grid that has 18 squares filled in.

Come to think of it, where has WC been lately?
Seems like a few people just disappeared.