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Questions, comments, etc about UMassHoops.com.
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MikeUMA
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Post by MikeUMA » Thu Mar 13, 2008 8:16 pm

My backlog of registrations is now clear.

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MikeUMA
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Post by MikeUMA » Wed Mar 26, 2008 10:55 pm

The general lock on new registrations is going to stay in place for awhile. I opened it up for less than 5 minutes tonight to process a few new valid ones, and one spammer also got in, from Slovakia, pushing some credit card scheme web site.

These jokers are pathetic.

Keep asking me via e-mail if you want in.

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ShadesOf96and98
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Location: The Big Easy

Post by ShadesOf96and98 » Tue Feb 09, 2010 10:27 pm

I dont know whether you've vetted him/her or not Mike, but in poking around the site while bored at work tonight i noticed the newest registered member's name is Ñàëîí Àëëà and the profile does not look like he/she is here to talk UMass hoops.

i may be prejudging and way off here, but figured I'd at least point it out to you guys

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MikeUMA
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Post by MikeUMA » Wed Feb 10, 2010 12:19 am

I see 'em all come in, but thanks for the heads up. All the special characters got it past the defense. But even still, that joker won't be able to post until I activate him, which I won't. He'll flat out be deleted.

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BullmooseGEO
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Post by BullmooseGEO » Wed Feb 10, 2010 12:56 am

ShadesOf96and98 wrote:I dont know whether you've vetted him/her or not Mike, but in poking around the site while bored at work tonight i noticed the newest registered member's name is Ñàëîí Àëëà and the profile does not look like he/she is here to talk UMass hoops.

i may be prejudging and way off here, but figured I'd at least point it out to you guys
That user name is in Cyrillic, reads "Salon Alla". Location is also in Cyrillic, and it means "Russia". It's a Russia-based beauty parlor franchise (the website on the registration is their newly-opened Prague location). Yes, they are clearly not here to talk about UMass hoops/pucks/gridiron.... :D

But don't worry Shades, Mike and JJ will kill this registration with extreme prejudice. :)
"When in doubt, use brute force." -- Ken Thompson

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MikeUMA
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Post by MikeUMA » Wed Feb 10, 2010 4:02 pm

Maybe they're here to do some KAEO threads about hockey prospects in the Czech Republic?

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Old Cage
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Post by Old Cage » Thu Feb 11, 2010 11:19 am

Michael - Be VERY careful. They have been tracking my friend Bullmoose for a long time and....

:lol:
"Jack didn’t have any envy in him," Calipari said. "He was the greatest coach to ever coach here."

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MikeUMA
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Post by MikeUMA » Tue Nov 23, 2010 7:36 pm

I opened the gates last night to add in a new user, but forgot to close the gate. In a span of about 6 hours, 43 new spam entries came in, linking to websites for online drug stores, gaming sites, even one for escorts in Amsterdam.

Needless to say, my locked gate policy will stay in place. If you want in, just ask.

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Steve81
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Post by Steve81 » Fri Jan 20, 2012 8:27 pm

Bumping this since some poster on the MAC board, claim they can not register.
Go UMass!!

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MikeUMA
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Post by MikeUMA » Sat Jan 21, 2012 2:12 pm

Send them this link:
http://umasshoops.com/board/viewtopic.p ... 272#143272
That has the info they need.

The locked-gate policy remains in effect. I added some more registrations the other night, and while I was doing it, 2 more fake ones tried to get past me. They don't stop, so the gate will remain locked. I will add people manually if they e-mail and quickly explain themselves.

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akadios
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Joined: Sun Dec 30, 2012 4:33 pm

Post by akadios » Wed Jan 02, 2013 2:08 pm

Thanks for signing me up. I read a little bit about your registration process and wanted to let you know it can be fixed pretty easily. I have a lot of experience running web-forums(with phpbb) and ran into the problem once and was able to fix it.

I can help you with any questions you have about making these changes if you want.

The first step is to block anyone trying to connect to the site with IE7 or earlier. Anyone using this browser needs to upgrade drastically and about 99% of these spammers are bots that are using infected(hacked) slave computers that run IE7 or earlier.

The second step is to block anyone from accessing your site from Eastern Europe, Russia, and China if you don't care about people accessing from outside the US that is also an option. (this is where a lot of these spam bots come from and it will also stop basically all human spammers).

The third and last step is to change your human verification to being a logic question based and not being that silly picture thing that bots have been able to read for 10 years :P. What this means is that you put a box on your registration page that says something like,

In all lowercase please write the last name of UMASS Mens Basketball's Coach and then the first name of their starting point guard without spaces below:

The answer is: (and it would be kelloggchaz)

The bot programs that fill these forms out don't have the capability to do this kind of research and logic.

Anyways I hope this helps and I can help you with this if you want.

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MJatUM
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Post by MJatUM » Wed Jan 02, 2013 4:45 pm

^^ The only problem with your question is that half the people ALREADY REGISTERED can not spell Kellog or Chazz correctly.

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InnervisionsUMASS
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Post by InnervisionsUMASS » Wed Jan 02, 2013 4:48 pm

:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:
Stop waiting for UMass to do something big and help UMass do something big. - Shades

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akadios
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Post by akadios » Wed Jan 02, 2013 6:48 pm

:lol: it could be anything as long as it isn't something that can be derived with simple logic such as those sites that have "add 1 +7" bots can do that junk these days.

What color is the baseline at the Mullins Center?

^that would be a good one


Just to be clear though if you do all three of these things you will eliminate 99.9% of all spammers I can't guarantee you 100% but less than five a year for sure. If not ill buy you a beer at ABC for each spammer....

Edit: Up to 6 >.> I don't wana kill the board owner :roll:

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BullmooseGEO
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Joined: Sat Sep 22, 2007 6:57 pm
Location: Tucson, AZ

Post by BullmooseGEO » Thu Jan 03, 2013 3:40 am

^ ktabz, really? Do you work at a real estate office or something? :)

In any case, aren't you having trouble accessing the modern websites? You might want to consider getting a lightweight browser or (better yet) a new computer or something... Though, I suppose, that may be a way for your employer to keep their workers productive...
akadios wrote:The second step is to block anyone from accessing your site from Eastern Europe, Russia, and China
I've been known to log in from Russia and China occasionally, but will find a workaround (proxies that is) if Mike and jj will put this in...
"When in doubt, use brute force." -- Ken Thompson

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