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timmy
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Has no life at all |
Location: UK, in Devon
Registered: February 2003
Messages: 13772
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We have a set of jokers who have been using bots to register spam accounts. Doubtless a few get through, but what they cannot understand is that the forum is protected.
There will be some false positives. Those can email me for my personal consideration.
Author of Queer Me! Halfway Between Flying and Crying - the true story of life for a gay boy in the Swinging Sixties in a British all male Public School
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Mark
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Likes it here |
Location: Earth
Registered: April 2013
Messages: 279
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"timmy wrote on Mon, 30 July 2018 17:02"We have a set of jokers who have been using bots to register spam accounts. Doubtless a few get through, but what they cannot understand is that the forum is protected.
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Personally, I'm wondering if it's more along the lines of they don't realize that the forum is protected, rather than an inability to understand that concept, though, of course, why this detail should surprise anyone who stops to think about it is perhaps what is amazing - being what the site is about, of course you (as site owner/administrator) are going to take precautions to prevent spamming.
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The Forum is not protected, it does not have SSL, which is usually indicated by an address starting https and a padlock. Different browsers have different icons for unprotected sites, my own browser shows IOMFATS with a red warning triangle, other browsers may have different indicators in the address bar.
What does this mean? A site without SSL means that data exchanged between your computer and the server on which the site is hosted is not encrypted. That makes eavesdropping, interception, and changing data possible. But let's not get paranoid, this is not a bank, you don't send anything here other than your comments. Nevertheless, the vast majority of sites these days are encrypted.
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timmy
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Has no life at all |
Location: UK, in Devon
Registered: February 2003
Messages: 13772
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"William King wrote on Tue, 31 July 2018 18:20"The Forum is not protected, it does not have SSL, which is usually indicated by an address starting https and a padlock. Different browsers have different icons for unprotected sites, my own browser shows IOMFATS with a red warning triangle, other browsers may have different indicators in the address bar.
What does this mean? A site without SSL means that data exchanged between your computer and the server on which the site is hosted is not encrypted. That makes eavesdropping, interception, and changing data possible. But let's not get paranoid, this is not a bank, you don't send anything here other than your comments. Nevertheless, the vast majority of sites these days are encrypted.
--
You are missing the point by a country mile and confusing two things.
The HTTPS element is absolutely irrelevant to this. Your explanation shows that you have a technical understanding of that arena, but it is not at all what I was talking about. Seriously now I wish I had not bothered to tell anyone what was happening. It was kind of you to use facts to take a snipe at the forum, though, and, by inference, at me and the entire site. Maybe I should just delete the forum entirely?
Let me also mention that this is not a commercial web site, and that I run it out of the goodness of my heart. And that I am not at all interested in your browser's red warning triangle.
Keeping crap off the forum is not an easy task. I do it quietly and behind the scenes, but I really do not have to. Perhaps you would prefer me to ignore it and let others use it as a link farm?
In case you have not got the message, HTTPS will not prevent the spammers from registering nor from filling the place with ordure. That can only be done by me and the very few people I appoint as real life moderators
[Updated on: Tue, 31 July 2018 23:36]
Author of Queer Me! Halfway Between Flying and Crying - the true story of life for a gay boy in the Swinging Sixties in a British all male Public School
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timmy
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Has no life at all |
Location: UK, in Devon
Registered: February 2003
Messages: 13772
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By the way, as far as I can tell, the site is labelled for you as not safe because it contains gay erotic literature, and whatever tool you deploy on your computer picks that up form some sort of site safety register. I don't know what tools you use to allegedly enhance your security online nor what browser you are using, but why not use this commonly available tool to check?
Isn't it interesting that it shows that the site is not unsafe? Google does tend to be reasonably accurate. It's their business, you see.
Author of Queer Me! Halfway Between Flying and Crying - the true story of life for a gay boy in the Swinging Sixties in a British all male Public School
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timmy
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Has no life at all |
Location: UK, in Devon
Registered: February 2003
Messages: 13772
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So, why did I say this:
"Quote:"We have a set of jokers who have been using bots to register spam accounts. Doubtless a few get through, but what they cannot understand is that the forum is protected.
There will be some false positives. Those can email me for my personal consideration.
Because I was concerned that some real registrations of real users might have been blocked by my actions. I did not say it in order to receive advice, however well intentioned
[Updated on: Wed, 01 August 2018 00:05]
Author of Queer Me! Halfway Between Flying and Crying - the true story of life for a gay boy in the Swinging Sixties in a British all male Public School
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Tim, if you're running a website, it's a lot of work, I appreciate that. I can also appreciate the problem with spam registrations that you have to deal with. I am simply pointing out what Google says, and that little red triangle is important.
Beginning in July 2018 with the release of Chrome 68, Chrome will mark all HTTP sites as "not secure". Getting a warning like that is, imo, going to put people off visiting the site. Google say they will downgrade site rankings for non-https sites. My information comes from Google, https://security.googleblog.com/2018/02/a-secure-web-is-here -to-stay.html
It's your site and your decision what you do.
Pointing out that the website is not secure is not "having a snipe," or certainly was not intended in that way, it was simply a reply to the previous statement that the forum is protected (perhaps it was off topic from the point you originally made). Rest assured I and everyone else (I'm sure) appreciate the work you do ☺
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timmy
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Has no life at all |
Location: UK, in Devon
Registered: February 2003
Messages: 13772
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It appears that you missed the point entirely, and have continued to do so by carrying on and re-making the point that you decided to make. Ok, you nodded agreement to the fact that I do some significant work, but you have, instead, hijacked this thread to make your own entirely different and unrelated point.
I wonder how appropriate you feel that behaviour is?
There is absolutely no need for all web traffic to be secure. Google is marketing SSL certificates and is doing so by extorting webmasters with its 'simple' message. Who will pay? Will you? Special offers for the first year of trivial amounts will soon rise and put ordinary web sites such as this one out of business, and for no reason other than profit.
The only web traffic that requires security is traffic that reveals sensitive personal data.
[Updated on: Wed, 01 August 2018 09:11]
Author of Queer Me! Halfway Between Flying and Crying - the true story of life for a gay boy in the Swinging Sixties in a British all male Public School
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timmy
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Has no life at all |
Location: UK, in Devon
Registered: February 2003
Messages: 13772
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I am dealing with a deluge of forum registrations for spam purposes, around 20 per day. Most of these come from mail anonymiser services, and I am gradually blocking those as I become aware of them. I managed to block the service a member uses so I have unblocked that one.
If you are affected by this and receive a message that your email address is filtered out, email me directly.
I also block IP addresses and ranges. Same deal.
Author of Queer Me! Halfway Between Flying and Crying - the true story of life for a gay boy in the Swinging Sixties in a British all male Public School
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timmy
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Has no life at all |
Location: UK, in Devon
Registered: February 2003
Messages: 13772
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This is what I am up against. Only two in the last 24 hours, but it is often 10 or more and is remorseless.
I take loads of steps to block this crap. It only arrives from very bad scamming search engine optimisation companies. If I left them alone and approived them they would issue automated spam posts ad nauseam
Author of Queer Me! Halfway Between Flying and Crying - the true story of life for a gay boy in the Swinging Sixties in a British all male Public School
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ivor slipper
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Likes it here |
Registered: September 2013
Messages: 128
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I give up - why would anyone want to download the attachment to your last message? Or is it 'bots at work'?
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timmy
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Has no life at all |
Location: UK, in Devon
Registered: February 2003
Messages: 13772
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Whenever it is presneted on the screen it is 'downloaded'
Author of Queer Me! Halfway Between Flying and Crying - the true story of life for a gay boy in the Swinging Sixties in a British all male Public School
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Not sure if this is of any interest, but whilst travelling and connecting via hotel WiFi I found this site was prohibited by Norton Security, classified as pornography.
[Updated on: Sat, 15 September 2018 09:01] by Moderator |
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timmy
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Has no life at all |
Location: UK, in Devon
Registered: February 2003
Messages: 13772
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Well, it does deal with ~gasp~ sex. And that is filtered out by people who think that sex is missioanry position male and female, once a month for having children. Would you mind replacing that H U G E image with a smaller version?
But it is still nothing to do with the work I do keep shit and spam off the forums.
That is just today's crop.
Author of Queer Me! Halfway Between Flying and Crying - the true story of life for a gay boy in the Swinging Sixties in a British all male Public School
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I have no idea how to delete the image. Sorry cannot find the edit button. It just uploaded HUGE
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timmy
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Has no life at all |
Location: UK, in Devon
Registered: February 2003
Messages: 13772
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"William King wrote on Sat, 15 September 2018 08:25"I have no idea how to delete the image. Sorry cannot find the edit button. It just uploaded HUGE
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The edit button's position was affected by the enormousness of the image, which then affected the entire thread width. I have removed the image fomr display, though it may still be viewed by downloading it. The edit button is at the bottom right of your posts. Or ought to be. We cannto edit pictures within the forum. Instead we trust the poster.
One sees the thing is H U G E when one inserts it into the post and one needs to make a judgement than about the B I G N E S S and how it wil affect everyone else.
Author of Queer Me! Halfway Between Flying and Crying - the true story of life for a gay boy in the Swinging Sixties in a British all male Public School
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