What would someone do with minecraft forum accounts, really? Just to troll as someone else? Just to cause strife in someone else's life? Just to say they have derp amount of posts on an account they stole/bought? Seriously...
A large portion of users have accounts here that share usernames and passwords with minecraft.net, some users even share the same password and username with their Steam accounts. Stealing a forum account can provide the person stealing it with access to both Steam and Minecraft.net accounts, both of which are valuable.
Exactly - My steam account has over 100$ worth of games. They could easily play them all without having to spend a dime, or sell the account for quick money.
Minecraft.net accounts...not so much. Maybe 15$ apiece, but that's not as valuable as Steam.
Well, I guess that's true (Since I do use the same username and pass for minecraft.net) but I hardly know what steam is... A website where you buy games and download it? So it's like a massive video game store built into a webpage?
A large portion of users have accounts here that share usernames and passwords with minecraft.net, some users even share the same password and username with their Steam accounts. Stealing a forum account can provide the person stealing it with access to both Steam and Minecraft.net accounts, both of which are valuable.
Exactly - My steam account has over 100$ worth of games. They could easily play them all without having to spend a dime, or sell the account for quick money.
Minecraft.net accounts...not so much. Maybe 15$ apiece, but that's not as valuable as Steam.
Well, I guess that's true (Since I do use the same username and pass for minecraft.net) but I hardly know what steam is... A website where you buy games and download it? So it's like a massive video game store built into a webpage?
It's more then that - It's a community.
They offer discounts and bundles of various games like a massive video game store, but they have a built-in community system. You can add friends and gift them games, voice chat while playing with each other on Minecraft, even start fan groups and recruit people.
What would someone do with minecraft forum accounts, really? Just to troll as someone else? Just to cause strife in someone else's life? Just to say they have derp amount of posts on an account they stole/bought? Seriously...
A large portion of users have accounts here that share usernames and passwords with minecraft.net, some users even share the same password and username with their Steam accounts. Stealing a forum account can provide the person stealing it with access to both Steam and Minecraft.net accounts, both of which are valuable.
Another technique that seems popular today is hacking into people's facebook accounts. Which usually are the same password they use in forums like these, registered with the same email address.
What they then do is try to scam all of your friends using your wall and IM and get them to wire money. Now think about how valuable your passwords are...
better yet..W.o.W. accounts..much easier than convincing people on fb to wire you money and very profitable. statistically speaking a very large portion of this community either play or have played W.o.W. Not to mention hacking email like yahoo/gmail to get bank info etc. billion dollar business the scammers have going.
On the blacklist note - yes you can change hostnames, changing countries is somewhat less easy (though still not impossible, and we can always block the Ukraine too (the second most prolific spammer)). Here is a list of all allocated Russian IP address blocks:
this of course won't apply to registrations, only to image embedding. It would be quite simple to upload the post, run a resolver on embedded image urls to get the IP of the host, and if it is a match with the blacklist, it would be replaced with an 'image removed' banner or something.
I would rather see a blacklist with a significant decrease in exploits rather than complete elimination at the expense of image embedding as we know it.
I made a poll on what solutions users see as good ideas. I am hoping that it generates some good ideas and a solution. One preliminary finding (that we all already knew) is that people really hope that the current whitelist is just a temporary solution.
On the blacklist note - yes you can change hostnames, changing countries is somewhat less easy (though still not impossible, and we can always block the Ukraine too (the second most prolific spammer)). Here is a list of all allocated Russian IP address blocks:
[snip]
this of course won't apply to registrations, only to image embedding. It would be quite simple to upload the post, run a resolver on embedded image urls to get the IP of the host, and if it is a match with the blacklist, it would be replaced with an 'image removed' banner or something.
I would rather see a blacklist with a significant decrease in exploits rather than complete elimination at the expense of image embedding as we know it.
I made a poll on what solutions users see as good ideas. I am hoping that it generates some good ideas and a solution. One preliminary finding (that we all already knew) is that people really hope that the current whitelist is just a temporary solution.
citricsquid already mentioned that they are working on upgrading the forums to a better system. Said system should be better at eliminating spammers. Your blacklist has a problem, though: What about legitimate users from Russia or the Ukraine? I would be pretty pissed off if I couldn't post links or images because of the country I lived in. Plus it doesn't solve the problem, since it is not difficult to get around (proxy server in a different country). Whitelisting is the ONLY good temporary solution.
An extremely effective solution is 50 minimum posts and at least a week on the boards before allowing link/image embedding. I've been a member of a particular ... uh ... entertainment forum that does just that, and it uses phpBB. Effectively shuts down a large percentage of spam.
I was reminded of this by the poll that someone apocalypse_r posted.
An extremely effective solution is 50 minimum posts and at least a week on the boards before allowing link/image embedding. I've been a member of a particular ... uh ... entertainment forum that does just that, and it uses phpBB. Effectively shuts down a large percentage of spam.
I was reminded of this by the poll that someone apocalypse_r posted.
There are issues to your solution -- far more issues than people having to switch image hosts -- and it doesn't even sufficiently address the core part of this issue, which are exploiters (hackers). For example, someone could create an account, let it sit for a week, then spam 50 topics with posts, and suddenly they have access to links and images. Sure, this would eliminate most spammers, as they wouldn't be willing to put that much effort into it, but it does not eliminate hackers targeting this site. Not to mention it would be pretty damn annoying not being able to post images and links considering that not even I have made 50 posts yet, and I have been very active on this forum for over a month. I understand why some people would be frustrated with this decision to whitelist, but in the end is it really that hard to find a whitelisted image host and switch?
citricsquid already mentioned that they are working on upgrading the forums to a better system. Said system should be better at eliminating spammers. Your blacklist has a problem, though: What about legitimate users from Russia or the Ukraine? I would be pretty pissed off if I couldn't post links or images because of the country I lived in. Plus it doesn't solve the problem, since it is not difficult to get around (proxy server in a different country). Whitelisting is the ONLY good temporary solution.
The blacklist won't prevent images and links from being posted by legitimate users in Russia or the Ukraine. They will just have to use image hosting sites outside of Russia/the Ukraine. I don't think I've ever seen a russian or ukrainian user who wasn't a spambot in any case.
I did mention something about blocking all proxy servers as well. I think it was in a different thread though. That restriction is fine - what legitimate user hosts images through a proxy server? why would anyone do that, apart from to bypass something? block them all, I say.
Quote from Adrian232 »
There are issues to your solution -- far more issues than people having to switch image hosts -- and it doesn't even sufficiently address the core part of this issue, which are exploiters (hackers). For example, someone could create an account, let it sit for a week, then spam 50 topics with posts, and suddenly they have access to links and images. Sure, this would eliminate most spammers, as they wouldn't be willing to put that much effort into it, but it does not eliminate hackers targeting this site. Not to mention it would be pretty damn annoying not being able to post images and links considering that not even I have made 50 posts yet, and I have been very active on this forum for over a month. I understand why some people would be frustrated with this decision to whitelist, but in the end is it really that hard to find a whitelisted image host and switch?
It would be pretty obvious if someone was posting stuff just so they could post spam later, their posts would all be spam. Also, unless I can get my domain whitelisted, I face the prospect of uploading dozens of images to tinypic or some other horrible hosting site and then editing dozens of posts to reflect the new urls. And I'm on vacation, and my desktop is 300 miles away. I have a bunch of tutorial threads and such, most of which still get traffic. I really don't want to have to do that.
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But if it's disabled, why does everones signature have it in it? isent that BBCode? Or am I missing somthing? Because when I put this banner in my signature, it says "not allowed" of somthing!
yeah, you missed something, it's back on. Citric should edit the OP. some functionality is missingand I am irritated to all hell about it, but that's all.
does this have to do with the search bar too? ( or see my post )
or is it just me?
No, BBCode has been re-enabled for a while now.
The search bar is an entirely different issue n-n
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Do not wallow do not stall
Time waits for none at all
Your allowance may crawl,
It may fly or even vanish
But none will seem more lavished
Than time lost to all.
Well, I guess that's true (Since I do use the same username and pass for minecraft.net) but I hardly know what steam is... A website where you buy games and download it? So it's like a massive video game store built into a webpage?
It's more then that - It's a community.
They offer discounts and bundles of various games like a massive video game store, but they have a built-in community system. You can add friends and gift them games, voice chat while playing with each other on Minecraft, even start fan groups and recruit people.
It's like a giant gaming community + store.
< My Steam Account (add me!)
< Dragon Cave! (aid)
I'm not talking about blocking one script coming through images, I'm talking about all scripts that would come through images.
Another technique that seems popular today is hacking into people's facebook accounts. Which usually are the same password they use in forums like these, registered with the same email address.
What they then do is try to scam all of your friends using your wall and IM and get them to wire money. Now think about how valuable your passwords are...
On the blacklist note - yes you can change hostnames, changing countries is somewhat less easy (though still not impossible, and we can always block the Ukraine too (the second most prolific spammer)). Here is a list of all allocated Russian IP address blocks:
this of course won't apply to registrations, only to image embedding. It would be quite simple to upload the post, run a resolver on embedded image urls to get the IP of the host, and if it is a match with the blacklist, it would be replaced with an 'image removed' banner or something.
I would rather see a blacklist with a significant decrease in exploits rather than complete elimination at the expense of image embedding as we know it.
I made a poll on what solutions users see as good ideas. I am hoping that it generates some good ideas and a solution. One preliminary finding (that we all already knew) is that people really hope that the current whitelist is just a temporary solution.
[FAQ] Extremely Common Problems
[OFFICIAL] Dragon Cave Thread
citricsquid already mentioned that they are working on upgrading the forums to a better system. Said system should be better at eliminating spammers. Your blacklist has a problem, though: What about legitimate users from Russia or the Ukraine? I would be pretty pissed off if I couldn't post links or images because of the country I lived in. Plus it doesn't solve the problem, since it is not difficult to get around (proxy server in a different country). Whitelisting is the ONLY good temporary solution.
Wrong.
An extremely effective solution is 50 minimum posts and at least a week on the boards before allowing link/image embedding. I've been a member of a particular ... uh ... entertainment forum that does just that, and it uses phpBB. Effectively shuts down a large percentage of spam.
I was reminded of this by the poll that
someoneapocalypse_r posted.There are issues to your solution -- far more issues than people having to switch image hosts -- and it doesn't even sufficiently address the core part of this issue, which are exploiters (hackers). For example, someone could create an account, let it sit for a week, then spam 50 topics with posts, and suddenly they have access to links and images. Sure, this would eliminate most spammers, as they wouldn't be willing to put that much effort into it, but it does not eliminate hackers targeting this site. Not to mention it would be pretty damn annoying not being able to post images and links considering that not even I have made 50 posts yet, and I have been very active on this forum for over a month. I understand why some people would be frustrated with this decision to whitelist, but in the end is it really that hard to find a whitelisted image host and switch?
The blacklist won't prevent images and links from being posted by legitimate users in Russia or the Ukraine. They will just have to use image hosting sites outside of Russia/the Ukraine. I don't think I've ever seen a russian or ukrainian user who wasn't a spambot in any case.
I did mention something about blocking all proxy servers as well. I think it was in a different thread though. That restriction is fine - what legitimate user hosts images through a proxy server? why would anyone do that, apart from to bypass something? block them all, I say.
It would be pretty obvious if someone was posting stuff just so they could post spam later, their posts would all be spam. Also, unless I can get my domain whitelisted, I face the prospect of uploading dozens of images to tinypic or some other horrible hosting site and then editing dozens of posts to reflect the new urls. And I'm on vacation, and my desktop is 300 miles away. I have a bunch of tutorial threads and such, most of which still get traffic. I really don't want to have to do that.
[FAQ] Extremely Common Problems
[OFFICIAL] Dragon Cave Thread
[FAQ] Extremely Common Problems
[OFFICIAL] Dragon Cave Thread
[/exasperation]
Search is disabled, check the announcements.
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No, BBCode has been re-enabled for a while now.
The search bar is an entirely different issue n-n
Do not wallow do not stall
Time waits for none at all
Your allowance may crawl,
It may fly or even vanish
But none will seem more lavished
Than time lost to all.
at the bottom near the submit button is a box, you have "disable bbcode" ticked.
Fixed it for you.
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