WTF?!

[geneb]

To the new user that answered the "What's the smallest printer we sell" signup question with

"seriously? what do I care about the smallest printer you sell! Fucking stupid!"

It's an anti-spam measure, jackass.

(and no, I'm not going to identify the user)

g.

[Jimustanguitar]

I'm new here. It was me.

[AlanZ]

Ah, the joys of administering a community.

I manage (professionally) a community with >400,000 members.
You would be amazed at the diversity of people/issues we have to deal with.

[DeltaCon]

WTF...!
I I remember correctly there is a message saying: "As a measure of anti-spam we ask you this question"...
But I have to admit that during my own signup I had to open a second page to the website...

[Eric]

So what's the actual researchable answer?

Droplit V2 clearly has the smallest build area, by far. The overall dimensions aren't given. But is it smaller than the Eris?

Sounds like they passed the "I'm a human" test, in any case.

[KAS]

Lets see if we can get close.

<kersnip!>

How 'bout we don't?

g.

[Captain Starfish]

So their response was fine, then: it indicated fairly clearly they weren't a bot.

Was your forum engine smart enough to work that out?

[IMBoring25]

I don't know about that. Could be Tay...

[KAS]

<kersnip!>

Oh man, I was on the right track

[geneb]

Well it's not MY forum engine - I'm just a minion.

I probably shouldn't have posted the original message, but Rudy McRudepants really set me off.

g.

[mhackney]

We can wait until his first post here and taunt him. I know who it is and I agree Gene, what a stupid way to answer a question that obviously is trying to protect its membership from spammers. In fact, the changes we implemented over a year ago have eliminated 100% of the spam posts we used to get. Remember those days? Ads for Viagra, sneakers, other printers?

As for the answer, if they named any actual SeeMeCNC product I would have granted permission. This question is to keep bots and Chinese and Eastern European minion spammers out.

[DeltaCon]

Remember those days? Ads for Viagra, sneakers, other printers?

Especially the latter is a PITA!

[AlanZ]

Fortunately, you guys likely have no idea just how persistent and technically sophisticated the professional spammers are (especially those promoting Korean casinos).

The amount of time and effort spent on spammer countermeasures is enormous. I spent 3 hours this morning trying to identify a loophole that permitted content to get past our elaborate countermeasures and got posted on the site I administer.

[KAS]

Fortunately, you guys likely have no idea just how persistent and technically sophisticated the professional spammers are (especially those promoting Korean casinos).

The amount of time and effort spent on spammer countermeasures is enormous. I spent 3 hours this morning trying to identify a loophole that permitted content to get past our elaborate countermeasures and got posted on the site I administer.

From a security standpoint the main issue is most forum/CMS administrators use off the shelf scripts designed as addons/extensions for these popular packages such as phpBB. Custom one off scripts or heavily modified extensions stand better chances to ward off the spammers because it takes longer to circumvent code that isnt easily dissected because the code isnt "open sourced".

A spammer can take a popular mod/extension/addon or even the built in protection like what phpBB has and literally line by line review everything for any weaknesses. Once that weakness is determined, it can be used on thousands and thousands of phpBB forums until it's patched or the security is changed.

My go to harsh control is straight blocking the offending county using .htaccess. You can use Google Analytics to determine those IP ranges with high bounce rates. Yes you can proxy/vpn around it, but it knocks off the unmotivated spammers from the start.

[Jimustanguitar]

We can wait until his first post here and taunt him.

He'll probably hate the manual

[AlanZ]

KAS,
I guess I wind up dealing with the highly motivated spammers. We can't embargo posts from particular countries... Lots of legal issues there. In my case, we are not using low price, general use forum software. We use enterprise grade collaboration platforms, and yet the Enterprises get attacked... Prime targets. Let's just say that some of the best spam countermeasure folks in the world are fighting a continuing battle against the professional spammers.

[mhackney]

We can wait until his first post here and taunt him.

He'll probably hate the manual

+1

[CodonExe]

Sorry, that may have been me.

[Xenocrates]

Heh. Certainly a unique response. It does very much tell people you aren't a robot, although it is a fairly aggressive response to the question.

[Jimustanguitar]

Sorry, that may have been me.

We like to have fun here, don't sweat it!

[geneb]

Sorry, that may have been me.

Nope.

g.

[Eaglezsoar]

Curious people want to know if Gene threw his glasses when he read that.

[Qdeathstar]

I agree with the new user, who cares about small tools.