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Topic: Guest Book Spam (Read 10637 times)
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julianb
RootsChat Aristocrat
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Posts: 1348
Portrait of the genealogist as a young man
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Glad it's not just me  I'm inundated with the pesky spam and recently also started getting unintelligible messages via the mailform ...all from yahoo addresses Heather
JULIAN
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Essex - Carter, Danns, Mason, Middleditch, Pond, Poole, Rose, Sorrill, Surry, Theobold Kent - Luetchford Nottinghamshire - Baker, Dunks, Woodward, Price, Priestley Suffolk - Rose Surrey - Baker, Bedel, Bransden, Carter, Coleman, Gibbs, Luetchford, Quinton Sussex - Gibbs, Langridge Wiltshire - Brice, Rumble http://genbires.blogspot.com/http://genbires-networking.blogspot.com/Any census info in this post is Crown Copyright, from www.nationalarchives.gov.uk |
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Heather DD
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Posts: 2739
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[Oh my goodness, Heather, I've just looked at your guest book - makes my problems with "rapidforum" or whatever it is seem tiny (obviously why I got one entry advertising enlargement of a certain part of the male anatomy).
JULIAN
Ha ha ...a timely reminder to clear it out again  But yes, you see the problem!
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Nottinghamshire: Willmott, Williams, Oldham, Padgett, Burden, Stokes, Huskinson, Tuckwood, Morley, Barnett Lincolnshire: Foster, Dennis, Mowbray Leicestershire: Mowbray,Hudson, Tuckwood Derbyshire: Starbrook Somerset: Willmott, Elliott Cork:Driscoll, Murphy London Surrey:Driscoll, Cheesman London Kent:Cheesman Kent:Cheesman, Davis, West, Hills, Kneller, Bones, Eastup Census information is crown copyright from www.nationalarchives.gov.uk |
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Brummygirl
RootsChat Member
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Posts: 214
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I to have had the same problems with my guestbook, getting loads everyday.
It was fixed for me so that their URL did not appear on my guestbook thanks to a very kind gentleman on here(as they were to dubious sites) and the spam did stop for about a week.
Unfortunately it has now started again, and even though there is no URL addy on there now, i still get loads and loads everyday, which is a nightmare having to delete them at least three times a day.
It is so frustrating, we work so hard on our websites....grrrrrrrrrr
Brummygirl
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Hiya, HAVE A LOOK AT MY WEBSITE: http://www.warwickshire-info.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/ IF YOU ARE RESEARCHING IN BIRMINGHAM, ASTON OR COVENTRY, I HAVE TRANSCRIBED HUNDREDS OF BAPTISMS AND MARRIAGES. Researching :- Ray/Reay/Perkins/Davis/Asbury/Morris-Birmingham. Hitchman-Oxford, Birmingham. Markland Morris/Jackson-Isle of Wight. Smith/Warden/West/Bilson/Milner/Dower/Johnson/Ludford/Sidwell/and more-Coventry. Census information is Crown Co |
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Paul E
Guest
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Yes, its pretty annoying. Ahmed and Nick and their comments about my 'Nice site' I could just about handle. But the latest one was telling me to 'Download 7 p**** enlargement videos. User ratings & reviews of 55 p**** enlargement pills.'
Now, if they were telling me how I could enlarge my gedcom file, that would be different! 
cheers
Paul
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julianb
RootsChat Aristocrat
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Posts: 1348
Portrait of the genealogist as a young man
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My guestbook spam has died right down now. I took it off-line for a few days (and will again when I go away on holiday), but since putting it back on-line, I've only had one bit of spam, in 4-5 days. Haven't even had to resort to Bob's workaround (although thanks to Bob for the info).
Are other ardguest 1.7 guest book users in the same position?
(I've had a quick look at a few sites and it's hard to tell whether you've just been adept at clearing it, or it's died down).
Poor Heather still seems to be suffering though with hers.
JULIAN
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Essex - Carter, Danns, Mason, Middleditch, Pond, Poole, Rose, Sorrill, Surry, Theobold Kent - Luetchford Nottinghamshire - Baker, Dunks, Woodward, Price, Priestley Suffolk - Rose Surrey - Baker, Bedel, Bransden, Carter, Coleman, Gibbs, Luetchford, Quinton Sussex - Gibbs, Langridge Wiltshire - Brice, Rumble http://genbires.blogspot.com/http://genbires-networking.blogspot.com/Any census info in this post is Crown Copyright, from www.nationalarchives.gov.uk |
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Berlin-Bob
Global Moderator
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Posts: 4976
by My Daughter. Chatting to find her Roots !
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I find it comes in waves (spasms ?, spammsms ?)
The first spammer I had was called Mikka. He started off with 'Mikka' and after a while started using other names, but always the same 4-5 texts.
I can 'recognise' him, so I have a work-around: now he doesn't even get entered in the guestbook, but I still get the e-mail notification, so I know if he is active or not.
The point of the story . . . after several months of nothing from'Mikka', he is now active again, (every week, 4 or 5 attempts )
No idea what sets them off, maybe a chance remark from his hacker friends ("How's your program doing, mate ?") ??, random-number generator ?? ...
And if it's not one, then next one will be along soon . . .
So enjoy the pause, but don't get too optimistic.
Bob
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Searching for Coleman, Moore, Kallnung in London; Margulies, Remenyi in E. Europe; Ancestors of Hessie Stevenson-Coleman-Baxter (Ireland, 1861) and, of course, any other ancestors for my web-site http://boco.rootschat.net All Census Data included in this post is Crown Copyright (see: www.nationalarchives.gov.uk) |
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krisesjoint
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Mine is Ardguest too Julian, Bob stopped them adding the URL to it last week. I got 2 more of the usual within a couple of hours of his amendment, and then nothing at all all week. I thought you beauty until yesterday. Only the one, and it was a different one, more words and cheeky devil added the URL to the text, not active but there, now this morning one from the old Ahmed and his "Hello nice site!" No URL. One or two I can cope with but the previous week it was 60+ a day. Of course I can't say whether it is Bob's preventing the URL being added or the person or program concerned has been on hols, that caused the week's break. I just hope it doesn't get back to 60+ a day again. The time taken to delete every one them is ridiculous. 
Kris
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julianb
RootsChat Aristocrat
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Posts: 1348
Portrait of the genealogist as a young man
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I thought you beauty until yesterday.
I spoke too soon. I've got up this morning and there's waves of the b******s. They're back and with a vengeance.
JULIAN
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Essex - Carter, Danns, Mason, Middleditch, Pond, Poole, Rose, Sorrill, Surry, Theobold Kent - Luetchford Nottinghamshire - Baker, Dunks, Woodward, Price, Priestley Suffolk - Rose Surrey - Baker, Bedel, Bransden, Carter, Coleman, Gibbs, Luetchford, Quinton Sussex - Gibbs, Langridge Wiltshire - Brice, Rumble http://genbires.blogspot.com/http://genbires-networking.blogspot.com/Any census info in this post is Crown Copyright, from www.nationalarchives.gov.uk |
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krisesjoint
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Oh No Julian.....Me Too! and after such a nice quiet week,  I'm up to about 20 today so far ...........Kris
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krisesjoint
Global Moderator
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Well after 8 more Hello nice site's! in the last half hour I have tried something. All I have done is change the name of Guestbook (added 1 to Directory Name) and then changed the URL in index so it is working as before, in case a real person wants to sign it. Figure it really doesn't matter what the page name is.
Will let you know if it makes a difference. If it does might just have to keep changing name, each time they find it.  Could it really be that simple or am I living in Disneyland. Pretty simple for a dumb clux like me if it holds them at bay for a while  ....Kris 
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julianb
RootsChat Aristocrat
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Posts: 1348
Portrait of the genealogist as a young man
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Kris
Do let us know how you get on.
I've done something similar in Rootschat file manager to get the guestbook out of the line of site, but haven't changed the link so now no-one can sign it!
I'm going away for a fortnight soon and don't want it spammed to the brink and therefore lose the legitimate and mostly appreciative comments people have made - I looked at the ardguest central (example) visitor book and it's full of spam - probably just two to three weeks worth - and that's all there is. All the earlier legitimate stuff has fallen off the end.
JULIAN
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Essex - Carter, Danns, Mason, Middleditch, Pond, Poole, Rose, Sorrill, Surry, Theobold Kent - Luetchford Nottinghamshire - Baker, Dunks, Woodward, Price, Priestley Suffolk - Rose Surrey - Baker, Bedel, Bransden, Carter, Coleman, Gibbs, Luetchford, Quinton Sussex - Gibbs, Langridge Wiltshire - Brice, Rumble http://genbires.blogspot.com/http://genbires-networking.blogspot.com/Any census info in this post is Crown Copyright, from www.nationalarchives.gov.uk |
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Berlin-Bob
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by My Daughter. Chatting to find her Roots !
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There is a line you can change in the Guestbook script (index.php)
//Maximum entry stored in data file
$max_record_in_data_file = "300";
this is the number of entries (300) before they "fall off".
You can change this to keep more entries.
And it would make sense, to save a copy of the guest book, now and then, so that even if the messages "fall off", you still have them on your computer.
Although it's all bunched up together, you can read the guestbook file in any text editor, each field starts with |~|. I've split each field onto a separate line here for easier understanding
| |~|20060516074254 | date | | |~|May 16, 2006 - 07:42 AM | date, in readable form | | |~|Name | person signing the book | | |~|name @ somewhere.com | their e-mail address | | |~|The message .... | | | |~|http:// | Web URL, now suppressed | | |~|220.239.165.47 | Sender's IP-number | | |~| | End of entry |
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Searching for Coleman, Moore, Kallnung in London; Margulies, Remenyi in E. Europe; Ancestors of Hessie Stevenson-Coleman-Baxter (Ireland, 1861) and, of course, any other ancestors for my web-site http://boco.rootschat.net All Census Data included in this post is Crown Copyright (see: www.nationalarchives.gov.uk) |
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julianb
RootsChat Aristocrat
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Posts: 1348
Portrait of the genealogist as a young man
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Bob
That's very helpful.
Well after 8 more Hello nice site's! in the last half hour I have tried something. All I have done is change the name of Guestbook (added 1 to Directory Name) and then changed the URL in index so it is working as before, in case a real person wants to sign it. Figure it really doesn't matter what the page name is.
I have now adopted Kris's approach - we'll see how it goes. 8 hours so far without attack!
JULIAN
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Essex - Carter, Danns, Mason, Middleditch, Pond, Poole, Rose, Sorrill, Surry, Theobold Kent - Luetchford Nottinghamshire - Baker, Dunks, Woodward, Price, Priestley Suffolk - Rose Surrey - Baker, Bedel, Bransden, Carter, Coleman, Gibbs, Luetchford, Quinton Sussex - Gibbs, Langridge Wiltshire - Brice, Rumble http://genbires.blogspot.com/http://genbires-networking.blogspot.com/Any census info in this post is Crown Copyright, from www.nationalarchives.gov.uk |
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Paul E
Guest
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Mine has stopped (at least for the moment). Awaiting the next spasm of spams(c) with baited, if somewhat rancid, breath.
(c) Berlin Bob, 2006
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hcoldron
RootsChat Member
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Posts: 226
Census information Crown Copyright, from www.nationalarchives.gov.uk
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I had a similar issue on my blogspot blog, but they have started using the picture/sound authorisation thing, where you have to type what you see (or hear for the visually impaired) into the text box given - the automated posters can't use that.
Maybe worth contacting the Guestbook suppliers and seeing if that functionality can be added? - It's made a hige difference to our blogs.
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Bassham, Booth, Chambers, Cobb, Coldron, Courts, Dernie, Farmery, Hill, Houghton, Lawson, Marsh, Snowden, Ulyatt, Wagstaff in Lincs/Yorks/Notts
Cottrell, Grice, Walley, Wade in Staffs
Dumont, Hall in London
Dumont in Tolouse-France
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