• Those Bots

    From Baguette@VERT/CAVEBBS to All on Wednesday, July 15, 2020 03:12:00
    I've been thinking recently about those bots that post entire HTML documents
    in threads for what seems to be a site that claims to sell hard drugs. I
    mean, obviously they /don't/, and all the links point to the same address anyway, but I was thinking of setting up a windows VM and taking a look at it to see where it actually goes. How terrible of an idea is this?

    ===============================
    baguette@sdf.org
    https://hbaguette.neocities.org


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  • From Ennev@VERT/MTLGEEK to Baguette on Wednesday, July 15, 2020 09:23:10
    Maybe the browser in that VM should have javascript disabled and a good add blocker, don't hear often of case of stuff peeking through a vm but there it's like the holy grail of hacking if it does. Also don't map external drive on the vm :-D

    I just wonder how it wrote it there, but a bbs offering nntp makes it easy I guess because there is so much spam tool for Usenet. Just weird that someone believe that there is HUGE opportunity spamming a bbs message network.

    I've been thinking recently about those bots that post entire HTML documents in threads for what seems to be a site that claims to sell hard drugs. I mean, obviously they /don't/, and all the links point to the same address anyway, but I was thinking of setting up a windows VM and taking a look at it to see where it actually goes. How terrible of an idea is this?

    ===============================
    baguette@sdf.org
    https://hbaguette.neocities.org

    ---
    þ Synchronet þ MtlGeek - Geeks in Montreal - http://mtlgeek.com/ -
  • From The Lizard Master@VERT/NITEEYES to Baguette on Wednesday, July 15, 2020 15:13:47
    Re: Those Bots
    By: Baguette to All on Wed Jul 15 2020 03:12 am

    I've been thinking recently about those bots that post entire HTML documents in threads for what seems to be a site that claims to sell hard drugs. I mean, obviously they /don't/, and all the links point to the same address anyway, but I was thinking of setting up a windows VM and taking a look at it to see where it actually goes. How terrible of an idea is this?

    https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/5k8odk/whats_a_dark_piece_of_reddit_history_that_we_like/dc6drmd/?context=3

    ---TLM

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  • From Andeddu@VERT/AMSTRAD to Baguette on Wednesday, July 15, 2020 17:10:23
    Re: Those Bots
    By: Baguette to All on Wed Jul 15 2020 03:12 am

    I've been thinking recently about those bots that post entire HTML documents in threads for what seems to be a site that claims to sell hard drugs. I mean, obviously they /don't/, and all the links point to the same address anyway, but I was thinking of setting up a windows VM and taking a look at it to see where it actually goes. How terrible of an idea is this?

    ===============================
    baguette@sdf.org
    https://hbaguette.neocities.org

    God, those bots are so annoying. I am running at good ole 1200 baud and those adverts can tie me up for around 30 seconds!

    ---
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  • From Rampage@VERT/SESTAR to Ennev on Wednesday, July 15, 2020 15:40:57
    Re: Re: Those Bots
    By: Ennev to Baguette on Wed Jul 15 2020 09:23:10


    Just weird that someone believe that there is HUGE opportunity spamming
    a bbs message network.

    they don't know or care that that is what it is... they only care about getting their ad in front of eyes and hopefully find someone to bite on the bait... SEO backlinks is another thing they are looking for, too...


    )\/(ark

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  • From Ennev@VERT/MTLGEEK to Rampage on Wednesday, July 15, 2020 17:17:04
    they don't know or care that that is what it is... they only care about getting their ad in front of eyes and hopefully find someone to bite on the bait... SEO backlinks is another thing they are looking for, too...

    Yah, in a way is cost vs benefit and spamming don't cost much. And unfortunately it works or they wouldn't do it.

    if 1000000 of eyes see your add in the end and that .1% are sucker enough you still get a 1000 of them.

    P. T. Barnum: There's a sucker born every minute

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  • From calcmandan@VERT/DIGDIST to Baguette on Wednesday, July 15, 2020 16:38:00
    Baguette wrote to All <=-

    I've been thinking recently about those bots that post entire HTML documents in threads for what seems to be a site that claims to sell
    hard drugs. I mean, obviously they /don't/, and all the links point to
    the same address anyway, but I was thinking of setting up a windows VM
    and taking a look at it to see where it actually goes. How terrible of
    an idea is this?

    It's all over usenet too.

    Daniel Traechin

    ... Visit me at gopher://gcpp.world
    --- MultiMail/Linux v0.49
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  • From Arelor@VERT/PALANT to Ennev on Thursday, July 16, 2020 06:10:05
    Re: Re: Those Bots
    By: Ennev to Rampage on Wed Jul 15 2020 05:17 pm

    they don't know or care that that is what it is... they only care about getting their ad in front of eyes and hopefully find someone to bite on the bait... SEO
    backlinks is another thing they are looking for, too...

    Yah, in a way is cost vs benefit and spamming don't cost much. And unfortunately it works or they wouldn't do it.

    if 1000000 of eyes see your add in the end and that .1% are sucker enough you still get a 1000 of them.

    P. T. Barnum: There's a sucker born every minute


    I have been thinking, this is the sort of thing that may kill the freemium model the Internet is turning into. Sites that accept free user registrations are making it
    cheap for people to make bots and get registered in websites in order to distribute spam. Capchas an the like are turning less and less effective because they annoy
    legit users and are not that hard to professional spammers to break - they have sweatshops in asia full of people solving capchas. Once machine learning starts being a
    thing FOR REAL, neural networks will solve the capchas anyway.

    In the end of the day the only recours eleft will be to say, "ok buddy, registering an account here is 10 bucks." That will skyrocket the spam delivery cost.

    --
    gopher://gopher.operationalsecurity.es

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  • From Ennev@VERT/MTLGEEK to Arelor on Thursday, July 16, 2020 09:34:17
    In the end of the day the only recours eleft will be to say, "ok buddy, registering an account here is 10 bucks." That will skyrocket the spam delivery cost.

    Yeah, we all know that when it's free, you're the product.

    the other recourse would be some kind of centralized identification but then it could curb freedom of speech. Or simply more moderation but it's costlier so free go out the door.

    just a little joke about captcha : http://q.ennev.com/captcha

    p.s. the link is my URL shortener it'll just point to a jpg.

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  • From Warpslide@VERT/NRBBS to Ennev on Thursday, July 16, 2020 11:34:00
    On 16 Jul 2020, Ennev said the following...

    p.s. the link is my URL shortener it'll just point to a jpg.

    YOURLS, nice!

    Jay

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A46 2020/06/11 (Windows/32)
    * Origin: Northern Realms BBS | bbs.nrbbs.net | Binbrook, ON
  • From Nightfox@VERT/DIGDIST to Andeddu on Thursday, July 16, 2020 09:17:19
    Re: Those Bots
    By: Andeddu to Baguette on Wed Jul 15 2020 05:10 pm

    God, those bots are so annoying. I am running at good ole 1200 baud and those adverts can tie me up for around 30 seconds!

    I can understand enjoying the retro vibe and doing things old-school, but I think that's one of those instances where having a faster terminal helps. ;)

    Nightfox

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    þ Synchronet þ Digital Distortion: digitaldistortionbbs.com
  • From Ennev@VERT/MTLGEEK to Warpslide on Thursday, July 16, 2020 12:15:19
    On 2020-07-16 7:34 a.m., Warpslide wrote:

    YOURLS, nice!

    use it too? way better than bit.ly :-D

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  • From Ennev@VERT/MTLGEEK to Nightfox on Thursday, July 16, 2020 12:59:51
    On 2020-07-16 12:17 p.m., Nightfox wrote:

    I can understand enjoying the retro vibe and doing things old-school, but I think that's one of those instances where having a faster terminal helps. ;)

    I actually have one of my users that work up north Canada (Artic)
    internet is incredibly slow, so BBSes are like his entertainment when
    he's up there. For cases like that being old-school is not by choice.
    For theses use case it's good that we are still out there.

    I guess it will all change with theses new satellites offers coming up.

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  • From Warpslide@VERT/NRBBS to Ennev on Thursday, July 16, 2020 13:11:00
    On 16 Jul 2020, Ennev said the following...

    YOURLS, nice!

    use it too? way better than bit.ly :-D

    I have used it in the past when I had a Wordpress blog.

    Looks like you're a couple of versions behind, you're at v1.7.2 & v1.7.9 is
    the latest.

    Jay

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A46 2020/06/11 (Windows/32)
    * Origin: Northern Realms BBS | bbs.nrbbs.net | Binbrook, ON
  • From Ennev@VERT/MTLGEEK to Warpslide on Thursday, July 16, 2020 15:21:53
    Looks like you're a couple of versions behind, you're at v1.7.2 & v1.7.9 is the latest.

    Oh ! i check from time to time, but there is not automation for the
    update, probably haven't checked in the last 6 month. Thanks :-D

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  • From MRO@VERT/BBSESINF to Ennev on Thursday, July 16, 2020 17:32:09
    Re: Re: Those Bots
    By: Ennev to Rampage on Wed Jul 15 2020 05:17 pm

    they don't know or care that that is what it is... they only care about getting their ad in front of eyes and hopefully find someone to bite on t bait... SEO backlinks is another thing they are looking for, too...

    Yah, in a way is cost vs benefit and spamming don't cost much. And unfortunately it works or they wouldn't do it.

    if 1000000 of eyes see your add in the end and that .1% are sucker enough yo still get a 1000 of them.

    P. T. Barnum: There's a sucker born every minute

    they do make good money. i saw a video on youtube of a guy at a convention who broke down all the spamming from the little guy to the big guy. also by locale. ---
    þ Synchronet þ ::: BBSES.info - free BBS services :::
  • From Ennev@VERT/MTLGEEK to MRO on Thursday, July 16, 2020 19:08:18
    they do make good money. i saw a video on youtube of a guy at a convention who
    broke down all the spamming from the little guy to the big guy. also by locale.

    I'm sure, just look how that stunt on twitter brought, about 100000$
    from what they says. For one day

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    þ Synchronet þ MtlGeek - Geeks in Montreal - http://mtlgeek.com/ -
  • From Ogg@VERT/EOTLBBS to All on Thursday, July 16, 2020 21:48:00
    Hello Arelor!

    ** On Thursday 16.07.20 - 07:10, arelor wrote to Ennev:

    ...Capchas an the like are turning less and less effective because they
    annoy legit users and are not that hard to professional spammers to
    break - they have sweatshops in asia full of people solving capchas.
    Once machine learning starts being a thing FOR REAL, neural networks
    will solve the capchas anyway.

    A captcha system that never repeats would be the best solution.

    Also, something like:


    A_B_C_D

    "Enter how many blank spaces do you see in the above sequence? (answer as
    a word)."

    Or..

    "Enter your answer spelled in reverse."

    That sort of approach will always foil a bot or a sweatshop.


    In the end of the day the only recours eleft will be to say, "ok buddy, registering an account here is 10 bucks." That will skyrocket the spam delivery cost.

    Money wouldn't be any guarantee that spam couldn't get injected.

    Even in Wordpress.. with the Comments OFF, bots are finding the weaknesses
    in php code and injecting code onto website pages. There is no reason
    that they couldn't affect the related mysql databases and post their own messages.


    ../|ug

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  • From The Lizard Master@VERT/NITEEYES to Ennev on Thursday, July 16, 2020 22:58:46
    Re: Re: Those Bots
    By: Ennev to Arelor on Thu Jul 16 2020 09:34 am

    Yeah, we all know that when it's free, you're the product.

    Yep, DM is gathering info on all of us. Bastard!

    ---TLM

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    þ Synchronet þ Nite Eyes BBS - To make people happy about my tagline everywhere...
  • From Andeddu@VERT/AMSTRAD to Nightfox on Friday, July 17, 2020 14:02:43
    Re: Those Bots
    By: Nightfox to Andeddu on Thu Jul 16 2020 09:17 am

    I can understand enjoying the retro vibe and doing things old-school, but I think that's one of those instances where having a faster terminal helps. ;)

    Nightfox

    Haha, although this setup is still highly amusing to me, I really do wish it could support a higher baud rate. I've no idea why Apple limited these old Macintosh machines to such a low rate - even 2400 baud results in horrendous artifacts on my terminal. Perhaps I should have picked up an old Amiga for my retro fix instead!

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  • From Nightfox@VERT/DIGDIST to Andeddu on Friday, July 17, 2020 09:37:16
    Re: Those Bots
    By: Andeddu to Nightfox on Fri Jul 17 2020 02:02 pm

    Haha, although this setup is still highly amusing to me, I really do wish it could support a higher baud rate. I've no idea why Apple limited these old Macintosh machines to such a low rate - even 2400 baud results in horrendous artifacts on my terminal. Perhaps I should have picked up an old Amiga for my retro fix instead!

    For me, an old IBM-compatible PC would suffice. That's what I was using starting in the early 90s for BBSing. And they did fine with higher baud rates, as long as you had a 16550 UART chip for your serial port where the modem is connected.

    Nightfox

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  • From Ennev@VERT/MTLGEEK to Nightfox on Friday, July 17, 2020 14:20:05
    An> old Macintosh machines to such a low rate - even 2400 baud results in
    An> horrendous artifacts on my terminal. Perhaps I should have picked up an
    An> old Amiga for my retro fix instead!

    For me, an old IBM-compatible PC would suffice. That's what I was using starting in the early 90s for BBSing. And they did fine with higher baud rates, as long as you had a 16550 UART chip for your serial port where the modem is connected.

    Weird for the mac, even a trs-80 color with a bit-banger ( no serial
    port ) could do 9600 with the proper terminal software. you think they
    could have afforded a 8250 ( you and your fancy 16550 )

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  • From Warpslide@VERT/ALTERANT to Nightfox on Friday, July 17, 2020 14:35:26
    *** Quoting Nightfox from a message to Andeddu ***

    For me, an old IBM-compatible PC would suffice. That's what I was
    using starting in the early 90s for BBSing. And they did fine with
    higher baud rates, as long as you had a 16550 UART chip for your
    serial port where the modem is connected.

    I remember my family's first PC was an IBM Aptiva which was a 486DX2-66. It came with a 2400 baud internal modem. When it came time to upgrade I wanted an external, but since it didn't have that 16550 UART I wasn't able to take full advantage of my shiney new USRoboitcs 14.4. Looking back I should have gone with the internal. But hey, a bottlenecked 14.4 was still way faster than 2400...

    Jay

    ... All I ask is proof that money can't make me happy.

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  • From Moondog@VERT/CAVEBBS to Andeddu on Friday, July 17, 2020 15:11:00
    Re: Those Bots
    By: Andeddu to Nightfox on Fri Jul 17 2020 02:02 pm

    Re: Those Bots
    By: Nightfox to Andeddu on Thu Jul 16 2020 09:17 am

    I can understand enjoying the retro vibe and doing things old-school, but think that's one of those instances where having a faster terminal helps.

    Nightfox

    Haha, although this setup is still highly amusing to me, I really do wish it could support a higher baud rate. I've no idea why Apple limited these old Macintosh machines to such a low rate - even 2400 baud results in horrendous artifacts on my terminal. Perhaps I should have picked up an old Amiga for m retro fix instead!

    It may have to do with the speed limitations of the UART technology, or even the phone line standards of the time. My Compaq Portable II cannot run at
    the higher speeds my Fastlinx program from the 1990's can run at.

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  • From Andeddu@VERT/AMSTRAD to Nightfox on Monday, July 20, 2020 18:00:48
    Re: Those Bots
    By: Nightfox to Andeddu on Fri Jul 17 2020 09:37 am

    For me, an old IBM-compatible PC would suffice. That's what I was using starting in the early 90s for BBSing. And they did fine with higher baud rates, as long as you had a 16550 UART chip for your serial port where the modem is connected.

    Nightfox

    An old IBM 286 5170 would do the job nicely. I wouldn't consider myself much of a collector however when this Macintosh goes into storage, an 80s IBM could possibly fill the void.

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  • From The Lizard Master@VERT/NITEEYES to Andeddu on Tuesday, July 21, 2020 09:31:23
    Re: Those Bots
    By: Andeddu to Nightfox on Mon Jul 20 2020 06:00 pm

    For me, an old IBM-compatible PC would suffice. That's what I was using starting in the early 90s for BBSing. And they did fine with higher baud rates, as long as you had a 16550 UART chip for your serial port where the modem is connected.

    Nightfox

    An old IBM 286 5170 would do the job nicely. I wouldn't consider myself much of a collector however when this Macintosh goes into storage, an 80s IBM could possibly fill the void.

    John Titor is back - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Titor

    ---TLM

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