Wapsi Square Forum

ShneekeyTheLost wrote:I dunno, I hear chain-saws are pretty good...

They don't work so well without a good motor. And, all the really good ones weigh at least as much as a mongrel dog... hence the phrase "chain-saw mass-a-cur".

I don't think these went over anyone's head, but they still owe something to the pun vault.

Anybody else think Boomworm needs to look into adding a captcha to the sign in process? Or is there one already? We’ve been seeing a lot more spambots here lately...

GlytchMeister wrote:Anybody else think Boomworm needs to look into adding a captcha to the sign in process? Or is there one already? We’ve been seeing a lot more spambots here lately...

Perhaps not capcha but some sort of approval process, I suspect, would be beneficial. I'd happily volunteer to help.

GlytchMeister wrote:Anybody else think Boomworm needs to look into adding a captcha to the sign in process? Or is there one already? We’ve been seeing a lot more spambots here lately...

Some of the spams come from "people" who seem to have gone through the registration process well enough to fake up a birthday.

From what I can see of phpPP, using the moderation feature would probably be the surest way of deterring such 'bots, but it would definitely take some ongoing effort by a moderation team. As I understand it, one would:

- Define two classes of users - maybe "trusted" and "new".
- For each forum, the "trusted" users would have "can post without permission" privilege. "New" users would not.
- The forums would be configured to require permission for posting.

Once that's done, any posting by a "new" user would go into the phpBB "moderation queue". Some user with moderation privilege would have to periodically go through the queue, read each such posting, and approve it. At some point, someone with administration privilege would move each non-abusive "new" user into the "trusted" group.

A better option would be to find the folks creating spam accounts and removing a few of their fingers with a wire saw. Bet they would hesitate to do that crap again.

Alkarii wrote:A better option would be to find the folks creating spam accounts and removing a few of their fingers with a wire saw. Bet they would hesitate to do that crap again.

Spammers-for-hire are a lot like 419 scammers, Internet trolls/flamers, and crabgrass - there's always a steady supply. Nature, alas, abhors a vacuum.

It's a bit more insidious than we thought. The spambot apparently copied Bookworm's site to a .net domain, which may have facilitated the issue.

Wait what?

That sounds like a big problem.

On an unrelated note, I decided to just buy a better bolt carrier group for the AR-10 instead of finagling with DPMS to get a replacement. The one I ordered is nickel boron, which is apparently really easy to clean and is a huge difference over the typical stuff you see out there. I "could" have gone with titanium nitrate (which looks kind of golden), but that isn't as big of an improvement over the nickel boron as the nickel boron is over phosphate plating, which I think is what one typically sees.

Also, I bought a C308, which is pretty much a semi auto version of the G3 formerly used by West Germany. Though I think mine happens to be a reproduction or whatever of the Spanish version, because of the sights on it. Greasy as hell, though, because of the packing grease everywhere.

Alkarii wrote:On an unrelated note, I decided to just buy a better bolt carrier group for the AR-10 instead of finagling with DPMS to get a replacement. The one I ordered is nickel boron, which is apparently really easy to clean and is a huge difference over the typical stuff you see out there. I "could" have gone with titanium nitrate (which looks kind of golden), but that isn't as big of an improvement over the nickel boron as the nickel boron is over phosphate plating, which I think is what one typically sees.

Sounds like a good investment/upgrade. Yeah, black phosphate seems to be the default basic-grade metal finish for those sorts of parts. If it's like the grey phosphate coating that you get from a phosphoric acid dip, the grain structure of the iron phosphate is coarse enough to give the metal a matte finish, and I can imagine that this would take more effort to clean off powder residue and etc. than a finer-structure gloss finish.

Also, I bought a C308, which is pretty much a semi auto version of the G3 formerly used by West Germany. Though I think mine happens to be a reproduction or whatever of the Spanish version, because of the sights on it. Greasy as hell, though, because of the packing grease everywhere.

That's the Century Arms battle rifle? Interesting manufacturing process... a mix of new-old-stock surplus parts, and newly-manufactured US-made components. Do let us know how it shoots once it's properly broken in.

As to the grease...

♫ Cosmoline, why can't I shoot true?
Oh Cosmoline, you're feelin' like glue.
Without you, my rifle is rustin', and I'm feeling oh so blue. ♫

GlytchMeister wrote:Wait what?

That sounds like a big problem.

If you know what bookworm's hosting site's URL is, just replace the .com with a .net and it's almost the same gibberish interlaced with the text from his actual website.

No I get that, I’m just concerned about how much data the .net clone has. As in, did they get passwords and crap?

...might be time to change passwords, kids.

Easy Password Reset instructions

- Log out

- Before you log back in, click here: "I forgot my password' ucp.php?mode=sendpassword

- enter your user name & email address.

- retrieve Reset link from your email's inbox, click on Activation Link provided.

- Log back in w/ your new password.

I’m more concerned about them having access to where he keeps passwords. Changing them won’t do much good if they have too much access.

Well, instead of being patient and waiting for a day off to get ahold of DPMS so I can try to get a replacement for the bolt carrier, I ended up ordering a mil-spec nickel boron bolt carrier group that is DPMS pattern (but not made by DPMS). I might still try to get a replacement, so I have a backup.

Hopefully they don't try some "warranty this, warranty that" crap. They messed it up, they should replace it.

And... we have yet another spammer who "joined" our ranks (notice the air quotes)... Advertising for Cialis, no less...

We are definitely Under Siege. I just got two separate private massages to encourage me to 'download music'.

Air-quotes indeed.

Don't worry about the bkwm.net site - that was set up a long time ago for me to work on building a new web site. It has no relationship to this system at all. What someone did is figured out Frumph's password, and was editing/adding crap to there. Standard stuff, and I hadn't noticed it because I had other fish to fry. That's been rectified.

The stuff on here is standard login spammers. I'm trying to figure out the best (not fastest) way to fix the issues with the login users, short of requiring all new users to be approved by me. I'm not sure how they're getting past the CAPTCHA, unless that's somehow disabled itself.

Right now, there's no risk of anything accessing the password storage location, as there are extremely limited accounts that can do that, and they're salted anyway.

I'll be working on getting some new moderators - or getting the old ones to show up - plus doing some upgrades.

BW